My turn!
Sport Band - $49
Sport Band Gold - $99
Classic Buckle - $99
Classic Buckle Gold - $299
Leather Loop - $129
Modern Buckle - $149
Modern Buckle Gold - $399
Milanese Loop -$299
Link Bracelet - $349
Space Black Link Bracelet - $399
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Is the steel version actually the cheap one?
- Thread starter Knowimagination
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
My turn!
Sport Band - $49
Sport Band Gold - $99
Classic Buckle - $99
Classic Buckle Gold - $299
Leather Loop - $129
Modern Buckle - $149
Modern Buckle Gold - $399
Milanese Loop -$299
Link Bracelet - $349
Space Black Link Bracelet - $399
Agreed. If the link bracelet costs over $149, I don't think many people will buy it.
I guess for one simple reason.
It's Apple.
Apple charges us in the UK £25 inc sales tax ($40) for a thin strip of black rubbery plastic to go around the outside of an iPhone.
Cost to them... I'd be amazed if it cost Apple 1 dollar.
You can buy 3rd party versions in the UK for about £2
Less than a Tenth of what the official Apple one is.
So, a thin strip of plastic for that much. (utter ripping off customers)
Hence why many seem to think they will charge a lot for actual metal and leather etc etc...
Of course, they won't get away with it for long as there will be 100's of not 1000's of 3rd party ones on sale at a whole range of prices.
So at least customers will have a free choice.
Unless of course, Apple tries to go after such makers using legal methods to try and stop them.
This is unrealistic. Apple's a business and some of their products are overpriced. However, they really aren't in the business of absurdly pricing things.
While I do agree with your point, Apple does have the upperhand in terms of design (and usually quality) than the rest. I hope they don't gouge us with the bands...
Indeed, I'm sure everyone thinks the same.
Even I would expect to pay more for a branded, and very high quality item.
I don't expect the best for free.
However, I do have a built in "Rip-Off Meter" in my head when I know full well I'm being conned.
I don't mind how much something costs. Be it $1, $100, $1000 if I personally think that item is reasonably worth that amount.
As with the Apple iPhone Bumper Band.
Personally there is no way I can let myself pay 40 dollars for a loop of plain rubber with some holes in it.
I expect the official watch straps will be on the high side, but I hope they are still within the reasonable level.
I'd fully expect $100 / $150+ type pricing easy for the steel ones.
This is of course, going by what Apple charge for cheap bits of rubber or cases for their other products.
Ok, let's try this one
iMac with a 1TB HDD
Or.
Don't have that, but have a 512GB SSD instead.
£400 charge extra (plus of course you are not getting the 1TB HDD)
So Apple are charging £400 plus whatever a 1TB drive is worth for a 512GB SSD.
Even the very latest Samsung EVO 850 Pro 512GB drive is only £262
Or how about this:
An Intel 3.4 GHZ i5 CPU costs = Retail price £166.98
An Intel 3.5 GHZ i7 CPU costs = Retail Price £265.13
That's a difference of £99.15 between those two options.
Apple will charge you £190 for that difference in the iMac.
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Look at the prices for quality, authentic name-brand stainless steel bracelets. Omega, Breitling, Tag Heuer, and others.
For example:
http://www.authenticwatches.com/watch-bracelets-straps-links.html
There are lots of bracelets in the $500-$1,000 range. And quite a few above $1,000.
I saw a Breitling bracelet for $1,295. A single link for that bracelet costs $175:
http://www.authenticwatches.com/breitling-blackbird-pilot-bracelet-369a.html
I just don't think Apple will position the stainless steel Apple Watch against low-end watches from big-box discount stores. Yes, lackluster stainless steel bracelets like that can be found for $20-$50. I just think Apple will aim much higher.
Then there's this quote from Apple's web page: "The machining process is so precise, it takes nearly nine hours to cut the links for a single band." What does Apple sell for $99-$150 that has 9 hours of machining time in it?
In the watch world, the precision of the workmanship adds WAY more to the price than the cost of the raw materials. A 9-hour bracelet may be trying to compete with the low end of the luxury Swiss watch market.
Some of their iPhone accessories are overpriced and upgrades on RAM or storage on Mac computers have historically been much higher than the the market price. (That one doesn't apply as much anymore due to those components being much harder to upgrade now.)
I disagree, I think the SS is being aimed at the standard, the one that everyone should/will get. That's why I don't think it'll be very expensive. Yes, there'll be some expensive bands, but there'll also be the option to get bands like the classic buckle, that isn't very expensive.
How often has Apple priced something cheaper than we thought? They didn't do it with iPad mini or iPhone 5c. They will charge the maximum they think they can get people to pay for it.
But people won't pay $500 dollars simply for a stainless steel strap, I don't think any SS strap will be priced above $200.
Agreed. I'm not expecting a single strap to be $500. But I do think it will be more than people expect. Just the way the bands are described on apple.com and how some watch blogs compared them favorably to low/mid range Swiss watches makes me believe Apple put a lot of time into the fit and finish and will charge accordingly. Apple wants Watch to be a cut above the Android Wear competition.
Sorry, but that's not correct.......
I remember many people were speculating here that the iPad was going to be more expensive than it turned out to me, and I know others remember that being the case also:
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wisty:
I'd be surprised if this was $600. I'd expect $1500. Remember the MacBook Air and iPhone? Remember the iPod when it came out? Apple loves products that are high-price, fashionable, and easy to use.
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greygray : I'm expecting $950.
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Hmac: This thing will sell like crazy, even priced at $900
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Some Poll Results here to show a summary of price points people were expecting and willing to pay:
https://forums.macrumors.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=5140
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Alvi: The maxiumim price i'd pay for the tablet would be probably 799 or 899, already 1000 is a lot for a tablet.... still we don't really know how awesome it will be!
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agkm800: $999 without contract is my guess.
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And many many many more.
As you can see, with the iPad Apple did price it lower than many, if not most thought.
This is why I'm sceptical about some of the IMHO crazy talk prices that have been going on here about some of the watch models.
Yes because a lot of Apple tablet rumors/concepts were around OS X on a tablet not a big iPod touch. And Apple also floating rumors out there that it would be under $1000 certainly didn't have people thinking $499. We already know what Watch will start at. I will be very shocked if Watch and Watch edition are cheaper than most people think.
You remember the iPad correctly. Hitting $499 was amazing. However, that was about the only time Apple surprised with a lower than expected price, and have priced higher than expected on several occasions. Namely, original MacBook Air, iPhone, Apple TV, Apple HiFi, iPod, etc.
I believe they see the stainless steel and gold watches as fine jewelry. The prices for the watch and it's accessories are likely to be high. If they aren't, then I would say they have engaged in some marketing trickery such as claiming "solid gold" or "9 hour manufacture time" for bracelets.
That is actually not accurate. The original Retina MacBook Pro was priced rather high, especially since it omitted many features such as the SuperDrive, user replaceable RAM, and Ethernet. So much so, that Apple kept non-retina versions around an extra year to make sure there was a normal cost version. Aluminum iMacs have not been competitively priced in a long time. This coming from an owner of both a Retina MacBook Pro, and iMac.