First of all I wanted to say that I've been an Apple fan since 1984 when I was a kid. Let's say over the years I've had many Macs, iPhones, iPads, iPods, etc... and yes, part of the fun (at least since 2007) was the anticipation of release day. I guess this launch has been different in several ways. Yes, I'm one of those that got up early, ordered right after 3:00 AM EST (2 watches) and am still waiting. But I guess that's not what I'm upset about. It seems that this product category is falling more into a "fashion" release than a tech release. Seeing celebrity after celebrity being sent these extravagant watches weeks in advance (no, I'm not saying they don't deserve to buy one - I'm sure they work hard for their money - but it's been reported these have been free) yet the rest of us are stuck. The success of Apple over the past decade has been because of their hard work and because of people like you and me that believe in their products. I see that their new VP that came from Burberry made a conscious effort to change the way this product was launched. By some, it seems a bit elitist - at first there were no launch day stores - then suddenly we find out there are launch day stores in exclusive boutiques that probably none of us have ever heard of. And the majority of the country do not live close enough to even get to. I can live with a stated delivery window, but what rubs me the wrong way is the way that this new category by Apple seems to be fundamentally changing a part of the culture of the company. I'm still looking forward to when it arrives, and I continue to support Apple. I just hope this isn't a sign of things to come.
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Strange Launch..Some Thoughts..
- Thread starter southflguy
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I know it's unusual, but for me, this was the easiest launch yet.
In the UK I woke up, got ready as normal, opened the app at 8am, placed an order, and got it on release day. Can't really ask more than that.
I think this is a fairer way of doing it. By having online orders, people who have pre-ordered don't get theirs after people who line up in store.
In the UK I woke up, got ready as normal, opened the app at 8am, placed an order, and got it on release day. Can't really ask more than that.
I think this is a fairer way of doing it. By having online orders, people who have pre-ordered don't get theirs after people who line up in store.
Someday the facts will emerge why they did it this way but in the meantime, it feels expoitive of our loyalty to the brand. This "exclusive order online" thing is simply irritating. You spend billions on a retail strategy and can't put inventory in your stores? The watch should have been sold independant of bands or been sold with a simple band option. All this customized model nonsense has to significantly complicate fullfilment. Maybe they're trying JIT manufacturing. Maybe their spitting out too many bad casings. Anyway, the conservative launch feels more like it was a "necessity" and not a "choice". Maybe it's just a simple smackdown on scalpers. Regardless, a little more information about things would be nice instead of just relying on our "loyalty" and "lust" for a new product.
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Strange Launch..Some Thoughts..
If anything I'd like this experience be a smack down to scalpers stalking lines. It should also be 1 per person. So if your kid wants one, they can get in line after school!
If anything I'd like this experience be a smack down to scalpers stalking lines. It should also be 1 per person. So if your kid wants one, they can get in line after school!
I think you hit the nail right on the head ... Because there are so many different SKUs of the watch, its hard to estimate demand for each SKU and make sure each retail store has the correct supply. It makes sense to sell exclusively online so they can ship the watches straight to the people who want them. The last thing Apple wants is to be supply constrained AND also have watches sitting on the shelves at Apple Retail Stores.
Make no mistake that this whole situation will be ripped apart by the tech media once more information comes forward. Apple enthusiasts share the sentiment of the pre-order issues, let alone lack of transparency and this whole "unavailable in stores but in boutique" conundrum.
I don't think there is a single person that is in approval of Angel's decision making process for this launch, which is unfortunate since it's the first new product launch since the iPad, and may be her last.
I don't think there is a single person that is in approval of Angel's decision making process for this launch, which is unfortunate since it's the first new product launch since the iPad, and may be her last.
I just think us loyal fans should get our apple products on launch day, if someone bought multiple products from apple should get their pre ordered product on launch day.
This is the problem with all of these launches. Beliefs have somehow become facts. Okay, I'll bite: Reported by whom?
Some anonymous person on the internet who thinks that is what happened because it is good marketing, or a sourced report from TechCrunch or ABC news? If you have a valid source, please cite it, otherwise it is just gossip. I don't know why people like to spread gossip so much.
Why does it even matter? Unless you were expecting to buy a gold watch, who cares?
Ok, here, I will help you.
I heard that these people paid a 400% premium to get their watches earlier (which subsidizes some of the free shipping charges everyone else gets) and they have to return their watches after a year where they will be then donated to starving kids. Feel better now?
Certainly, once they decided to sell totally customized watches, this was their only choice possibly confounded by manufacturing woes. Personally, I think they blew it. They should have skipped all the sku's and sold 4 models of watch. Customize with available bands as they rollout. It's no different than how they've always sold iPhone cases. They'd have a lot more happy clients right now strolling around with white and black sport bands WITH their watches.
I think they should also get a cute puppy to hold and a foot massage while their watches are being personally unboxed by Apple staff, configured and set up and placed gently on the person's wrist after the wrist was gently cleaned by 1000 a thread Egyptian cotton cloth.
Come on, if you are going to be entitled, you may as well go for it!
Maybe Apple should just sell the first batch of a new product via open bids on eBay?
When supply eventually catches up with demand and the eBay price stabilizes, then it goes into the stores at a fixed price.
You're missing the point. The point was that I said regular people (the masses) contributed to Apple's success. Offering the elite gifts or purchases or whatever before we get a chance to get one isn't usually the way Apple does things.. at least not to this extent. Putting them in exclusive boutiques before Apple Stores isn't the way to keep your fans happy.
Really? receiving our apple watches on launch day is too much to ask? even when ordered on April 10th lmaoo wow
Ok, here you go: http://www.cultofmac.com/319273/jony-ive-hand-delivered-sam-smiths-custom-iwatch/
https://instagram.com/p/1dsRLzR2RG/
Sam Smith's quote on instagram:“Just met Sir Jonathan Ive and he is the sweetest man in the world. He’s given me the new Iwatch!! It’s SO SICK!! Feels like Christmas.”
https://instagram.com/p/1dsRLzR2RG/
Sam Smith's quote on instagram:“Just met Sir Jonathan Ive and he is the sweetest man in the world. He’s given me the new Iwatch!! It’s SO SICK!! Feels like Christmas.”
Do you not understand what a delivery date of 4/24-5/8 means?
Do you not know that there are plenty of people who have already received their watches, and it even seems that Apple is doing Saturday deliveries?
If you were the only one who ordered, then you should received it on the launch day. You weren't, so you didn't and you shouldn't feel so entitled and slighted.
and fyi.... the 3d party Watch band business is going to be bigger than the iPhone case busineess. People will own LOTS of different bands with them being so each to change.
So? That is one person.
The point is whether it their policy that everyone gets a free watch?
Was that a watch the Sir Ive was given as a gift by Apple and he gave as a gift?
If you want to extrapolate from one data point, you can draw any conclusion that you want.
You sound "entitled" (how I hate the current overuse of that word) but in some ways you're absolutely right.
Apple has no program in place to reward customer loyalty like other retailers. I think it's because they've never really needed to. They're above having to bribe customers to stay loyal (which is what all loyalty programs boil down to)
That may change if enough customers start buying elsewhere.
You're funny. If you think that they're going to give one to Sam Smith and have Beyonce fork over $ for hers.. You said it was fiction and I just provided you with fact.
Creating great products is what keeps the fans happy.
It doesn't matter if they are sold off the back of a truck or online and in exclusive boutiques.
Besides, IIRC, the boutiques were not even selling the Edition version at this time.
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Are you saying that Sam Smith and Beyonce are the same person?
Speculation != fact.
Extrapolating from one data point, you can also say that people who have the same first and last initial get a free gold. Or people who have two names get a gold (which means that Beyonce and Madonna do not get one).
My point is that if you want to say it was reported that these watches are being given away to all the celebrities, you have to do a little bit better than showing that in one case that happened. You know, like an actual report with sources, data, and analysis.
I loved this launch. I had the same chance of 99.99% of the world of getting it on launch day and FOR THE FIRST TIME I DID.
The 4-5 stores in the world had hundreds of watches on first day, not several thousand so that took nothing away from very many.
Giving a $10,000 Edition to Celebrities who are told to flash them is BRILLIANT and someone should have gotten a bonus for that one. Having one flash for a few seconds on The Voice a day early was HUGE in free advertising and created a bigger awareness of the Watch. A 30 second commercial on a major prime time show costs FAR more than that.
And YES, a watch IS a fashion item.
Apple is clearly NOT giving these watches to Celebrities and telling them to keep it on the down low. Celebrities KNOW they are expected to brag about it to their fan base. If they DO NOT, they Stop getting swag.
The 4-5 stores in the world had hundreds of watches on first day, not several thousand so that took nothing away from very many.
Giving a $10,000 Edition to Celebrities who are told to flash them is BRILLIANT and someone should have gotten a bonus for that one. Having one flash for a few seconds on The Voice a day early was HUGE in free advertising and created a bigger awareness of the Watch. A 30 second commercial on a major prime time show costs FAR more than that.
And YES, a watch IS a fashion item.
Apple is clearly NOT giving these watches to Celebrities and telling them to keep it on the down low. Celebrities KNOW they are expected to brag about it to their fan base. If they DO NOT, they Stop getting swag.
I don't feel entitled, I said "us" loyal fans, I meant all of us here on MR and other fans around the world....not everybody that has an iPhone or macbook is a fan of apple, some people really don't care about technology in general and just bought something because it was on sale or whatever, you guys love to jump and quote someone and assume something that's not even true, I would love to have a loyalty program or something that doesn't mean it's going to happen.
Again.. my point is that this isn't consistent with how Apple has done things in the past. Regardless if they were bought or free doesn't matter. I don't want a gold watch, I don't want what they have.. but what I do want is access to purchase them on launch day just as I have with every other Apple product. Like I've said I've been an Apple fan for decades. Once you start making distinctions like this - exclusive boutiques, celebrities with special access, etc... in a way it's disrespectful to the regular people that have brought you success.
Life isn't always fair, and by saying one person is loyal versus another persons loyalty, you just create another class that you seem to railing against elsewhere. You aren't Beyonce and don't have the sway or importance that she does in many circles. It's brilliant marketing for them to give them away, and feels very Nike to me.
Additionally, by keeping stock to pre-orders and online only it actually creates a huge preference for those that went online and ordered early. They don't have to hold back hundreds of thousands of stock for the stores. The lines around the stores have a huge percentage of paid chinese and asian americans that wait in line, buy one, hand it off to a person waiting a few blocks away to be sold on the secondary market. Holding back to online only prevents this, and ensures an even greater stock to those that go online. It's win-win.
Was the original iPhone given to celebrities before release? I don't recall anyone outside of Apple other than reviewers getting the iPhone first.
Celebrity endorsements WERE NOT NECESSARY for the success or failure of this product. It would have succeeded on the curtails of the iPhone and on it's own merit.
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This was not ever an issue outside of New York and LA. When I've been in lines in the midwest I never saw "paid spot holders". Besides online sales ALSO have scalpers so this doesn't stop illicit sales of the product.
Having the sale online only allowed one chance to own this product. Allowing both online and brick stores to sell a product gives you twice the opportunity to purchase a product. At least with a physical line I can gauge my chances on getting what I want. With online I have no definitive idea where I am inline until the product is ordered and even then I had to wait until release day to know whether I'd get the product on time or not (which I'm waiting a while).
Celebrity endorsements WERE NOT NECESSARY for the success or failure of this product. It would have succeeded on the curtails of the iPhone and on it's own merit.
POST EDIT:
This was not ever an issue outside of New York and LA. When I've been in lines in the midwest I never saw "paid spot holders". Besides online sales ALSO have scalpers so this doesn't stop illicit sales of the product.
Having the sale online only allowed one chance to own this product. Allowing both online and brick stores to sell a product gives you twice the opportunity to purchase a product. At least with a physical line I can gauge my chances on getting what I want. With online I have no definitive idea where I am inline until the product is ordered and even then I had to wait until release day to know whether I'd get the product on time or not (which I'm waiting a while).
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