Potential Apple Watch Buyers Being Treated Like Thieves, Analyst Claims (AAPL)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) analyst Trip Chowdhry is not happy about the way that the company is selling the Apple Watch at company stores and insists the new device needs to be 'liberated' from the lock and key. Chowdhry claims buyers are frustrated with the in-store Apple Watch buying experience and "For the first time ever Apple is treating its customers as potential thieves."

Discussing the current situation, Chowdhry highlights:

• Apple has kept the functional Apple Watches on remotely placed Demo Stations; but customers cannot try these on their wrist
• The Demo stations help the user to understand the basic functionality of the Watch
• However…..
  • Customers cannot experience the functional Demo Watches on their wrists
  • Customers need to schedule an appointment to try the non-functional Watches on the wrist
  • The Apple Store employee will direct the customer to the Apple Watch specialist once he/she is available
  • The Apple Watch specialist then meticulously uses his/her phone to unlock the drawer
  • The specialist then says “which Watch will you like to try”..if the customer tries to touch the Watch in the Drawer, the Specialist says “Move Back…just point …don’t touch”
  • On one occasion, a potential customer was so frustrated, we observed him say “ Shove it up *******” and left the Store
  • The Apple Watches that are in the Drawer are non-working models. The Watch specialist is in such haste that they want to take the Watch back within a minute or so of trying…giving an impression that the customer may run away with it…
  • We observed a person trying-on an Apple Watch (non-working model), and moved away 4 or 5 feet…trying to find something…the Watch Specialist said “Please come back to the Table, you cannot leave the Table” …the customer said “I am searching for a mirror to see how the watch looks on my wrist”…This customer had a frustrated look, he angrily removed the watch from his wrist and left the store…

The analyst said the situation is dire and needs an immediate correction. He recommends:

• Liberate Apple Watch from Lock & Key – customers are not thieves…an average Household who comes to an Apple Store has already spent more than $5,000 on Apple Products …he/she is not coming to steal a $500 device
• Encourage liberal trial of the “Fully-Functional” devices on the Wrist – remove the non-working models from the drawer to Working Models, so that the customer can really experience the working device on his/her wrist to his/her heart’s content
• Have mirrors in Apple Store, so that the customer can see how the watch looks on that person’s wrist
• The current Apple Watch selling method is certainly a great way to sell a handful of units every week. Apple has hundreds of million more customers than Burberry – selling culture has to be entirely different to sell millions of units each week.
• Apple may want to create a geo-fenced app, which is installed on the Demo Watch, that would start beeping if the Demo-Watch leaves the Apple Store

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