Strong Interest In Apple's New Watch -- April 10, 2015

Updates

Later, 10:21 p.m. CT: early this morning I walked by the local Apple Store (Southlake, TX); there was a short line and I had an "appointment" to be with the youngest granddaughter at 10:30, so I didn't go in. This evening my wife and I stopped by the Apple Store. Not busy at all. Lots of people there but one could things were winding down. We saw the Apple Watch for the first time, both in the display case -- about 24 different models -- mostly different bands -- and then several in various places around the store where one could test them out at one's leisure. In addition, it appeared that at this particular store at about 8:00 p.m. this evening, two or three employees were, probably by reservation, showing an assortment of 12 models to prospective buyers. I assume that if the individual decided to buy, they placed an on-line order. No one was walking out of the store with an Apple Watch as far as I could tell.

My impression of the watch: incredible. Absolutely incredible. Like all Apple products, exquisite; a feeling of a very solid watch; gravitas and heft. It was incredibly easy to switch among the various apps. Easy to read e-mail. Easy to read maps. I was very, very impressed. If I had an iPhone, I would have ordered the least expensive and then gone on from there.

I think folks will be surprised who actually buys the watch. This is a pretty big deal. It won't move the needle with regard to Apple's bottom line but that's not the point.

The Apple Watch is another Apple item that defines the "new" Apple. I think there will be an initial surge in Apple Watch sales, but they will quickly taper off; over time, the Apple Watch will simply become a steady performer. It's kind of interesting: the Apple Watch was so elegant, it looked out of place in the Apple store. It really needs to be seen and sold in the upscale jewelry stores. It almost looks out of place in the Apple store.

By the way, the foot traffic that is brought in by the interest in the Apple was also incredible. My wife and I walked to the back of the store to look at all the new accessories. Apple has really broadened what they sell -- they also sell drones now -- they had but one Parrot Bebop drone, at $499, left on the shelf. There were also some mini-drones. A lot of non-Apple products.

And, of course, we saw the new MacBook -- that, too, is incredible. It is what the Google Chromebook should have been. There are a lot of "negatives" to say about the MacBook but that's because folks are comparing it to a "full" laptop. It's not. I think the MacBook is a direct competitor to the Apple tablet, the iPad, or to the Microsoft Surface. For reading in bed, I love the iPad, but in almost all other situations I would prefer the new MacBook to an iPad.

Later, 5:07 p.m. CT: Reuters is reporting --

Customers preordering Apple Inc's smartwatch on Friday will have to wait at least a month for delivery, an early sign of strong demand for company chief Tim Cook's first new major product.

People flocked to Apple's stores around the world to get a close-up look at the Apple Watch, the tech company's first foray into the personal luxury goods market.

 
The device was available for preorder online and to try out in stores by appointment, but not to take home. Cook, interviewed on cable television channel CNBC, said initial orders were "great."

Apple predicted on Thursday that demand would exceed supply at product launch.

Without knowing how many watches consumers have ordered, Wall Street analysts said it was too early to adjust their estimates for sales of the gadget. Another key factor in the watch's success will be demand once an initial wave of interest from Apple enthusiasts subsides.

The watch goes on sale officially on April 24, online and through appointments in shops, including trendy fashion boutiques in Paris, London and Tokyo, part of Apple's strategy of positioning the wearable computer as a must-have accessory.

But soon after online preorders opened on Friday, Apple's website listed shipping times in June for some models of the watch and four to six weeks for others.

June? Two months from now.

Original Post

Reuters is reporting:

Consumers in Australia flocked to Apple Inc's store in Sydney on Friday to get the world's first up-close look at the tech giant's smartwatch, which the company expects will be its next runaway hit.

The Apple Watch, CEO Tim Cook's first new major product, was available for pre-order online and to try out in stores - but not take home.

On April 24, consumers will be able to buy it online or by reservation at retail locations including high-end fashion boutiques in Paris, London and Tokyo, part of Apple's strategy of positioning the wearable computer as a must-have accessory.

About four weeks ago, when Tag Heuer reiterated that they would not develop a smart watch and had no concern over the Apple Watch, I visited the Tag Heuer site to see the prices of watches that do only two things: a) provide the time; b) provide the date (and sometimes the day of the week).

Ever since, I've been getting Tag Heuer advertisements on various sites (Yahoo, Drudge).

And now, Tag Heuer has announced it will market a smart watch. 

The Apple Watch has nothing to do with short term profits for Apple. It's all about widening the moat.

Since I don't have the iPhone, I won't be getting an Apple Watch. By this time next year, I assume my wife, who has an iPhone 6, will also have an Apple Watch. We'll let the dust settle before we start looking for an Apple Watch. But I might walk by the Apple store here in South Lake in a few minutes.

I'm more interested in the new MacBook.

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The Great Gatsby Turns 90 This Month

Link here.

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Jobs Program

The WSJ reports:

China will build a pipeline to bring natural gas from Iran to Pakistan to help address Pakistan’s acute energy shortage, under a deal to be signed during the Chinese president’s visit to Islamabad this month, Pakistani officials said.

The arrival of President Xi Jinping is expected to showcase China’s commitment to infrastructure development in ally Pakistan, at a time when few other countries are willing to make major investments in the cash-strapped, terrorism-plagued country.

The pipeline would amount to an early benefit for both Pakistan and Iran from the framework agreement reached earlier this month between Tehran and the U.S. and other world powers to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The U.S. had previously threatened Pakistan with sanctions if it went ahead with the project.

It's ironic that a non-free-market country like China is all in favor of free market capitalism and helping its neighbors and allies, and then we have an ObamAmerica that no longer believes in free-market capitalism and certainly won't build a pipeline that helps it neighbor and ally.

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It Wasn't The Koch Brothers

Why Cape Wind failed -- the Boston Globe is reporting:

In the end it was about money and politics, as are so many things in Massachusetts. But it was not Koch cash or Kennedy pique that may have killed a commercial offshore wind plant in Nantucket Sound. It was the hubris of Cape Wind’s developers themselves.

Almost 14 years after Cape Wind Associates unveiled plans to erect 130 wind turbines across 24 square miles of pristine Horseshoe Shoal, Jim Gordon and his investors seem to have run out of time, money, and political capital. The decision by NStar and National Grid to walk away after Cape Wind missed a December 31 contract deadline appears to leave Cape Wind “dead in the water,” as Gordon’s nemesis, Audra Parker of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, so poetically put it.

Gordon blamed the collapse of what would have been the first offshore wind facility in the United States on litigious obstructionists financed by Bill Koch, the conservative scion of his family’s oil refining fortune, and other wealthy property owners protective of their ocean views. Then, without apparent irony, he promptly lashed out at the utilities that abandoned him, essentially claiming the relentless legal battle he has been whining about for more than a decade was an unanticipated disaster akin to an act of God.

I agree completely. I heard Jim Gordon speak to a small Harvard University MBA class a few years back. His presentation was well-balanced, calm, but when a student called him on the economics of the program, it was clear he was an emperor with no clothes.

The article continues:

The truth is, Gordon simply could not deliver. He never won the lasting support of the people of the Cape and Islands whose homes bear no resemblance to Koch’s Oyster Harbors manse or the Kennedys’ Hyannis Port compound. The Town of Barnstable opposed him. So did a Wampanoag tribe. Among the legal challenges the project has faced was a suit by struggling fishermen from Martha’s Vineyard who argued that the massive wind plant threatened their livelihood. (The fishermen withdrew their lawsuit only when they found themselves unable to pay their lawyers and Cape Wind offered them an undisclosed settlement.)

Fifty-nine percent of respondents to a Cape Cod Times online poll in January pronounced themselves “happy” that Cape Wind looks doomed.

Yet, from the outset, Gordon has cloaked himself in environmental virtue and cast any and all critics as defenders of “dirty energy.” To doubt the merits of this particular project was to oppose renewable energy itself. To object to this specific site was to reject offshore wind power entirely.

To express safety concerns — as regional airports and ferry operators who serve the mainland and the Islands did — was to brand yourself a dupe of the fossil-fuel lobby. To want to protect the aesthetic beauty of Nantucket Sound was to cast your lot with climate change deniers. 

Good article; excellent writing. The Boston Globe has the best writing of all daily newspapers; New York Times also has great writing.