Apple Watch sales expand to more third-party retailers with France's Fnac
On Thursday Apple continued to expand the number of third-party vendors for the Apple Watch, adding France's Fnac to the list of retailers, though initially only in a limited fashion.
Beginning on Friday, the Watch will be sold through Fnac.com and the electronics dealer's Champs-Elysees retail outlet, according to Metronews. Fnac is reportedly planning to expand sales to 50 other locations in coming weeks, and workers will get special training to provide an Apple Store-like experience.
Until this week, Apple had not sold the Watch at a third-party retailer in Europe beyond a few luxury boutiques.
There are still just a handful of third-party Watch vendors worldwide, the largest being Best Buy in the U.S. and Canada, which only came on board earlier this month.
Another addition this month was an Australian department store, Myer. As with Best Buy and Fnac, though, the Watch is available at just a small number of Myer locations.
It's not yet clear which models and Apple bands will be on sale at Fnac, though if it follows in the path of Best Buy there will only be Sport and stainless steel Watches, with a choice of sport bands or the Milanese loop.
Beginning on Friday, the Watch will be sold through Fnac.com and the electronics dealer's Champs-Elysees retail outlet, according to Metronews. Fnac is reportedly planning to expand sales to 50 other locations in coming weeks, and workers will get special training to provide an Apple Store-like experience.
Until this week, Apple had not sold the Watch at a third-party retailer in Europe beyond a few luxury boutiques.
There are still just a handful of third-party Watch vendors worldwide, the largest being Best Buy in the U.S. and Canada, which only came on board earlier this month.
Another addition this month was an Australian department store, Myer. As with Best Buy and Fnac, though, the Watch is available at just a small number of Myer locations.
It's not yet clear which models and Apple bands will be on sale at Fnac, though if it follows in the path of Best Buy there will only be Sport and stainless steel Watches, with a choice of sport bands or the Milanese loop.
Comments
There were 12 full page ads in a row -- showing face to face ...
Here's a 2-page example:
[IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/61972/width/500/height/1000[/IMG]
I suspect Angela had something to do with this.
Why is this a fail? It's the same strategy they employ for iPhone and iPad. It has no bearing on the amount of sales. Also, I realize this is anecdotal, but I'm beginning to see them regularly here in the Bay Area. Yesterday I counted 15 in the wild. It will take time for this to spread, especially in middle America.
1) I was being sarcastic.
2) Anecdotally, I see more Apple Watches and know more people who own them, then I did of any other new Apple product category after such a short time on the market. I think this is doubly impressive because an iPod, iPhone, and iPad likely stand out more than a watch in most situations.
Because someone needs to tell Phil how to do his job!
What's more impressive is the number of women I've spotted wearing them. Apple's doing what Sammy & the Androidettes have so far failed to do: market their thick, ungainly, hockey-puck-strapped-to-your-wrist smartwatches to both sexes.
Any news can be twisted to serve the Troll Side of the Forum.
Those devices failed from their inception. It's simply too personal to be this one-size/style-fits-all solution that we were seeing with other "smart"watch makers. I remember saying on this very forum that Apple will likely need at least a dozen styles out of the gate to make this work, and I was of course told that Apple doesn't work that way and was given a slew of examples where Apple has no history of it bring out a new product with so many SKUs, much less one that differentiates based on style and appearance, and not on internal specs. In retrospect I doubt there is anyone here that will say they should have come out with only one or two styles for their debut Watch.
It is also why I believe they will be updating yearly, even though some have argued that they may go every 2 or 3 years between updates. More band options would seem to be a no brainer, and perhaps some new case materials too. Keep expanding the ability to let consumers have some variation and the sales will continue to grow
I think bands will be a huge accessory market. It's even more personal than a phone case since they are worn. I think more styles will be introduced for this holiday season, if not announced with WatchOS 2 (Warp!) next month.
Hopefully, in a year or so, we'd get sensor-laden bands for more Health and Exercise tracking. And hopefully, they'll be compatible with the first gen ?Watch.
Hey, maybe they can work someway of getting a band that has a GPS tracker in it so the first gen buyers aren't left in a lurch whenever the ?Watch gets a built-in GPS!
They’re even selling mullets for the Apple Watch.
Thaaaaat’s right! An old-fashioned watch face on the BACK of the strap!
They’re even selling mullets for the Apple Watch.
Thaaaaat’s right! An old-fashioned watch face on the BACK of the strap!
Funny! Let me know if anyone sees anything like this in the wild...