Waiting for the Apple Watch: A less than luxury experience
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22-08-16 10:44
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Apple offers smartwatch fittings in its stores, including for the stainless steel device, shown here.
James Martin/CNET
SAN FRANCISCO -- I wind my way through the Apple Store in downtown San Francisco, dodging dozens of animated shoppers. A sales associate greets me and escorts me to a private, white-walled conference room in the back that's decorated with posters of Apple products like iPhones.
I'm preparing to try on the $17,000 Apple Watch Edition, the most expensive version of Apple's first wearable. Though I'm unconvinced I'd ever be willing to spend that much on a wrist-worn computer, I'm eager to see what the 18-karat gold watch looks and feels like -- and how Apple's retail stores, accustomed to hawking phones, tablets and computers, will handle the sale of such a luxury product.
What I do is wait. And wait.
And wait.
I wait for the saleswoman to tell her colleagues outside the room which size and models of the Apple Watch I've asked to see. Only two of the yellow and rose gold watches are allowed out of the safe at a time, I'm told. So I wait for security to remove the two 42 mm (1.7-inch) Apple Watches left in the room by the previous customer, and then I wait some more for the arrival of the 38 mm (1.5-inch) models I think I'd like better.
I also wait burberry clothes for sale answers on how features work, and I wait for a sales pitch on what I can actually do with the Apple Watch. It never comes.
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And now, even if I had the money to drop on the solid gold watch, I'd be waiting for weeks, if not months, to get my hands on the model I want. Apple earlier this week updated some consumers with news their Apple Watches would arrive sooner than expected, but it acknowledged that "many customers are still facing long lead times." At best, Apple says a watch ordered today will arrive in mid- to late May. Worst-case scenario, I'm looking at July for some models of Apple Watch, including the $1,099, 42-mm space black version with the stainless steel link bracelet.
For some customers who pre-ordered the device when it went on sale April 10, Apple's first smartwatch will be delivered starting Friday. The expectations are high for the gadget and what it may do to fuel the wearable device market. Some analysts estimate more than 2 million Apple watches were preordered in the two weeks leading up to the April 24 launch. All other smartwatch vendors combined shipped only 4.6 million devices in all of 2014,
The Apple Watch rollout is a major test for CEO Tim Cook, who needs to show that the company can still create lust-worthy, must-have products in new categories. That last time it did that was in 2010 with the "magical" iPad tablet, which was ushered to market by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs before he died the following year. Jobs also moved Apple, originally known as the maker of the Macintosh computer, into the smartphone market with the iPhone in 2007. Cook has said that Apple began work on the smartwatch after Jobs' death in October 2011 and that he considers it the "most personal device" the Cupertino, Calif., company has ever created.
Apple offers smartwatch fittings in its stores, including for the stainless steel device, shown here.
James Martin/CNET
SAN FRANCISCO -- I wind my way through the Apple Store in downtown San Francisco, dodging dozens of animated shoppers. A sales associate greets me and escorts me to a private, white-walled conference room in the back that's decorated with posters of Apple products like iPhones.
I'm preparing to try on the $17,000 Apple Watch Edition, the most expensive version of Apple's first wearable. Though I'm unconvinced I'd ever be willing to spend that much on a wrist-worn computer, I'm eager to see what the 18-karat gold watch looks and feels like -- and how Apple's retail stores, accustomed to hawking phones, tablets and computers, will handle the sale of such a luxury product.
What I do is wait. And wait.
And wait.
I wait for the saleswoman to tell her colleagues outside the room which size and models of the Apple Watch I've asked to see. Only two of the yellow and rose gold watches are allowed out of the safe at a time, I'm told. So I wait for security to remove the two 42 mm (1.7-inch) Apple Watches left in the room by the previous customer, and then I wait some more for the arrival of the 38 mm (1.5-inch) models I think I'd like better.
I also wait burberry clothes for sale answers on how features work, and I wait for a sales pitch on what I can actually do with the Apple Watch. It never comes.
See also
And now, even if I had the money to drop on the solid gold watch, I'd be waiting for weeks, if not months, to get my hands on the model I want. Apple earlier this week updated some consumers with news their Apple Watches would arrive sooner than expected, but it acknowledged that "many customers are still facing long lead times." At best, Apple says a watch ordered today will arrive in mid- to late May. Worst-case scenario, I'm looking at July for some models of Apple Watch, including the $1,099, 42-mm space black version with the stainless steel link bracelet.
For some customers who pre-ordered the device when it went on sale April 10, Apple's first smartwatch will be delivered starting Friday. The expectations are high for the gadget and what it may do to fuel the wearable device market. Some analysts estimate more than 2 million Apple watches were preordered in the two weeks leading up to the April 24 launch. All other smartwatch vendors combined shipped only 4.6 million devices in all of 2014,
The Apple Watch rollout is a major test for CEO Tim Cook, who needs to show that the company can still create lust-worthy, must-have products in new categories. That last time it did that was in 2010 with the "magical" iPad tablet, which was ushered to market by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs before he died the following year. Jobs also moved Apple, originally known as the maker of the Macintosh computer, into the smartphone market with the iPhone in 2007. Cook has said that Apple began work on the smartwatch after Jobs' death in October 2011 and that he considers it the "most personal device" the Cupertino, Calif., company has ever created.
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