When you look at an Apple Watch , the last thing that comes to judgement is the iPod . On the open , there ’s is n’t a whole lot of correlation between Apple ’s first wearable machine and its Graeco-Roman MP3 player , save perhaps a clever navigation peter and a music app . But while the two might not share much in the path of physical law of similarity , they actually have more in common than the ability to play your best-loved strain . In fact , Apple Watch might end up being just as important as the iPod was all those years ago .
Back when the iPod was still Apple ’s principal hug , it was said that its influence was so strong it created a doughnut issue that hike sale of Apple ’s other higher - priced merchandise ( namely Macs ) . Over the five years following the iPod ’s release , Mac sales practically double up , no small feat considering the refuse trend in the manufacture . And they ’ve been strong ever since , even though the iPod ’s glory effect has long bust off .
But while it might be little more than a footnote in Apple ’s earnings account , the spirit of the iPod is still very much alive . These days , the iPhone has assume the mantle as the angelic heir to the iPod , dutifully peddling MacBooks and iPads to satisfied customer , but the halo issue is about to return to its root , thanks to a picayune supporter from the novel member of Apple ’s family .
When the great unwashed go to the Apple Store to get a new phone ( which millions do every calendar month ) , those Apple Watches will be tough to fend .
Halo there
Much like Apple Watch , when the iPod was originally released , it relied on another Apple Cartesian product to properly function . But there was a small problem : Apple was n’t quite as successful as it is today . It had a built - in truehearted followers of fans who plunked down $ 399 to buy one , but for the most part , Apple shinny to convince non - diehards to buy a Mac so they could buy an iPod .
It was n’t until Apple opened up the iPod to Windows users—-first with Musicmatch Jukebox and later on with iTunes—-when iPod sales truly took off . The iPod may have been the serious MP3 player on the market , but Apple ask to embrace its biggest challenger before the halo upshot could take core . Apple bed the Windows experience chum up in comparison to the Mac ’s , and once people fall in love with their iPod they would inevitably go over out the Mac . The worse the Windows experience , the better it was for Apple ’s strategy — the ring outcome worked best on customers who had bought an iPod to use with their aging PC . It was n’t even the iPod itself that spurred Mac sales , it was the iPod - Mac experience .
Once Apple Watch name its introduction on April 24 , it will be playing a alike plot . While its mission is n’t almost as monumental as the iPod ’s was — what with a built - in community of hundred of millions of iPhone user — Apple will be using it much in the same way it used the iPod .
Reach ability
In many ways , Apple Watch is the ultimate annulus machine . Apple ’s newfangled wearable is even more drug-addicted on another gadget than the iPod was , and this time around I ’m pretty indisputable Apple is n’t going to open up it up . It does n’t simply desire to get Apple Watches on people ’s wrists , it wants to deliver the perfect experience .
That mean not only selling it to existing iPhone drug user , but getting interested buyers to upgrade and/or flip-flop . The temptingness of the Apple Watch is n’t all that dissimilar than the iPod – namely portability , good looks and comfort station – but Apple is go to pull a good deal of client who are n’t interested in how many gigabytes and pixels it has . That halo effect will open up up the iPhone ( and maybe even the new MacBook ) to an audience it might not presently be able to reach .
Of course , Android user will be touch by the glory effect too . Many of the major player already offer smartwatches of their own , and if Apple Watch offers as superior an experience as it seems , it might obligate some of them to saunter over to an Apple Store totrade in their honest-to-goodness Android earphone .
And unlike the iPod , where well-nigh all of the would - be whipper were of course take out to the iPod first , this time the aureole effect work both ways . Apple Watch will for sure attract its plowshare of Android substance abuser to the iPhone , but at the same meter , Apple already sellstens of million of iPhones each month . And some of them will surely walk out of the Apple Store with a new watch in hand — especially iPhone 6 Plus buyers pertain about retain a 5.5 - inch handset on their person all day .
Tied and true
The iPod ’s halo effect was never about building an ecosystem ; rather , it was the iTunes Music Store and its FairPlay DRM that create the lock - in . The iPod ’s job was only to introduce the Mac to the millions of people who had never used one .
Apple Watch , on the other hand , is all about the ecosystem . It may as well come seize to a two - class contract bridge ; by being dependent on the iPhone , the Apple Watch halo effect has the electric potential to wander a undimmed and wider gleam than the iPod ever did . Apple sells more iPhones in a quarter than a year ’s worth of iPods , but in purchase order to keep the impulse , Apple is using its new smartwatch to invoke to iPhone and Android users alike .
It ’s about upgraders as much as switchers . With the iPod , Apple only converted a small per centum of users to the Mac ; in the first fourth of 2008 , for example , 22 million iPods translated into less than 2.5 million Macs . But Apple Watch is a 1:1 correlation , and every sales agreement is an chance for lock - in , whether it ’s an iPhone 4 user upgrading to an iPhone 6 or a Samsung Galaxy user switching squad . And if Apple Watch is as desireable as the iPod , it could lead to tens of 1000000 of more iPhone gross sales each tail .
And this is just the beginning . The iPod merely played music , but Apple Watch is at once a fashionable piece of music of jewelry and a widget that does everything the iPod did and a whole set more . The original iPod may have started at $ 399 , but within 18 months it had elaborate into a air of gimmick with a range of prices . Apple could do something similar with Apple Watch , both to bring down the toll of the low - closing and to appeal to as many style as possible . Apple Watch could cease up bringing Apple to heights its music player could never reach , with a halo effect that makes the iPod ’s seem small by compare .
But then again , Apple never sell a $ 17,000 iPod .
