If you want to make a tonne of money as a consumer electronics corporation there’s a lot that’s supposed to be a priority for you. Two items on the list, however, are pretty obvious; making a great product and crafting a marketing strategy that will put most of your competition to shame.
These have been crucial elements of the formula used by the two market leaders, Apple and Samsung. By the end of tonight, we would have witnessed these aspects of this formula success with the Apple Watch event.
The wearable that Apple unveiled last year at its famous annual product launch and had its launch pushed back by about a month will be introduced tonight.
So what can people expect tonight?Why is there so much excitement around the last entrant in a market that hasn’t been fully defined for a huge part of the growing tech consumer population? We already know what the device looks like thanks to the more-than-just-a-teaser release from last September so the hype right now is about specifics, right?
Issues to do with the specific price range for the device (it’s only been given an entry tag of $350), the 18 carat Gold Watch Edition that is expected to be priced at $10,000, the actual release date (set for April) for the watch and the whole discussion around app development to support the new addition to the Apple family.
There’s also the anticipation that the new Mac Book will be unveiled tonight plus rumours are swirling around an update for iOS 8 and an iPad Pro.
It surely can’t be the whole story? What else makes this watch launch that significant for tech? besides the smart marketing tactics around a huge anticipation and build up plus the mystique that only a $700 billion consumables giant can create, there’s the relevance of Apple to wearable applications.
The iPhone managed to ignite an incomparable rush into all things app related with its App store and focus on an ecosystem of optional software that unlocked the power of mobile tech. Everyone else that has made a fortune followed this trend, and app development is one of the biggest takeaways of the smartphone revolution started in 2007.
Now, mobile tech, for a large part of Apple’s (and its competitors) key markets is an afterthought. It’s all about the Intelligence Age which won’t just be about phones. Everything can and will be connected(enter IoT specifics here), understand what we need and want and work more for us in an even more personal way.
The Apple Watch, like everything in wearables that ties into greater intelligence around us, is worth the watch (no pun there). Perhaps the app fascination will be ignited for watches and people like myself who’ve seen the numerous smart watches on the market and haven’t been convinced will buy the idea?
After all, Apple is intrinsically a fashion company and if it made touch screens, tablets and the i cool in everything, this time, it just might win over the whole world with wearables. Either way, it’s worth the watch.
The Apple Spring Forward Event is scheduled for 19:00 CAT. You can get details for how to stream it and follow the live coverage here.
