Starting on April 10, 2015, potential buyers of the Apple Watch will be able to make their way into their nearest Apple Store and go through the trial run with the new wearable. Try on stations will be set up in the store, and Apple employees will be on hand to provide guidance and a tour through the watch’s features. Those sold by the demo can immediately schedule a follow-up for launch day on April 24, 2015 to come back and pick up their new toy.
Apple knows that its shiny new wearable will be in high demand, and thanks to the allure of Apple products, the Watch will likely draw in lots of people who just want to play with the device. For MacBooks and iPhones set up around the store, that’s no problem. For the Apple Watch, the pricey accessory will run you anywhere from $400 to nearly $20,000, Apple would rather keep the queue moving to get as many people a demo as possible.
Watch zones in each store
Apple employees who will be dealing with potential purchases of the Apple Watch will undergo extensive training with the wearable prior to the appointments. Those on staff who will tackle Apple Watch related topics will roam the store in four dedicated zones: One for the 15 minute trials, one for sales (split into two lines for people who know what they want and those still deciding on a model and band), one for answering general questions, and a fourth dedicated to the higher end Apple Watch Edition models.
The fourth zone will consist of long time Apple employees who have gone through additional training and will be trusted with the versions of the Apple Watch that start at $10,000. The Edition watches will only be sold in limited qualities at Apple Stores.
How well the Apple Watch will sell is obviously yet to be seen—it’s not even available for pre-order yet. But Apple seems to be gearing up with expectations that the wearable will be ready to move. Smartwatch sales in general have been underwhelming. According to recent reports, Samsung currently has the largest share of the market with 1.2 million units sold of its Galaxy Gear series. Pebble, which made plenty of noise thanks to its huge Kickstarter campaign for its new Pebble Time watch, has sold 700,000 units of its watches.
Apple will be the first company to enter the smartwatch market with the approach of a watch company rather than a tech company, with a wide variety of models and a huge range of prices. Even though the Cupertino company is playing from behind, it doesn’t have all that much ground to make up.
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