Neil Cybart 9/18/23 Neil Cybart 9/18/23

Thoughts on Apple Product Pricing, My iPhone and Apple Watch Sales Mix Estimates, U.S. Carriers Improve iPhone Promotions

In today’s update, we go over a few topics related to the new Apple Watches and iPhones. The discussion begins with Neil’s thoughts on new Apple Watch and iPhone pricing. We then turn to Neil’s estimates for unit sales mix by Apple Watch and iPhone model. The update concludes with U.S. carriers improving their iPhone promotions.

Hello everyone. Welcome to a new week. Let’s jump right in.

Thoughts on Apple Product Pricing

At last week's product event, no major changes to Apple’s product pricing strategy were announced. There were more than a few rumors suggesting iPhone Pro pricing was going up against the board. That did not occur. Generally, Apple pricing rumors should be discounted as Apple is able to keep pricing information under wraps.

Here is entry-level pricing for each Apple Watch collection:

Apple Watch Series SE: $249 (GPS) – did not receive any updates last week
Apple Watch Series 9: $399 (GPS)
Apple Watch Ultra 2: $799 (GPS + Cellular)

We will talk more about my sales mix expectations by Apple Watch model shortly. For now, it is important to point out how Apple is sticking with

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Neil Cybart 9/15/23 Neil Cybart 9/15/23

Deconstructing Apple’s Product Event (Apple Watch), About That Apple “Mother Nature” Video

Hello everyone. We will continue our discussion of Apple’s event with a focus on everything Apple Watch. The discussion then turns to Neil’s thoughts on what has become quite the controversial ad for Apple’s sustainability efforts.

As a reminder, there will be a special Friday edition of the daily update.

This past Tuesday, there was another successful virtual member meet-up. You can check out the discussion in the Above Avalon team in Slack (available here). If you want to add to the discussions, please do so. That is one of the key benefits found with a (written) member meet-up.

Deconstructing Apple’s Product Event (Apple Watch)

Overall / Marketing

The Apple Watch portion of Apple's presentation came across as strong. In what has become something of a trademark of Apple Watch updates, quality trumps quantity in terms of new features. The new features looked useful and add value to Apple Watch out of the gate.

The Apple Watch is still a “new user” business with a majority of sales going to people new to the product. Apple’s target market for Apple Watch Series 9 isn’t Series 8 or even Series 7 owners but rather iPhone users who don’t wear an Apple Watch. In terms of Watch marketing,