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Apple Watch: how Apple Stores will handle the debut
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Mar 20, 2015, 03:39 PM
 
As Apple has previously stated, the Apple Watch will get its first large-scale public debut beginning April 10, when potential buyers or the idly curious can visit their nearest Apple Store to check out the new device in person, and perhaps to place a reservation for a unit that will be available beginning April 24. Employees will take up to 15 minutes per customer to help those interested try on, learn to use, and educate buyers about the new device.

The two-week gap between April 10 and 24 will see Apple Stores likely to be even more packed that usual as the curious and the open-minded and the eager all vie for space at a new table that will be installed in stores after closing time on the 9th. The new table will have a sunken area for display of several of the non-gold Apple Watch models with various band options to give buyers a preview of how the different combinations look.

Incomplete table setup for Apple Watch
Incomplete table setup for Apple Watch


For those who want a closer look, Apple Store employees will help customers to try on the Watch in a scheduled (but not reservation-required, at least for now) 15-minute appointment block so that customers can compare case sizes, materials, and band combinations. The employees will also be able to bring out the high-end 18kt gold Edition models for try out during the appointment, and take reservations for any model the customer decides to buy, which will be available on April 24.

Buyers can also take care of pre-selecting what they think will be their preferred case/band combination online, then come into the store to try out the combination in real life to see how well it works out -- and select an alternative in case it doesn't. Each store should have around 10 try-on stations around the display table, and employees will be assigned to either help with the try-ons and answer general questions, or handle sales for those who already know what they want.



Those desiring a gold Edition model will be helped by a separate group of specially-trained senior and veteran store "Expert" employees who have received extra training on sales techniques and customer service handling for buyers comfortable with the sizable cost and investment in such items. There will also, as one would expect, be extra security around the gold models, which start at $10,000. Apple is expecting that curiousity about the Apple Watch will require that between 75 and 90 percent of employees will, at least initially be primarily working with customers on education and try-ons for Apple Watch.

The primary approach to selling the Apple Watch, as previously revealed in document leaks, will be a soft-sell approach, as Apple employees do not work on commission. Employees will focus on education about what the Watch can do for the customer after some preliminary questions about what uses the potential buyer has in mind.

The approach will focus on the device's three primary strengths: a health and fitness tool, a communications tool, and of course its timekeeping and schedule-coordinating functions. Employees will also have greater information and detail on the various band options available for each model, and can help those who need to upgrade their iPhones in order to fully utilize the Apple Watch to do so.
     
iphonerulez
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Mar 20, 2015, 04:16 PM
 
Apple seems dead serious about selling the AppleWatch. Oh, does anyone know where I can go to try on and test a Moto 360 Android Wear smartwatch? I have to buy it before I try it? How nice.
     
DiabloConQueso
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Mar 20, 2015, 04:48 PM
 
With Apple making the bold move from computer company to computer and fashion company, tactics like these are paramount. People like to shop for fashion items differently than they like to shop for other things, be them computers, clothing, cars, appliances, etc.

People like to try fashion on, look at themselves with it on, try different combinations -- Apple understands this (having wooed several high-profile execs from fashion companies) and is launching a marketing campaign that fits that paradigm of consumer behavior when they are making purchases.
     
Charles Martin
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Mar 20, 2015, 10:26 PM
 
I understand what you mean there, Diablo, but I often hear others saying that Apple is moving "from" being (a thing) towards being (a different thing). Apple has, at least since the start of this century, been a music store, a phone manufacturer, a set-top box maker, a tablet maker, an entertainment empire, a concert promoter, an app warehouse, and several other things. Apple was in forefront of digital photography, desktop publishing, video editing, and other industries as well. They were always (beyond their initial stages) more than just "a computer company," or even an electronics company. I'm just glad they are still a computer maker, because I sincerely think they make the best computers for personal and creative use in the world.

Every time they enter a new category, I think they get closer to fulfilling Steve Jobs' ultimate view of Apple that he often expressed in his later years (and the reason he changed the name to just "Apple"): a company that makes great products that change the world. No boundaries beyond that.
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DiabloConQueso
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Mar 20, 2015, 11:10 PM
 
I agree, and perhaps instead of insinuating that Apple was moving from a computer company to a computer/fashion company, I should have said that technology ("computers," be them the traditional kind, or the kind you carry around with you) in general is moving in that direction. As computer technology gets more powerful, and thusly more capable, in addition to smaller, we can integrate it into everyday life a lot easier than the vaccuum tubes of the 50s, the transistors of the 60s and 70s, and the microchips of the 80s, 90s, and 2000s.

In other words, technology in general is moving away from the "appliance" state and into the "lifestyle" state, and most things that have to do with lifestyles also incorporate fashion to some degree. Apple's not moving the bar, they're simply following the already-in-motion bar very, very closely, and very intelligently.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Mar 21, 2015, 10:19 AM
 
They are consistent in their constant repositioning.

What is new, and I think the biggest news, is that Apple is positioning itself as a health and fitness company.

This is huge.

Building fashion accessories is probably almost a necessary consequence of that direction, and not even so much cause for it.
     
SierraDragon
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Mar 21, 2015, 01:24 PM
 
The Apple Store has been dealing with folks comparing different product variations for years. E.g. they rearranged product layout so I could A-B compare the iPad Air and iPad Mini side-by-side for an hour (I chose the Air due to superior display).

IMO the big thing with the Watch will be the need to educate customers as to how it actually works: what is odes and what it does not do.

Personally I consider teaching what the limitations are to be most important by a lot. Apple does _not_ want to do what MS did with Surface/Win8, and falsely imply that one product/OS would do all things for all people, causing irrevocable confusion.
     
Charles Martin
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Mar 21, 2015, 05:51 PM
 
Diablo: exactly.

Spheric: Yes, I think this is the part a lot of Apple's traditional base don't quite get. It could be even huger than them revolutionizing the mobile payments space. Yes, that huge. If Apple is "becoming" anything it wasn't before (and I would argue it isn't), one way to look at it is that Apple has pretty much served notice that any space or market where it thinks it can make a life-changing disruption is potentially fair game. A very exciting way to free themselves from getting locked into any one industry. Now if they could just reinvent airlines ...
Charles Martin
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fosters2
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Mar 22, 2015, 12:27 PM
 
Giving potential customers the option to try on the watch is the classic "puppy dog" sales approach from the 1900's. Hand over a puppy to the kid and they will want to keep it, as they implore their parents "can I keep it?"

Used the same approach selling aircraft. Worked very very well. This is opposed to Samsung having watches tethered to a table in BestBuy. It's just not the same product experience.
     
gprovida
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Mar 22, 2015, 07:35 PM
 
I wonder if Apple will have the same anti-theft provisions built into the Apple Watch like the iPhone.
     
coffeetime
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Mar 23, 2015, 01:07 AM
 
Apple has the man power and $$$$$ to lay down all these full-blown-working watches on table for people to tryout. I don't think any companies out there are able to pull these kind of stunt. You are lucky if you find one Android watch in Staples that actually works (like charger is connected and you don't have to enter store manager password).
     
   
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