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$10,000 watch tests Apple’s luxury appeal

  

When Tim Cook unveiled the Apple Watch in September, the iPhone maker’s chief said it was the “most personal device we’ve ever created”.  On Monday the company will show off the gold Apple Watch Edition in San Francisco. It will put a price tag of at least $10,000 and some models will also be Apple’s most expensive products in more than 30 years. 

The premium device will offer no additional features or functions above those in the aluminium Apple Watch Sport, which starts at just $350.  Yet the volume of 18-carat gold will make it Apple’s priciest gadget since the Lisa, a $10,000 computer released in 1983, which took five years to develop  and sold just 100,000 units  -  one of the company’s rare flops. 

Some analysts think the Apple Watch Edition’s rich pricing  will backfire. 

 “Apple is making the same mistake Louis Vuitton made when it tried to hike prices of its luxury bags for upmarket customers in China and Russia.  We call this the ‘rich people are dumb’ strategy.  It is not going to be successful for Apple. They’ll sell a couple in some places but it’s not a sustainable strategy because rich people are not stupid: they start asking, ‘Why should we pay so much more?’” argues Christian Madsbjerg, co-founder of ReD Associates.

One potential obstacle to success is the rapid obsolescence of any technology.  People familiar with Apple’s plans say the next version of its smartwatch is already in development, due for release next year. However, for some high-end customers, the fact it will be obsolete in two or three years merely adds to the ostentation of its purchase. 

Some experts believe that Apple is actually testing the depth of customers’ wallets as Apple researches an even higher priced product: a car. 

 edited from Financial Times

 

Silicon Valley Shuttle Drivers Will Join Union

                        A shuttle bringing employees to Yahoo's campus.Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times

   Bus drivers who shuttle workers from their homes to six large employers in Silicon Valley voted Friday to join the Teamsters union to negotiate better wages and working conditions.

   Founded in 1903, the Teamsters Union represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. 

   The 158 full-time and part-time drivers involved actually work for Compass Transportation, but they transport workers to and from the offices of Apple, Yahoo, eBay, Zynga, Genentech and Amtrak.
   In November 2014 the drivers of Facebook’s shuttles, who work for Loop Transportation, also voted to join the Teamsters. 

   The tech buses are a symbol of the San Francisco Bay Area’s changing economy.  More tech workers are choosing to live in urban areas like San Francisco and commute to suburban corporate campuses 30 or even 60 miles away. Because of this, there is a shortage of housing, rents are more expensive and house prices are higher.

   The working conditions of the drivers — who make it possible for big tech companies to recruit employees who live far away — are a flash point in the region’s debate over the gap between highly paid technology workers and the lower-paid workers who provide crucial support services. 

   Drivers have split shifts, in which they must navigate buses through thick Silicon Valley traffic during the morning and evening commutes, without enough time to go home or rest properly between the work stints.

   “This is another step, in addition to the Facebook drivers, for the workers who support the tech industry to move forward toward decent wages, affordable health care and a pension for the future,” said Rome Aloise, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 853, in a statement.

   Loop Transportation drivers who shuttle Facebook employees to and from the company’s Menlo Park, Calif., campus voted overwhelmingly in November to join Local 853.

   Their contract includes 11 paid holidays; up to five weeks paid vacation; paid bereavement leave; guaranteed hours based on scheduled shifts; seniority provisions; health care for workers and the families of full time workers, fully paid by Loop; a minimum six-hour day for workers who can’t work split shifts; wage increases for workers on split shifts; pay-rate protections; guaranteed overtime; paid jury duty and more. 
   With this contract, the average pay for workers at Loop, who live in one of the most expensive areas of the country, will be $24.50 an hour, up from $18 an hour. 
   The agreement will now be submitted to Facebook by Loop Transportation for their acceptance as the paying client. 


edited from The New York Times and Teamsters