Jony Ive sure loves his designer goods, but don’t suggest to him that products like the new high-end Apple Watch Hermès are turning Apple into a luxury company.
“We don’t think in those terms,” Ive says in a new interview. “I’m not comfortable with words like exclusive.”
This from the guy who made a $17,000 smartwatch!
The quote in question comes from a Wall Street Journal article, detailing Apple’s association with high-end French fashion house Hermès.
It contains some interesting insights, such as the fact that Apple valued the Hermès collaboration so much that it even approached the company about it before it had publicly acknowledged the Apple Watch’s existence. Jony Ive and execs at Hermès agreed to team up over lunch in Paris. As you do.
“It’s something highly unusual for Apple to do — to talk about an unannounced project,” said Ive. He also said Apple would be open to working with Hermès again.
What makes the Hermès collaboration a bit different is that Apple is actually playing second fiddle to the fashion house in some ways. As the article explains:
“To display the time, Apple adapted three fonts Hermès has long used in its watches. When the watch face displays the Hermès user interface, neither the Apple name nor logo is visible.
Allowing Hermès’ symbols to upstage Apple’s is a first, Mr. Ive said. “I’ve been at Apple 23 years and this is conspicuous and singular. I’ve never known anything like this,” he said.”
At the end of the day, I understand Ive not wanting newspapers to cast Apple as a luxury company, particularly at a time when it’s continuing to expand into new markets — where it’s even proved willing to cut its own profit margins to get devices into the hands of customers.
With that said, who is he kidding? I don’t think the Apple Watch Edition was a bad idea by any means, but it seems like Cupertino is clearly moving in a more upmarket direction with its products. The divide between making products for a select few high-end customers and democratizing technology for the masses is one that Apple has always wavered on.
For the most part, it gets it totally right. But when you hire the former CEO of Burberry to run your Stores, and have fashion designers turning the already high-end Apple Watch into a pocket watch for their Spring Collection… well, that gives off a certain image.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
11 responses to “Jony Ive denies that Apple is turning into a luxury company”
The key factor in all this fashion link up is that the underlying technology is the same no matter how rich you are. And long may it continue.
Thats not to say the products are cheap in the first place but Apple has always made products that the 1% of the 1% want to use and have the money to pay for further modification by the ‘diamond studded aftermarket resellers’. Apple is now entering this conspicious consumer market in a bigger way because the profit margins are potentially huge.
I would just like to have seen a little moderation in the cost of acessories like plastic watch straps, cases & covers. If they continue to ask too much for the basic versions the Asian companies will soon offer better and cheaper alternatives on Amazon etc.
I’m not sure the commentary about Watch Edition really stacks up. Of course it’s super high end expensive, but it’s not an exclusive product. It’s an exclusive variant of Watch, which starts at a significantly more affordable price.
Edition buyers get fancy metal and a fancy box and their watch does 100% exactly the same things as a Watch Sport.
I agree that it’s not like Apple offers higher-paying customers a better experience in the case of the Edition. I think it’s far more likely that it’s there to sell a few, while making the psychology of spending $1,000 on a watch a bit more tempting since it seems like a bargain. But would you disagree that Apple’s shooting for more luxury products these days? High-end watches and cars are far more exclusive than phones.
I think Apple products have been “affordable luxury” for a long time. Watch is definitely the first time that they’ve had so wide a price range, but it would be the first time that their price range is segmented purely on materials.
Let us not forget a $17,000 watch that will be outdated in a year a most likely Apple will classify it as “Vintage” in 5 years and “Obsolete” a few years after that. I love Apple products and where the company was but if I spend $17,000 on a Rolex it will be something that will be handed down in the family for generations. They are missing an important aspect of the vision, getting the best technology into the hands of a large number of people. Not the cheapest, the original Mac was expensive, as was the iPod for a long time, but not this expensive. 20th Anniversary Mac an overpriced underperforming vanity project. Apple Watch right now I fear is much the same.
Then I think the Apple watch at $17,000 is not for you. It’s for those who have that sort of cash to write off the minute it has been spent. They don’t care if its obsolete in 3 years because they will have replaced it with the latest after one year.
Clearly it is not for me, and your insight only goes on to prove this is a fad product and Jony’s goal of having the Swiss running scared will ultimately fail. It is a vanity project. It underlines the fact Apple is no longer leads in showing customers what they want before they know it, but rather is try to merely headline grab and niche catering to try and spike the stock price. They are moving from doing what is great to short term “banking” maneuvers.
No, I dont think its a fad product. The product is the direction for future wrist borne communicators and the watch fuction is only one (minor) function of many that future smart devices will deliver. The point is the Edition versions are for those with money to burn on a piece of technology buried in an expensive fashion case and strap
The simple fact is that the Apple Watch Edition adds no exclusive functionality versus the other models. The only distinction is the case and cover glass materials. At heart, every Apple Watch is the same product, but affords folks with different levels of affluence a choice of materials that best suit their taste, budget, and values.
In effect, Apple is using wealthy customers to help subsidize the low end models. This seems to me to be the opposite of exclusivity.
I dont think this is about something as egalitarian as cross-subsidy; its about charging a price that some are prepared to pay for something different. I’m sure the base model is hitting the norm for profit margin and the edition is just multiples of that.
It’s not? $900 tablets and phones at top quality. Luxury to me.