The Apple Watch could be Apple’s next mass-market iPod-like product, but the company’s not quite ready to see it popping up everywhere yet.
With the Apple Watch launch just 24 days away, Apple has reportedly declined to supply the U.K.’s largest mobile phone retailer, Carphone Warehouse, with its debut wearable device.
“We would love to be able to stock the Apple Watch,” Carphone’s chief executive Graham Stapleton told The Telegraph newspaper. “I’ve got to be careful what I say but I think they are just going another way with it. We have not been given the opportunity.”
What that “other way” is has been obvious for some time now. Although Carphone Warehouse has 800 stores around Britain, Apple is targeting high-end fashionable retailers for its first wave of Apple Watch sales.
Non-Apple Store locations where you’ll be able to buy an Apple Watch include Selfridges in London (where the Apple Watch is also set to feature in a window display), Galeries Lafayette in Paris, the Isetan department store in Toyko, Berlin’s The Corner, and others. Apple is opening mini-stores in these locations, where the Apple Watch will be sold in close proximity to other luxury brands such as Cartier and Tiffany’s.
Apple has also focused more on getting the Apple Watch into the pages of high-end fashion magazines, such as Vogue, than it has on tech publications. At its recent “Spring Forward” event, Apple skipped out on some of the tech press in favor of fashionistas.
It’s a smart strategy on Apple’s part, especially considering that wearables haven’t really taken off as a mass-market product category when other companies, such as Samsung, have tried them. By associating the Apple Watch with luxury brands, Apple later has the option of selling the device in places like Carphone Warehouse, while still keeping the sheen of exclusivity.
It’s a move few tech companies other than Apple could afford to do.
In the meantime, Carphone Warehouse still works in Apple’s favor, despite being barred from selling Apple Watches. The Telegraph reports that the chain is planning to devote more space in stores to smartwatches, since it assumes there will be a rise in interest on the back of Apple Watches.
In other words, the wearables product category continues to be hyped and, when Apple’s finally ready to see $349 Apple Watches go on sale everywhere, the market’s already established.
All in all, a brilliant move on Angela Ahrendt’s part. Was was that people said about her possibly being a worthy CEO successor to Tim Cook?
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.
4 responses to “Why withholding Apple Watch from U.K.’s biggest mobile retailer is a brilliant move”
I tried to buy an iPhone in Carphone Warehouse, but despite insisting that I was only interested in an iPhone and giving very specific reasons, the assistant was determined to try and switch me to an Android alternative. In the end I walked out and bought an iPhone elsewhere.
CW is a terrible place to buy Apple stuff and would not be a good fit for selling Apple Watch. I believe that the reason they would be keen to stock Apple Watch is as a means to get people through the door and then try to sell them an alternative. The fact that they are planning devoting extra shelf space to other wearables show how they intend to sell rival watches on the back of the Apple Watch.
I think that outside of official Apple Stores, the ‘store within a store’ concept, with properly trained staff dedicated to selling Apple Watches is definitely the way forward.
Definitely. And particularly at this stage, when people still need to be educated about what an Apple Watch actually is and does. Later on, if it becomes as ubiquitous as, say, the iPod, you can start selling it everywhere.
I was the victim of a bait and switch for a pay as you go phone advertised at 99pence and ended up paying 14 pounds. Go for Apple. These guys are crooks.
Their stores are unbelievable hellholes. There was no way in hell they were ever going to be allowed to stock the Watch on day one, if ever. It’s a shockingly poor customer experience.