Apple’s wearable tech costs $449 to $22,000
SAN FRANCISCO — 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 brand-new 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 Research-Kit 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 premiere April 12. It will cost $14.99 US monthly.
The company’s first foray into wearable tech could also have ramifications for the iconic retail stores and there has been 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 discretion 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.
Apple would need the appropriate lighting to showcase the goods, wholly personalized service, and private spaces to try out the watches.