
Why Apple is obsessed with gold: It's all about Asia - altern8
http://mashable.com/2015/04/25/why-apple-loves-gold/?r=te
======
ghshephard
Take it with a grain of salt, but Jony Ive was quite adamant about why they
created a gold watch - They (presumably he, marc newsom, and the rest of the
design team) - love the material. We know they are among the world's greatest
experts in building personal electronics out of aluminium, (check), stainless
steel is a classic watch material (check) - so why aren't they allowed to
build a gold watch just because building things out of gold is awesome?

I'm guessing the fact that gold is popular in China (Apple's soon to be
largest market), and probably will yield a high gross margin, probably made it
straightforward to get Tim to sign off on it - but I really do believe that
the initial driver was the desire to work with the material.

But, put it in a different perspective - pretend that _you_ are in charge of
the Apple Design team for their next generation product, which is meant to be
_worn_ , and you want it to be attractive to _everyone_ in the world - what
materials would _you_ chose to make a watch out of?

I don't know about you, but gold is pretty high up on my list.

~~~
higherpurpose
I think jewelry shows some signs of snobbery ("look at me, I'm wearing
precious materials on my body! - Aren't I awesome?").

Looking at my mother's generation, they are still putting a high emphasis on
wearing gold and such. But the kids my generations are a lot more interested
in "technology". What I mean by that is they'd much rather get an expensive
phone than a gold necklace, and brag about _that_ instead.

So why isn't an "expensive" $600 phone snobbery? Because it's actually worth
the cost in terms of _functionality_. A $6,000, or $60,000 "gold smartphone"
would insinuate just as much snobbery to me, just like a $17,000 Apple Watch
does, which is 100% identical in terms of functionality with a $350 one.

This is going to become even more laughable when we start mining billions of
tons of precious materials from asteroids in a couple of decades and bring
them to Earth.

I also find it _extremely disappointing_ that Apple wants to turn from a
"premium brand" into a "fashion brand". The two worlds couldn't be anymore
different. Premium brands implies high quality for a certain premium price.
Fashion just means paying $7000 more for a different watch band. I really hate
to see Apple going down this trend, because it only means it will eventually
start focusing less on the "technical quality" side of its products, and more
on the "fashion side" of its products (kind of how Beats uses poor quality
headphones and wraps them up in expensive "fashion" packages - which by the
way, Apple acquired).

~~~
biokoda
> But the kids my generations are a lot more interested in "technology". What
> I mean by that is they'd much rather get an expensive phone than a gold
> necklace, and brag about that instead.

You are assuming everyone worldwide from your generation thinks this way. This
is a giant unfounded assumption.

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madeofpalk
While I've ever been entirely comfortable with this 'theory' (as true as it
might be), it's worth noting that Apple Watch doesn't necessarily fall into
this one.

IMO, the gold Apple Watch was created to position Apple Watch as a luxury
good, and make the cheaper models more appealing and fashionable. Just the
existence of the uber expensive Edition gave the Sport and 'regular' Watch
more 'fashion cred' for those that would care about such a thing.

~~~
vatys
Why not both? Making an absurdly expensive gold flavor elevates the whole
Watch brand, positions it as a luxury good, _and_ makes it more appealing in
China. Win-win.

~~~
XJOKOLAT
I don't know. I've never thought of Apple as "luxury". I thought of them as
"premium". Premium. As in pay premium for the best.

Positioning Apple as a luxury product isn't what I want or need as con/pro-
sumer. I'm not sure where Apple are heading with this. Profit I guess.

~~~
madeofpalk
So this is a part of Apple's 'pivot' into a luxury goods maker, of which
they've been making a whole bunch of hires of the past 12+ months for.

> Positioning Apple as a luxury product isn't what I want or need as con/pro-
> sumer.

Compare Apple Watch to it's 'competition' \- the Moto 360 and the Samsung
Galaxy Gear. One type of con/pro-sumer will be happy buying a gizmo and would
buy either a Moto 360 or Apple Watch purely on it's utility. But Apple Watch
is going to sell to a whole lot more people because it is a fashionable luxury
good as well.

Even if no one buys it, Apple Watch Edition helps increase the luxury and
fashionability of all the Apple Watch models.

~~~
zumbi
> Even if no one buys it, Apple Watch Edition helps increase the luxury and
> fashionability of all the Apple Watch models.

No it doesn't. The Apple Watch Edition by appearing on the wrists of
celebrities and fashion designers helps makes _all_ smartwatches less geeky
and more mainstream but _only_ the Edition is seen as luxurious. The aluminium
Sport is now the cheap low class Watch in comparison to the fashionable
Edition. Moto 360 (made with metal and leather straps) has no such
connotation.

I'm still not convinced Apple had to go this route to appeal to celebrities
and chinese, after all they use aluminium iPhones instead of gold Vertu
phones. Many celebrities wear plastic Beats headphones and fitbits. I'm
confused why Apple wants to turn into a luxury brand (besides the extremely
high margins of course).

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stephenr
Short version: China !== Asia.

Long version: I understand that China is a big market for Apple, but as the
headline indicates, it's not just China where people are more inclined to buy
(and show off) gold products - it's a phenomenon in many Asian countries.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Asia pretty much equals China + India + a bunch of other much smaller
countries. So if they said "asia", do they mean Japan where this might not go
over as well, or India where gold is reserved almost exclusively for jewelry?
Focusing on china instead is much more precise, even if the gold watch might
be attractive in Malaysia and Vietnam also.

------
interstellar
For the Apple watch edition, I doubt that Apple expects it to be a large
revenue driver. It's an obvious marketing move to position the watch as a high
end luxury item, to 'frame' the pricing discussion, and to generate buzz. This
is a technique that companies (especially aspiration luxury brands) have used
forever. Set the price of your A-level item unusually high and suddenly the
price of your B-level item seems like a bargain. Where other e-watch makers
are struggling at the $200-300 price point, Apple is selling its C-level watch
at $350 and its (probable) volume seller B-level watch starting at $549
without any problem. I think they understand the human psychology of luxury
purchase decisions pretty well. It's smart (and slightly evil), but I don't
know how this will fit in long term with the rest of their products which are
'premium' but until now haven't pushed so far into 'luxury.' An iphone is
slightly more expensive than an S6, but is perceived to be 'premium' in some
way. Apple doesn't make diamond encrusted $10K phones even though their are
luxury phone brands that do. This is new territory for Apple, not sure that I
like it.

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zimbatm
It seems absurd for consumers to store value with items that are very
perishable. What do you do with your 10k watch in 5 years when Apple has
stopped releasing security updates ? You're then left with an expensive shell
and a rotten core.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
If you are in the market for a $10k gold watch, you probably just hand it down
or even throw it away...it is not the kind of money you think about (most high
end watches are much much more than that...think 30k CHF for a simple one).

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tomjen3
So much speculation going on here. Amy Hoy actually researched it
([https://unicornfree.com/2015/nobody-will-pay-10000-for-an-
ap...](https://unicornfree.com/2015/nobody-will-pay-10000-for-an-apple-watch-
other-reasons-you-cant-sell-shit)) and 10k isn't much for the kind of high-end
fashion market that will buy this. In fact it is kinda low, as Amy points out
the 10k will only get you the "basic bitch" version of the Berkin bag.

Basically a) you are not the market and b) for those who are the market here
10k is not much.

Side note I love Amy Hoys writing and suggest you all go read her site.

------
Steko
I found the evidence in the article to be less than persuasive. The cited
study found black to be the most luxurious color in those markets but
obviously there is no black phone or black edition variant. I'll also note
that Apple has quite often historically used black without being accused of
pandering to Asian tastes. No equivalent study for the west is offered as a
contrast, probably because gold and silver would also be high on the list. The
western designer cited as not liking Apple's turn to gold wears ... a gold
(colored) watch.

~~~
wodenokoto
I think it is implied that black is a favourite color in the west as well. So
black devices is just pandering to everyone, which is why the white iPod was
kinda revolutionary colorwise. Everybody else was doing black or dark devices
and here comes Apple with signature white earphones and device.

~~~
Steko
It's not a coherent argument to say 'Apple is moving away from black/white
because Asians associate luxury with gold' when your own citation says that
'Asians actually associate luxury with black to a higher degree'.

I also found strange the whole bit about 'white and funerals in Asia' which he
promises more on later than later spends _fewer actual words on the topic then
he did on the promise to give more details_ lol.

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XJOKOLAT
It should be "all about Apple".

I admire the Apple design ethos, especially recently. It felt like they were
trying to make the best product possible, whether I liked it or not. If you're
telling me they chose gold just for Asia, that's pretty lame.

Personally I think the gold looks pretty tacky and a departure for Apple. I
thought they made their own rules. Guess I was wrong. But what do I know,
they'll still sell a quadrillion of everything. It's just a colour.

Happy Sunday

~~~
qq66
How can there be a "best product possible" without taking the prospective user
into account? A phone that was so thin it sliced my finger, or so small that I
couldn't see it, wouldn't be a very good phone at all. What Apple does really
well is design products that very large numbers of people want to buy, and if
there are a very large number of people who want to buy a gold watch, Apple
will make it for them.

~~~
XJOKOLAT
That's a little bit like saying: "if there are a very large number of people
who want to buy a grey-PC-looking-box running Windows, Apple will make it for
them".

Sorry, you're missing my point.

------
GabrielF00
Apple used to position itself as a brand for rebels and bohemians. Remember
the "Here's to the crazy ones" manifesto? An $18,000 gold watch is pretty far
from that image.

Of course, the rebel image worked because Apple had a tiny market share at the
time. But it's still pretty striking to see a company that built lime green
laptops build insanely expensive gold watches.

~~~
coldtea
> _Apple used to position itself as a brand for rebels and bohemians. Remember
> the "Here's to the crazy ones" manifesto? An $18,000 gold watch is pretty
> far from that image._

For one, that was one campaign, run at one time. Not some constant image of
the company. They also made expensive laser printers, PDAs and high end
laptops like the Powerbook -- do those tie well with "rebels" and "bohemians"
in the original sense?

Besides being just a project image, "rebels" wasn't meant in the guerilla
activists sense, but in the "creative" sense in a western context, which can
include having lots of money. John Lennon, one of the guys in the campaign was
a billionaire with a Rols Royce. The greatest rebel shown was Ghandi, which
was included mostly because people just know/focus on his "peaceful" and
"spiritual" qualities. As for bohemians, these come into two groups. The
actual historical ones, living in Paris, Lower East Side, etc, in decades
past, usually poor, and the modern middle/upper class "bohemians" (bohos, etc)
whose "bohemian" attitude includes consumerism.

> _But it 's still pretty striking to see a company that built lime green
> laptops build insanely expensive gold watches._

It's gold, it's supposed to be insanely expensive. Besides they also build a
lot of insanely expensive laptops compared to cheap PC alternatives.

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dijit
thought this was common knowledge when they unveiled the gold 5s in 2013.

[http://www.zdnet.com/article/gold-iphone-5s-the-only-
spark-a...](http://www.zdnet.com/article/gold-iphone-5s-the-only-spark-among-
chinese-consumers/)

~~~
leoc
I have wondered if the riot-of-colour 5Cs were partly intended to appeal to
certain Asian markets too, even if they don't seem to have done the business
in China.

~~~
DanBC
The riot of colour iPods were aimed at young people, so ot's plausible that
the 5c was also aimed at younger people.

------
statictype
I figured it's all about Jonathan Ives.

He likes gold and it's particular aesthetic, which is why all the new stuff
has it.

My completely uninformed opinion is that Steve Jobs probably hated it, which
is why it never existed until post-Jobs Apple.

~~~
marincounty
As someone who took up an interest in watch repair later in life, I now
understand why the better watches are cased in gold. It doesn't corrode.(makes
working on easy) It warms(thermal heat transfer) up to the skin quicker than,
I believe any metal. Easy to polish. The negative, besides wasting
money(unless the consumer feels the gold iwatch is an heirloom), is you can't
wear it everywhere.(certain people look at my old gold sea master like they
would chop off my wrist in certain areas.)

That said, when I look at the current gold Iwatch--I just think about the melt
value. I can't think of any gold watch manufacturer who didn't produce a watch
thinking the consumer could theoretically keep that watch for life, with the
proper care. Sorry, about rambling on--I have just thought about this watch
too much. I don't have an exciting life.

~~~
Caprinicus
Melting the watch won't give you shit, even by jewelry standards, because the
gold they use is very light meaning that it is technically of a certain karat
while having much less actual gold content. It is great from a design
perspective, it is light and strong and just as pretty, but not so good for
material worth.

I really hope that they work to offload as much computation to the users phone
as possible as more features are added so that one watch can survive multiple
iphones.

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higherpurpose
If Apple is willing to make all of its product lines gold just to make China
like it more, I wonder what else it's going to compromise on (thinking
security/privacy here).

~~~
dijit
Everyone always brings up privacy with Apple.

Apple has a history of rejecting NSA blanket surveillance (until Jobs died-
according to NSA leaks)

At the very least Apple has a business model that /can/ support user privacy.
Google is an advertising company- what you don't pay in currency, they make up
for by selling you.

~~~
Caprinicus
Ultimately what privacy comes down to a lot of the time is how much
information the companies have access to. Even if Google had the same stance
towards privacy that Apple does, they would be inherently much much worse just
because their entire business model relies on having tons of your data, which
is the exact opposite of the way Apple operates.

