14 DAY TRIAL // With 2015 approaching, Apple is beefing up on retail staff with an eye on experienced applicants in luxury items and / or jewelry. The move is tied to the upcoming launch of the Apple Watch, a wearable mini-computer regarded as much a fashion item as a gadget.
The first move Apple made in the direction of promoting and selling its next big thing was the hiring of Angela Ahrendts at the beginning of this year.
Poached from Burberry, where she served as CEO for years spearheading various successful campaigns for the fashion house, Ahrendts has a big mission in Cupertino: turn around Apple’s retail division while at the same time pitching the Apple Watch to the general population.
New positions about to open
Internal hiring documents intercepted by 9to5mac state that Apple is now actively recruiting retail candidates with “a fashion or luxury background.” You don’t need any more clues to know where this is going, especially since Apple currently doesn’t sell any products that even remotely fall in this category. By all accounts, the position is for promoting and selling the upcoming wrist-worn device.
These staffers will most likely operate the glass windows behind which the expensive gear will be stored, but there’s also a chance that the cheaper models will be placed on regular display tables for people to pick up and feel, perhaps even try on.
The more expensive gold models, which some believe could run in the thousands of dollars, are not expected to be left in plain sight, which certainly makes sense considering that looters have barged into Apple stores for a lot less.
These new staffers will most likely also receive training in geekier areas, such as the software and the hardware powering the wearables. Apple has yet to publish any typical job openings on its jobs.apple.com site, but it will most likely do so in the near future. So far, things on this front are being run internally.
Release date, pricing
For who’s asking, Apple Watch won’t be released any sooner than spring 2015. That’s if you care to believe a leaked memo signed Angela Ahrendts (SVP of Retail, Apple) leaked a couple of months ago. In any case, Apple still touts early 2015 as the official launch timeframe, and we wouldn’t expect that to mean January or February either. It’s typically a hibernation period for most tech companies, not just the Cupertino giant.
Apple has refrained itself from disclosing the actual price scheme for the various watch models it plans to sell, but one thing it did say was that the wearable would start at $350 (€284). The higher-end gold model, some say, will retail in the vicinity of $5,000 (€4,000).
