APPLE LAUNCHES SMARTWATCH
Industry eyes new entry closely
Make calls, read email, control music, manage Instagram photos, keep up with your workout, pay for groceries, open your hotel room door. Chief executive officer Tim Cook says you can do it all from your wrist with Apple Watch — for 18 hours a day. That’s how long the battery will last on an average day.
Pre- orders start April 10. In Canada, the devices will range from $ 449 to as much as $ 22,000 for a luxury edition. Industry watchers are eager to see if Apple’s version will be the tipping point for the sluggish smartwatch market. There was similar skepticism when Apple released the iPad in 2010, yet the company has sold millions and its popularity has shaken up the PC market.
The stakes are high for a company that just dislodged AT& T as one of the 30 stocks comprising the venerable Dow Jones industrial average. The watch is the first brandnew device Apple has launched without Steve Jobs.
Cook directed Apple’s big event Monday in San Francisco, unveiling a shiny, skinny and silent MacBook weighing in at just one kilogram that the company says is the world’s most energy- efficient laptop. Apple also has unveiled a new deal between Apple TV and HBO, touted growth in iPhone sales and Apple Pay adoption, and announced a set of tools called ResearchKit to help hospitals and research centres develop apps for patients.
It cut the price of Apple TV and is partnering with HBO to offer its stand- alone streaming service, HBO Go, on Apple devices in time for the Game of Thrones première April 12. It will cost $ 14.99 US monthly. Cook said 2,500 banks are now signed up with Apple Pay, which is available in 700,000 retail locations nationwide.
The company’s first foray into wearable tech could also have ramifications for the iconic retail stores and there has been much speculation about how they may be redesigned to attract buyers to the luxury version of the watch.
The current setup of open space, bare wood floors, and communal tables doesn’t provide the discre- tion and exclusive air that buyers of expensive timepieces expect. In a recent New Yorker profile by Ian Parker, Jony Ive, Apple’s design guru, hinted that the company could designate a VIP room for luxury customers. Parker tells how Ive overheard a man saying, “I’m not going to buy a watch if I can’t stand on carpet.” Apple appears to be making such moves. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Apple is considering redesigning its stores to include an area where customers can try on the shiny new watches by appointment.
“If they really want to think of that luxury experience, they may think about setting it up more as an upscale jewelry shop,” says Barbara Kahn, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and director of its retailing centre. Apple would need the appropriate lighting to showcase the fancy goods, wholly personalized service, and private spaces to try out the watches.
That would mean amending a formula widely considered to be retail’s best- in- class, as Apple Stores rake in more sales per square foot than any other retailer — including luxury stalwarts like Tiffany & Co. and Michael Kors.