Apple expects some iPhone owners to shell out more than
$10,000 for a smartwatch. And it hopes they don't care if it becomes
outdated in a year.
The Cupertino, Calif., electronics giant on Monday revealed pricing for the three models of Apple Watch, which will be available April 24 in nine countries. The device starts at $349 for the basic Apple Watch Sport version and goes up to $17,000 for the premium Apple Watch Edition.
That
huge price gap comes from the use of the materials in the watches -
18 karat gold for the high end edition versus aluminum for the sport edition -
but not for any of the actual features. iPhone owners won't be able to
do any more with the expensive gold number than with the entry level
model (aside from show off their ability to afford a wearable device
that costs more than some cars).
By pricing its smartwatch that high, Apple, one of the world's largest makers of smartphones and tablets,
is setting itself up as a luxury watch seller. But the transition could
be tricky. The computing world is moving faster than ever before, as
technology executives like to tell us, and what's new one day may easily
be outdated a few months later. Spending $10,000 - $17,000 on a golden
gadget that could become obsolete in a year is a risky proposition,
especially since we don't yet know if Apple will have a trade in
program, how it will support older devices in the future and whether any
of the components in the device are replaceable.
History
has shown that buying the first generation of a new Apple product often
isn't the smartest move. Apple tends to update its products in short
order - usually within a year and sometimes even earlier. And it
incorporates new features in each update that make the prior model less
attractive.
Source: CNET
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