AppleInsider podcast reviews Apple's 'Spring Forward' event, including new Macbook, Apple Watch and

Comments

• Reply 1 of 12

  rogifan Posts: 10,669member

  March 13, 2015 6:49AM

  I was listening to Gruber's latest podcast and I totally agree with him that the way Apple is handling the Edition Watch is weird. At the event they ran videos for how the aluminum and steel watches were made but they left out the gold one. And it wasn't for lack of time as the event was well under 2 hours. I feel Apple needs to own this product or Cook should never have signed off on it in the first place. And considering the $349 Sport watch functions exactly the same as the $10K gold watch it's actually Apple's most egalitarian product. Quite frankly the hate around this is ridiculous (Ben Thmpson and others have tweeted the same) but Apple not owning it just gives the hate credence. What's so weird about it is on the one hand Apple seems to not want to talk about it but on the other it's being featured in their marketing materials so Apple's clearly not hiding it's existence. OWN it Apple.
• Reply 2 of 12

  richl Posts: 2,213member

  March 13, 2015 7:47AM

  Quote:
  
  

  Originally Posted by Rogifan 
  
  
  
  I was listening to Gruber's latest podcast and I totally agree with him that the way Apple is handling the Edition Watch is weird. At the event they ran videos for how the aluminum and steel watches were made but they left out the gold one. And it wasn't for lack of time as the event was well under 2 hours.

  
  

   

  I wonder whether it was for secrecy reasons. The toughened gold techniques have been patented but I'm sure Apple doesn't want to give the Chinese (and Korean ) copycats any kind of head start. 

• Reply 3 of 12

  stephenrobles Posts: 91member, moderator, editor

  March 13, 2015 8:05AM

  Quote:
  
  

  Originally Posted by Rogifan 
  
  
  
  I was listening to Gruber's latest podcast and I totally agree with him that the way Apple is handling the Edition Watch is weird. At the event they ran videos for how the aluminum and steel watches were made but they left out the gold one. And it wasn't for lack of time as the event was well under 2 hours. I feel Apple needs to own this product or Cook should never have signed off on it in the first place. And considering the $349 Sport watch functions exactly the same as the $10K gold watch it's actually Apple's most egalitarian product. Quite frankly the hate around this is ridiculous (Ben Thmpson and others have tweeted the same) but Apple not owning it just gives the hate credence. What's so weird about it is on the one hand Apple seems to not want to talk about it but on the other it's being featured in their marketing materials so Apple's clearly not hiding it's existence. OWN it Apple.

  
  

  
  
  During the keynote, the Edition model was the only one that didn't show a price on the "slide," yet Tim Cook said it's the "best expression" of the Apple Watch. I agree it's strange.

• Reply 4 of 12

  rogifan Posts: 10,669member

  March 13, 2015 8:31AM

  stephenrobles wrote: »

  
  During the keynote, the Edition model was the only one that didn't show a price on the "slide," yet Tim Cook said it's the "best expression" of the Apple Watch. I agree it's strange.

  
  They're not owning it and I don't know why. The person buying the $349 Watch is getting the same technology as someone spending $10K. So the argument that Apple no longer makes products "for the rest of us" is bullshit. The Editon watch is all about the brand. Let the competition fight for the table scraps. Apple will be the aspirational brand with products that are objects of desire (check out Twitter and Instagram posts on the new MacBook). Does anyone desire or aspire to Samsung products? Hell no. Read the blog post below about how Apple makes the Watch. This is something no one else can compete with.
  
  http://atomicdelights.com/blog/a-glimpse-at-how-the-apple-watch-is-made
  
  Look at the inside of the new MacBook. It's an engineering marvel and s work of art. Who else is doing this? No one.
  
  
• Reply 5 of 12

  solipsismy Posts: 5,099member

  March 13, 2015 9:37AM

  rogifan wrote: »

  The person buying the $349 Watch is getting the same technology as someone spending $10K. So the argument that Apple no longer makes products "for the rest of us" is bullshit

  
  QFT
• Reply 6 of 12

  flaneur Posts: 4,526member

  March 13, 2015 9:48AM

  [B]Rogifan[/B], you just answered your own complaint, obliquely. This is probably going to be way too subtle, even for Gruber and maybe his friends.
  
  The reason they did not talk about the gold Edition Watch before the masses is that the Knowledge (with a capital K) does not belong to the uninitiated. To get It you have to make an appointment and show your interest, and maybe intention to spend the money. To reveal It before the uninitiated who don't intend to buy it would be to cheapen it.
  
  Same reason you don't see Ferrari advertising. As usual, you are assuming you know better than the smartest art dealers—marketers and strategists—in history.
  
  I haven't listened to Guber's podcast yet, but I know he's been having a lot of trouble getting his mind around the Watch, some of his friends too.
• Reply 7 of 12

  mr o Posts: 1,046member

  March 13, 2015 3:17PM

  Quote:
  

  Originally Posted by Rogifan 
  
  
  
  I was listening to Gruber's latest podcast and I totally agree with him that the way Apple is handling the Edition Watch is weird. At the event they ran videos for how the aluminum and steel watches were made but they left out the gold one. And it wasn't for lack of time as the event was well under 2 hours. I feel Apple needs to own this product or Cook should never have signed off on it in the first place. And considering the $349 Sport watch functions exactly the same as the $10K gold watch it's actually Apple's most egalitarian product. Quite frankly the hate around this is ridiculous (Ben Thmpson and others have tweeted the same) but Apple not owning it just gives the hate credence. What's so weird about it is on the one hand Apple seems to not want to talk about it but on the other it's being featured in their marketing materials so Apple's clearly not hiding it's existence. OWN it Apple.

  
  

   

  Yes, that was strange indeed. They didn't show the Gold video. Which is a shame as it is very beautiful.

• Reply 8 of 12

  benjamin frost Posts: 7,203member

  March 13, 2015 5:34PM

  Thanks Stephen, Daniel and Victor for this podcast.

   

  Here's that funny parody DED referred to of the MacBook:

   

  

• Reply 9 of 12

  benjamin frost Posts: 7,203member

  March 13, 2015 5:36PM

  Quote:
  
  

  Originally Posted by stephenrobles 
  
   
  

  Quote:
  

  Originally Posted by Rogifan 
  
  
  
  I was listening to Gruber's latest podcast and I totally agree with him that the way Apple is handling the Edition Watch is weird. At the event they ran videos for how the aluminum and steel watches were made but they left out the gold one. And it wasn't for lack of time as the event was well under 2 hours. I feel Apple needs to own this product or Cook should never have signed off on it in the first place. And considering the $349 Sport watch functions exactly the same as the $10K gold watch it's actually Apple's most egalitarian product. Quite frankly the hate around this is ridiculous (Ben Thmpson and others have tweeted the same) but Apple not owning it just gives the hate credence. What's so weird about it is on the one hand Apple seems to not want to talk about it but on the other it's being featured in their marketing materials so Apple's clearly not hiding it's existence. OWN it Apple.

  
  

  
  
  During the keynote, the Edition model was the only one that didn't show a price on the "slide," yet Tim Cook said it's the "best expression" of the Apple Watch. I agree it's strange.

  
  

   

   

  I think Tim was embarrassed by the price.

• Reply 10 of 12

  flaneur Posts: 4,526member

  March 13, 2015 9:56PM

  mr o wrote: »

  Yes, that was strange indeed. They didn't show the Gold video. Which is a shame as it is very beautiful.

  
  Having thought about it a bit more, and after listening to Gruber's podcast with Matthew Panzarino—both smart guys who also don't get it—i'm even more convinced that Apple did not want to pull the curtain on the wizardry behind the gold watch in front of that audience and the peanut gallery watching in their basements around the world.
  
  They know better than to cast their pearls before journalist swine. Look what the barbarians are saying already. See the Economist article linked to by Gruber, for example.
  
  (Here, but maybe not such a raving example: http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21646079-apple-wants-make-smartwatches-mainstream-technology-will-take-time-time-machine
  
  This is maybe a better example, from the NY Times, " Digital Dog Collar." http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/opinion/apple-watch-digital-dog-collar.html?_r=0
  Print-addled minds still can't grok that we've discovered more direct ways to connect than through their sacred ink on paper. It's true though that the digerati are drunk on messaging, but this is probably temporary.)
  
  The target audience for the Edition Watch wouldn't be watching the event. They'll get the full treatment in proper venues, like the right magazines or on the right jewelry counters. They could get turned off by negative buzz if it gets out of hand, like it is here and on other Apple sites. People like Benjamin Frost are working assiduously, prostituting themselves, to ensure that there's negative buzz. I'm surprised and not surprised by Gruber. Sometimes he worries and gossips like a bored babushka.
  
  Dwelling on the Art Watch at the press event would be a huge blunder. THEY KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING.
• Reply 11 of 12

  bigpics Posts: 1,397member

  March 14, 2015 1:11AM

  Quote:
  

  Originally Posted by Flaneur 
  
  
  
  Rogifan, you just answered your own complaint, obliquely. This is probably going to be way too subtle, even for Gruber and maybe his friends.
  
  
  
  The reason they did not talk about the gold Edition Watch before the masses is that the Knowledge (with a capital K) does not belong to the uninitiated. To get It you have to make an appointment and show your interest, and maybe intention to spend the money. To reveal It before the uninitiated who don't intend to buy it would be to cheapen it.
  
  
  
  Same reason you don't see Ferrari advertising. As usual, you are assuming you know better than the smartest art dealers—marketers and strategists—in history.
  
  
  
  I haven't listened to Guber's podcast yet, but I know he's been having a lot of trouble getting his mind around the Watch, some of his friends too.

  
  

   

  I think you're the closest to it.... ...more below....

  Quote:
  

  Originally Posted by stephenrobles 

   

  During the keynote, the Edition model was the only one that didn't show a price on the "slide," yet Tim Cook said it's the "best expression" of the Apple Watch. I agree it's strange.

  
  

  
  
  Partly, we're getting into, "If you have to ask the price, you don't need to know the price, 'cos it's not for you." territory with this puppy. Again more below....

   

  Quote:
  

  Originally Posted by Rogifan 
  
  
  
  They're not owning it and I don't know why. The person buying the $349 Watch is getting the same technology as someone spending $10K. So the argument that Apple no longer makes products "for the rest of us" is bullshit. The Editon watch is all about the brand. Let the competition fight for the table scraps. Apple will be the aspirational brand with products that are objects of desire (check out Twitter and Instagram posts on the new MacBook). Does anyone desire or aspire to Samsung products? Hell no. Read the blog post below about how Apple makes the Watch. This is something no one else can compete with.
  
  
  
  http://atomicdelights.com/blog/a-glimpse-at-how-the-apple-watch-is-made
  
  
  
  Look at the inside of the new MacBook. It's an engineering marvel and s work of art. Who else is doing this? No one.
  
  
  
  

  
  

   

  The new MacBook is aspirational.  iPhones are aspirational.  And the two lower brackets of the ?W are as well, but - when you get to the land that new model/marathoner/activist/you name it role model Apple spokesperson and her aspirers live in, they're not tech and digital "aspirers"... ....as much as they're fashion and style groupies at least as much into the six or seven leather and mesh and link bands they're gonna accessorize it with... ...than they are with the top six or seven apps they can't wait to download on it. 
  
  
  
  Which, IMO, verges (no pun or even ref intended) into why folks like Gruber, and I'll speculate even Tim Cook himself get progressively more out of their usual depth once they have to go even further and make the next leap to the 18K model which has even less to do with their traditional and finely honed understanding of Apple....
  
  
  
  I.e., the ?Watch Edition edition seems squarely aimed at a whole new class of "beyond aspirational" customer for Apple - a demo niche who aren't (by and large) the types who watch Apple Keynotes or debate OSs, apps, etc.  - rather, the ?WE is for "the arrived" - and specifically likely more the nouveau riche than old money... ...looking for the geegaws that make their (to them elevated) status more obviously bespoke in how they're clad and sported about, etc. 
  
  
  
  And who knows, some of them may even learn to use theirs.
  
  
  
  So the gold video will be played (and often) at those "selected retail locations." 

• Reply 12 of 12

  qpt opm Posts: 1member

  March 14, 2015 1:16AM

  Apple made another revolution in smart watches.They made internet in our wrist.Also made variety of collections in it. Apple Watch Models