BEIJING: The importance of the Chinese market was clear to the world’s largest public company at the launch of the Apple Watch in California.
Apple Watch will go on sale on in nine markets on April 24, including China and Hong Kong. Previously, Chinese consumers have had to wait longer for Apple devices, such as when the iPhone 6 went on sale last year.
China’s presence was felt throughout the almost two hour long keynote presentation, which opened with a video of Apple’s new concept store by Hangzhou’s West Lake, which opened in February. CEO Tim Cook said that the company has 21 stores on the mainland so far with plans to open 19 more.
Greater China which includes the mainland, Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong is Apple’s second largest market after the US, and earned the company US$16 billion in the first quarter of 2015. China is also widely regarded as the key market for the Apple Watch, particularly the US$17,000 solid gold Edition.
“The high end model they should call the ‘China’ watch as it’s clearly targeted at emerging markets, inspirational consumers who are looking to spread their feathers with what has become the ultimate self expressive benefit brand: Apple,” luxury expert Scott Galloway of digital innovation think tank L2 told Business Insider.
A recent survey by the Hurun Research Institute found that Apple is now China’s top luxury brand, ahead of such stalwarts as Louis Vuitton, Cartier and Hermes.
Beyond just bling, Apple vice president for technology Kevin Lynch also revealed that Tencent WeChat, the most popular real time messaging app in China, will be available as a third party app for the device.
WeChat “received a longer demo this morning, likely because of China’s importance to Apple’s market share growth,” according to Tech Crunch. Users can send messages, stickers and emoji via the app, which also displays incoming messages in real time. Other third party apps demoed during the keynote included Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
