Apple Inc plans to introduce a trade-in program for iPhones in China in association with the Foxconn Technology Group, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the effort.
Under the program, consumers will be able to exchange older iPhones at Apple stores in China for credit against the company’s products starting 31 March, Bloomberg reported.
Chinese demand for larger-screen iPhones helped fuel Apple’s record profit of USD18 billion in the final quarter last year.
Apple’s new Watch range won’t be on sale until late next month.
But Chinese consumers whose appetite for the wrist-mounted communications technology has been whetted by the high profile Apple Watch launch last week can already buy similar products at a fraction of the price.
One is real, the other is a copy. Can you tell which is which? Answer at the end of the story.
Knock-offs, copies, imitations, fakes – it’s hard to categorise the new breed of rival products hitting retail store shelves. For sure, some are blatant copies of the Apple Watch and their makers are likely to find themselves on the receiving end of litigation from Cupertino. But others fit into a large grey field of the retail landscape: conceptually they may be similar, they may even look alike (a watch is a watch, right?) but some operate on Google’s Android operating system making it extremely difficult to dub them fakes.
The official Apple Watch goes on sale in three styles, ranging in price from US$350 to $17,000.
But already Alibaba’s Taobao is selling a watch called the AW08 for $59 which can be connected to devices running Google Android and delivered within 24 hours. Other similar products cost as little as $39.
According to tech news website Geekwire.com, other “knock-offs” branded D-Watch, Airwatch A8 and Ai Watch are also available on Taobao at prices substantially below the Apple Watch and “designed to look just like the Apple Watch”.
Some commentators question whether the knock-off phase will damage Apple, in a nation where image and status is of growing importance, or if all the hoopla will actually help Apple’s brand and product awareness, driving sales of the ‘real McCoy’.
“Most people who buy them will do so knowing they are not Apple’s real Watch,” Matthew Forney, president of the business consultancy Fathom China, told the BBC.
“Apple products are very popular in China, and it’s possible that Chinese consumers will want to be seen to be the first person on their block to wear its Watch. However, I think most of those consumers are aware that there has been an issue with fakes and copycats on Taobao and would be highly suspicious of the devices.”
Others are worried about the damage such businesses do to brands in general.
“These guys are specialists,” Laurent Le Pan, founder and CEO of the Omate smartwatch maker told CNN Money.
“The speed at which they can bring copies on the market is amazing. The hardware is not the big challenge – the hard part is on the software and the application side. In the end, you sometimes need to be an expert to tell the difference between real and fake.”
For now, Apple might own the Watch space with the perception it is the first to market – other brands have already released smart watches of their own, but to date few if any connect to smartphones, their features largely limited to exercise measuring and physical fitness monitoring. But that won’t hold for too long, with Apple’s second wave of competition coming from established genuine brands rather than the armada of copycats.
Swatch, the world’s largest watchmaker, plans to launch a smart watch to undercut Apple and other legitimate rivals featuring Near Field Communication (NFC) chips later this year, which will allow payments by watch, among other features.
Rival manufacturers will have to be compatible with iOs or Android, so most will focus on Android given the likely barriers Apple will place on sanctioning direct competitors on its own OS.
The much anticipated Apple Watch has been unveiled – and China, Hong Kong and Japan will be among the first 10 markets globally in which it will go on sale.
From April 10, the Apple Watch range will be available for preview, fitting and ordering in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK and the US and on the Apple Online Store. On April 24, Apple Watch will be available to purchase online or by reservation in Apple’s retail stores and in China and Japan through selected Apple authorised resellers. Customers who purchase online or in-store from Apple will be offered Personal Setup to customise and pair Apple Watch with their iPhone.
Apple describes the Apple Watch as its “most personal device yet” – an “incredibly accurate timepiece, an intimate and immediate communication device and a groundbreaking health and fitness companion”.
“Highly customisable for personal expression, Apple Watch also brings an entirely new way to receive information at a glance and interact with the world through third-party app experiences designed specifically for the wrist.”
Apple says the watch will keep time to within 50 milliseconds of UTC, the universal time standard. Its face can be customised by the user, with a traditional analog look, an “information-rich Modular face” or animated butterflies and jellyfish.
“Apple Watch begins a new chapter in the way we relate to technology and we think our customers are going to love it,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait for people to start wearing Apple Watch to easily access information that matters, to interact with the world, and to live a better day by being more aware of their daily activity than ever before.”
Its touch screen can differentiate between touch, tap and swipe and the watch ‘taps’ the wearer’s wrist if new information is received.
Features include email, the ability to answer phone calls from your wrist (the device must be wirelessly connected to an iPhone 5 or later running on iOs 8.2, downloadable from today), Apple Pay (where markets and retailers accept this payment mechanism), communication through social media apps and monitoring your health and fitness.
Apple Watch is available in two different sizes, 38 mm and 42 mm, and in three distinct collections – Apple Watch Sport, Apple Watch and Apple Watch Edition. Apple Watch Sport features a lightweight anodized aluminum case in silver and space gray with a Retina display protected by strengthened Ion-X glass and matching high-performance fluoroelastomer Sport Band in five colors.
The Apple Watch collection features highly polished stainless steel and space black stainless steel cases with a Retina display protected by sapphire crystal. The Apple Watch collection comes with a choice of three different leather straps, a stainless steel link bracelet and Milanese loop, and a black or white Sport Band.
Apple Watch Edition features cases specially crafted from custom rose or yellow 18-karat gold alloys developed to be twice as hard as standard gold, a Retina display protected by polished sapphire crystal and a choice of uniquely designed straps and bands with 18-karat gold clasps, buckles or pins.
Apple Watch Sport is priced at US$349 and $399 and Apple Watch, from $549 to $1099. The Apple Watch Edition, crafted from custom rose or yellow 18-karat gold alloys, starts at US$10,000.
In line with its luxury brand positioning, Apple will also put the Apple Watch on show at selected department stores around the world.
Apple Watch will also be available to preview or try on at Galeries Lafayette in Paris, Isetan in Tokyo and Selfridges in London on April 10 and for sale on April 24. It will also be sold from boutiques in major cities, including Colette in Paris, Dover Street Market in London and Tokyo, Maxfield in Los Angeles and The Corner in Berlin.
Apple is in the process of redesigning its stores, drawing on the design expertise of Jony Ive.
Ive, Apple’s head designer, revealed he’s working with retail boss Angela Ahrendts on a revamp of its stores in a lengthy profile with the New Yorker magazine.
As Apple’s senior vice-president of design, Ive has emerged as the company’s creative soul, continuing an aesthetic tradition set by co-founder Steve Jobs. Ive was responsible for the build and the finish of the iMac, the MacBook, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, and the forthcoming Apple Watch.
South Korea’s LG has unveiled an “all-metal luxury smartwatch” in an attempt to broaden the appeal of its wearable devices as a fashion item and steal a lead on the hotly-anticipated Apple Watch.
The LG Watch Urbane has a 1.3 inch plastic touchscreen display and runs on Google’s Android Wear operating system. The stainless steel body comes in gold and silver with a leather strap.
The South Korean electronics giant has billed the device as a “luxury timepiece” and the “perfect fashion accessory” for men and women.
Chinese corporates and wealthy consumers are taking gift-giving down a notch this Lunar New Year, opting for iPhones instead of Birkin bags or Louis Vuitton wallets.
The annual holiday, which falls on February 19-20 this year, is a time of gift exchange between family, colleagues and business contacts.
“The iPhone 6 has replaced luxury items as a key gift this Chinese New Year,” Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of the China Market Research Group told CNBC. “Corporates, for example, used to buy luxury products to give their high performing employees, now they are giving iPhones because they more reasonably priced and still considered premium enough,” he said.
Apple Inc, which just became China’s number one smartphone vendor, expects to open stores in another five cities based on advertisements that it placed for retail staff.
It is hiring staff for its stores in Guangzhou, Shenyang, Tianjin, Nanjing and Dalian, where they currently don’t have outlets, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing advertisements posted on Apple’s website.
Apple has 15 stores in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong by 2014, and the firm plans to lift that to 25 soon.
Apple Inc has taken the number one luxury gifting spot in China from designer goods maker Hermes International SCA, according to a Hurun luxury report on Thursday, reflecting the iPhone maker’s recent hot streak in the country.
The US tech firm’s focus on glitzy stores and high prices helped it post a 70 percent rise in sales in China in the last three months of 2014 and powered the company to the largest profit in corporate history.
Spending on gift giving overall fell 5 percent in 2014, after a 25 percent drop the year before, according to the Hurun Chinese Luxury Consumer Survey. Beijing has been cracking down on corruption and luxury spending among public officials, weighing down sales of premium liquor to handbags.
Apple is continuing its aggressive retail expansion into the Middle Kingdom, with plans to open 5 new Apple stores in China in the early days of 2015. Prior to Spring Festival, the company has reportedly said it will open 5 new retail shops, including the new store in Zhengzhou that opened earlier this month. The next one on the list will be in Hangzhou, where doors will open at Apple’s new West Lake store on 24 January.