The brilliance of Apple's Watch pricing strategy

Smart watches are already a commodity. I can find a dozen from no name Chinese manufacturers to big companies like Motorola, Samsung, LG, etc. Prices range for these devices from as low as $40 to around $300.

Apple hits the market with what is arguably nothing truly revolutionary (its not, Garmin has watches with similar functionality, so has Motorola or Samsung), but Apple has already proven they can sell these like no one else. Apple made an interesting move when it started marketing the watch a few months ago, it focused on how the watch made your life better. It was marketed purely as a lifestyle gadget, not some revolutionary life altering thing. This allows Apple to not have to compete on purely functionality (which could be a terrible arms race they’ve managed to ignore in the Android space).

The real genius of Apple’s strategy with the Watch is the pricing though. By telling the market that this is a luxury good, priced from $349 and going all the way up to $17,000, Apple is saying they’re nothing like the Android watches that all hover around $200-300. Apple has planted their flag in the high end of the market, they are the Mercedes of smart watches. By anchoring their price in a completely different bracket they effectively changed the conversation surrounding their product. No one will compare a $10k Apple Watch to a $249 Samsung gear watch, as they won’t even be considered in the same conversation. This now effectively lets Apple make incredibly high margins on what could have otherwise been a commodity product.

We’ve already seen this works, the product hasn’t even shipped to the masses yet, but it has already reportedly sold 2.5Million units, more than all the android smart watches COMBINED in the last year. Apple changed the story altogether. Brilliant move Tim Cook, brilliant move.