Fellow blogger John Shingleton in Australia (The Rolling Road), takes issue with my enthusiastic reception of the Apple Watch announcement:
“From your article this morning it seems as if you may have slowed down on the consumption of the Apple Kool Aid.
I really think that you and Jony Ive are totally wrong about the Apple Watch threatening the Swiss watch industry. In his case it is a mixture of hubris (something which is not in short supply at Apple HQ it seems) and lack of understanding of what Swiss watches mean to people. In your case I put it down to just an overdose of the Kool Aid.
“People buy Swiss watches for prestige, style and appreciation of exquisite engineering. I cannot see all those captains of industry strutting around with Apple Watches replacing their exquisite Patek Philippes or whatever. Ditto for all those Arabs who snap up the Rolexes and Cartiers at Dubai and Abu Dhabi Airports. Not to mention all the Chinese who display their IWCs and TAGs and Rolexes as symbols of success.
“Do you really think that they are going to give up their beautiful watches for a piece of Chinese made consumer electronics? No way. The Swiss watch makers must be laughing over their Bircher Muesli at some of the stupid remarks made in the last few days.
“The other thing is that Apple has a very small share of the Asian markets. In Hong Kong I doubt if Apple has even a 10% share of the smartphone market. It is Samsung, Samsung and Samsung. Ditto for China, Thailand and Myanmar and of course Korea. In those markets an iPhone is far from an essential communications device — but a Samsung Galaxy is
“My view is that Apple is suffering from serious hubris. The Apple Watch is an overhyped piece of nicely packaged consumer electronics which actually is a solution looking for problem. I am not remotely interested in buying one and I doubt if any of my friends will be. I, of course, do not in any way reflect the overall market but there is no way that a battery powered gizmo will replace beautiful masterpieces of engineering.