Apple Watch sales coming to T-Mobile USA, German resellers Gravis and Compustore
The Apple Watch will soon be available through the U.S. incarnation of T-Mobile, as well as German electronics chains Gravis and Compustore, according to separate reports and announcements.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere revealed his company's news via Twitter. No other details were made available, although other official T-Mobile feeds have promised that more news is forthcoming.
Gravis confirmed that it will start sales at the end of the September, German site Macerkopf noted on Thursday. The Watch should be available from the Gravis webstore as well as 30 retail outlets. As with most third-party Watch vendors, Gravis will only carry steel and Sport models.
Compustore has not issued a press release, but Macerkopf said it learned that the business' retail stores will soon come on board. The chain is an Apple Premium Reseller.
The T-Mobile announcement may be the most important, as the Watch has not yet been sold through carrier stores. The company could opt to sell the device both outright and in monthly installment plans.
On Wednesday Apple announced a variety of new bands and finishes for the Watch, including a partnership with luxury vendor Hermes. It also revealed that watchOS 2 will go live on Sept. 16, bringing promised changes like native apps and third-party complications.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere revealed his company's news via Twitter. No other details were made available, although other official T-Mobile feeds have promised that more news is forthcoming.
Gravis confirmed that it will start sales at the end of the September, German site Macerkopf noted on Thursday. The Watch should be available from the Gravis webstore as well as 30 retail outlets. As with most third-party Watch vendors, Gravis will only carry steel and Sport models.
Compustore has not issued a press release, but Macerkopf said it learned that the business' retail stores will soon come on board. The chain is an Apple Premium Reseller.
The T-Mobile announcement may be the most important, as the Watch has not yet been sold through carrier stores. The company could opt to sell the device both outright and in monthly installment plans.
On Wednesday Apple announced a variety of new bands and finishes for the Watch, including a partnership with luxury vendor Hermes. It also revealed that watchOS 2 will go live on Sept. 16, bringing promised changes like native apps and third-party complications.
Comments
Did anyone else watch the presentation when the doctor explained how they could monitor a pregnant womans heartbeat as well as the unborn childs heartbeat, in realtime, as well as monitor her contractions ?
And nobody in the media has mentioned this .
Did anyone else watch the presentation when the doctor explained how they could monitor a pregnant womans heartbeat as well as the unborn childs heartbeat, in realtime, as well as monitor her contractions ?
And nobody in the media has mentioned this .
Pimple faced techie wannabes only care about specs and games. This whole healthcare thing is under the radar and Apple is positioning itself to completely, totally dominate a burgeoning healthcare market. Thousands of baby boomers are retiring every day (and I was one of them). In a very few years almost everybody over the age of 60 will be wearing an Apple watch because their doctor tells them to buy one so he/she can monitor their vitals. Insurance companies might even pay for them. The aforementioned pimple faced techies will be wearing their Fitbits and cheesy Android Wear knock-offs. People with money will be wearing their Apple Watches. Just sit back and watch it happen. The others don’t even see it coming. Do you EVER see major medical centers announcing they are experimenting with anything but iPads and Apple Watches? No you don’t.
I was really intrigued by that part. Especially so since I plan to have another child in 2-3 years and this will put my mind to ease instead of waiting to go to the doctor to hear the heartbeat.
Ecosystems are Apple's great competitive advantage which competitors find very hard to match, and Apple are now adding two more: one for Apple Watches and other for Apple TV.
The Apple Watch is achieving amazingly high satisfactions ratings of 97% and proving to be really useful and compelling - see this extensive survey of more than 2,000 owners.
http://www.wristly.co/#!insights/cgiv
Such high satisfaction ratings are very significant because it results in very strong, personal recommendation to family, friends and work colleagues, which are more trusted and effective than massive marketing campaigns by the likes of Samsung or “recommendations” by salespeople earning under the table commissions to sell inferior products.
As demand continues to grow for the Apple Watch many, if not most carriers will want to sell them, as well as numerous other types of retailers.
Best Buy were so pleased with the strong demand that they have rapidly extended from their trial in 100 stores to all their 1,050 stores by September, in time to catch the Christmas holiday gift giving season.
I found the AirStrip (?) demo very cool. I think it just shows the tip of the iceberg as far as the disruption Apple could cause in Healthcare. Probably was my favourite demo from the event.
I love that tan leather strap for the Apple Watch. I'd love to get one. It looks very nice.
Wow, didn't know that Best Buy found the ? Watch to be a success. Appreciate the info!
Not surprised at all to hear about the very high satisfaction rating. It is an amazing product and does what it was designed to do quite well. Can't wait for WatchOS 2! Here's to continued ? Watch sales!
I agree that maybe the most underestimated potential lies within the remote monitoring of health indicators. this might change completely, how you deal with this.
Example: You are not sure that all is ok. Usually you'd call your doctor, to make an appointment (getting phone consulting by your insurance hasn't really taken off here - I don't know about other countries), and after significant spent on making the appointment, going there, and waiting you get his view. With the watch, either an automated alarm can be raised, so you won't go if it's not necessary; and/or your doctor can take a look much, much easier and provide quicker feedback.
Gravis: I wonder how they are doing. I stopped going there years ago, since each time their service was subpar, in stark contrast to their prices.
Last time I dealt with them I brought in a remote speaker system I got from them due to technical issues. They said they'd take a look at it. When I did not hear back for two weeks I contacted the shop just to learn that they had sent the faulty system to the central repair shop, and that it cannot be repaired, but that they would like to charge me 100 EUR for finding this. When I said I would like to have my system back (as it was still functional, and the issue intermittent), it was again silence for two weeks until I was informed that unfortunately they could not do this, since the part got scrapped! I was invited to buy a new system, however. After some escalation I was given a refund and they offered me a discount on a new speaker system. Needless to say, I never went back there.
Remarkably Apple Watch already has more than 10,000 Apps. Compare that to Samsung who have only 1,000 Apps, despite selling smartwatches for nearly two years.
Ecosystems are Apple's great competitive advantage which competitors find very hard to match, and Apple are now adding two more: one for Apple Watches and other for Apple TV.
The Apple Watch is achieving amazingly high satisfactions ratings of 97% and proving to be really useful and compelling - see this extensive survey of more than 2,000 owners.
http://www.wristly.co/#!insights/cgiv
Such high satisfaction ratings are very significant because it results in very strong, personal recommendation to family, friends and work colleagues, which are more trusted and effective than massive marketing campaigns by the likes of Samsung or “recommendations” by salespeople earning under the table commissions to sell inferior products.
As demand continues to grow for the Apple Watch many, if not most carriers will want to sell them, as well as numerous other types of retailers.
Best Buy were so pleased with the strong demand that they have rapidly extended from their trial in 100 stores to all their 1,050 stores by September, in time to catch the Christmas holiday gift giving season.
I sure hope you are right. As an early adopter I want the ecosystem to thrive. But I have my doubts.
Personally, I am not fully recommending it to everybody in my family. Unlike the iPhone which everybody in my immediate family has by now. The value of the watch is highly personal. There are a lot of apps you can use, but only very few you do use and most of those for a couple of seconds on each occasion only. So that makes it a product that is hard to sell by word of mouth. The priorities I have when using the device: In car navigation assistance, fitness, in car calls, communication notifications, financial news do not match the priorities of a lot of my family members. So how can I recommend a device to them without knowing how they will use it? I think this is also the main reason why the marketing campaign has fallen somewhat flat so far. It is impossible to make ads without showing of functions some people DON'T want to use and go "now that's silly".
Like for me the reminder to stand up each hour is a joke. I turned it off immediately and never finished a day without standing at least 14 out of 24 hours. Maybe there are one, two or sometimes three hours during a workday when I will not stand up. But that is it. I am not glued to the sofa once I get home and I also get up while working, too. Maybe it is to meet with a co-worker or a client. Or I go to the kitchen to grab myself a coffee or a sandwich for lunch. Or I stretch for a couple of seconds in between lengthy phone calls or work at my desk... This must be an American function that I would not recommend promoting anywhere outside the US. People will think Apple believes they are fat and lazy. What a great way to think of your customers. Apple has to fine-tune its message.
Hmmm... Good points there. I have also found the ? Watch a hard sell by word of mouth. Some are extremely receptive to it, others see it as a joke, which I believe is a result of misunderstanding. When the ? Watch was announced I also assumed it would be useless, but once I tried it on and started using it. Well, I can't say I've ever had an opinion change so quickly for me.
Some may still find it useless, but I couldn't imagine why. I believe it's the personal usefulness, that is unique to each individual, is one of the many things that makes the ? Watch so special. But to sell it to the misinformed? Wow, Apple does have a conundrum on its hands. Hopefully they knock our collective socks off and wow us with a bang-on marketing campaign. I want to see the ? Watch succeed like crazy and become Apple's next smash!
I want one so bad so I'm glad they're coming to T-Mobile. I'm trying to hold out until the 2nd generation comes out.
I'm with you. I want one also but Apple always seems to nail it on the second gen. I'm going to wait and see what the OS2 reviews are like.
Did anyone else watch the presentation when the doctor explained how they could monitor a pregnant womans heartbeat as well as the unborn childs heartbeat, in realtime, as well as monitor her contractions ?
And nobody in the media has mentioned this .
...Well, it's about "women", so, not really important... /s
That night, I bought my eldest daughter (she's not pregnant, btw) that new Sport - rose gold (So, Sog was sort of wrong, there) w/lavendar band...
And, I really thought that introducing those several new fetching possibilities in the Sport line might indicate that,
whatever your opinion of how well they are selling, Apple sought to attract a lot more 'entry-level' purchases,
in service of more firmly establishing the product category generally, and not a bad idea, at that.
That evening, in the hour we were in the Apple store -
where incidentally, they weren't entirely aware they'd received the items earlier that day -
aside from ourselves, only two 10-year-olds and one woman looked at the ?Watch display tables.
A pretty small time sample, but not encouraging, nevertheless...
Did anyone else watch the presentation when the doctor explained how they could monitor a pregnant womans heartbeat as well as the unborn childs heartbeat, in realtime, as well as monitor her contractions ?
And nobody in the media has mentioned this .
It doesn't fit their narrative that the Apple Watch is a flop, and that Apple is becoming irrelevant.
I sure hope you are right. As an early adopter I want the ecosystem to thrive. But I have my doubts.
Personally, I am not fully recommending it to everybody in my family. Unlike the iPhone which everybody in my immediate family has by now. The value of the watch is highly personal. There are a lot of apps you can use, but only very few you do use and most of those for a couple of seconds on each occasion only. So that makes it a product that is hard to sell by word of mouth. The priorities I have when using the device: In car navigation assistance, fitness, in car calls, communication notifications, financial news do not match the priorities of a lot of my family members. So how can I recommend a device to them without knowing how they will use it? I think this is also the main reason why the marketing campaign has fallen somewhat flat so far. It is impossible to make ads without showing of functions some people DON'T want to use and go "now that's silly".
You should read the survey report by Wristly (link in a post above). Some very good information there. But to your comment above, what they found interesting is that people who self-described as "tech savvy or early adopters" where much more reluctant to recommend the watch - citing that "they" were tech enthusiasts and not everyone might like it like they did. BUT that those ?Watch users who were not tech savvy were far more likely to recommend the device as they were not thinking about it in that way - just how they liked the device.
I personally am very bullish (long term) on the Apple Watch, but I expect it to take a few years for both the "desire" to build, and for the watch to mature with more use cases. I don't expect out-of-the-ballpark sales for this year (maybe 10M max), and only some improvement next. Unlike the smartphone, this is a very "emerging" category and it will take time for the uses to appear to the many. I really think that the 3rd party apps need to be native (for quick launching and more functionality), and you have to give it a year after that to see how the usefulness grows (which puts it into Q4 2016 before you will really have sometime to look at how it has done from a usefulness perspective - not necessarily total sales).
Fortunately Apple is run by people with long-term planning and vision, rather than new media which judge everything a flop or failure in the first few weeks or months if it hasn't met some arbitrary, completely unrealistic milestone.
Hmmm... Good points there. I have also found the ? Watch a hard sell by word of mouth. Some are extremely receptive to it, others see it as a joke, which I believe is a result of misunderstanding. When the ? Watch was announced I also assumed it would be useless, but once I tried it on and started using it. Well, I can't say I've ever had an opinion change so quickly for me.
That's the thing with this product - it is not until someone uses it (and for a period of time) that they will determine the value. It seems that 90% or more see that value based on surveys of people still using it. It isn't a game changer (yet), but it is MUCH more fun to use than a traditional watch, and I have found it very helpful/useful:
- Not pulling my phone out every time I want to see the "time"
- I never miss important notifications as they are always right on my wrist. Same with meeting notifications
- For work, having my next meetings showing (and quick access to full days calendar)
- Quickly setting timers and reminders via Siri
- Taking (or making) the quick call from the wrist (and seeing who is calling) without having to pull out phone
- No ApplePay here yet, but already enjoy using Passbook for loyalty cards and boarding passes
- Health / Fitness - just beginning, but already tracking my heart rate, and really like that by wearing watch (almost) everywhere, my total activity is being tracked. It has helped me to work on increasing my activity.
Sometimes dozens of conveniences a day add up to quite a convenience.
That's the thing with this product - it is not until someone uses it (and for a period of time) that they will determine the value. It seems that 90% or more see that value based on surveys of people still using it. It isn't a game changer (yet), but it is MUCH more fun to use than a traditional watch, and I have found it very helpful/useful:
- Not pulling my phone out every time I want to see the "time"
- I never miss important notifications as they are always right on my wrist. Same with meeting notifications
- For work, having my next meetings showing (and quick access to full days calendar)
- Quickly setting timers and reminders via Siri
- Taking (or making) the quick call from the wrist (and seeing who is calling) without having to pull out phone
- No ApplePay here yet, but already enjoy using Passbook for loyalty cards and boarding passes
- Health / Fitness - just beginning, but already tracking my heart rate, and really like that by wearing watch (almost) everywhere, my total activity is being tracked. It has helped me to work on increasing my activity.
Sometimes dozens of conveniences a day add up to quite a convenience.
I fully agree, and I am not discussing the convenience of the watch.
I just see that in three years from now the "normal" Hermes watches will have retained their value, while this particular one will be a piece of outdated tech. This is a very well-off kid's toy, who can afford to replace it every year, or latest every two years.
While I do like the steel watch, I would just use a third party leather band, such as the one by Pad & Quill, or be more "rational" and just take the sport. Because it will be a brick 3 years from now.