Apple’s Watch started being delivered to customers on 24th April and since then everyone who had pre-ordered one has either received it or been notified about delays and when it is likely shipping. That is mostly for customers in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, France and Germany. Elsewhere, the Watch is being delivered as well for customers who pre-ordered. In Brazil, a country that has been key to companies like Microsoft and Google as they launched their budget devices there and one that is famous for iPhone copycats, the Apple Watch is a desirable device as well.
Only that the pricing will surprise most people. Like most emerging mobile device markets, devices in Brazil attract heavy taxation meaning that the retailers have to transfer the tax burden to the eventual buyers by way of increasing the price. For buyers of the Apple Watch, that will be more pronounced now than ever before. The entry-level Apple Watch Sport will cost a whopping $625 in Brazil. It goes for just $350 in the US. This is where it gets interesting: the Apple Watch Edition. It will cost $30,000. Yes, that’s right. $30,000! By current exchange rates, that’s upwards of Ksh 2.8 million. Yes. That. For a watch.
The Apple Watch launched to very high expectations from analysts and customers as we all expected the Apple magic to show itself in the product. We’re still far from knowing if the Watch will be a huge success or a flop but so far all signs point to the former and not the latter as far as sales go. The Apple Watch is available in three different versions namely the entry level Sport version, the mid-level Apple Watch and the gold Apple Watch Edition whose $10,000-17,000 price tag puts it in a market segment that has been previously the preserve of luxury Swiss watchmakers. According to Slice Intelligence, Apple managed to only ship 22% of the pre-ordered Watch units in the US with new orders from customers after April 10th being backdated to as late as June and thereafter. Apple Watch demand is so high that it managed to outsell Android Wear smartwatches on its first day.
