Best Buy Unlikely to Carry Apple Watch at Launch
Best Buy may not carry the Apple Watch when the wrist-worn device launches in April, according to Reuters. The report, citing sources with direct knowledge of the matter, corroborates speculation that Apple might control the Apple Watch sales experience, at least initially, by limiting the product to Apple Stores.
Apple has been training its retail employees to deliver a more personalized shopping experience, as many customers will want to try on the various watch editions, faces and bands to determine which is best for them. Given that, it would make sense that Best Buy, and possibly other authorized resellers such as Walmart, Target and Sam's Club, might not immediately sell the Apple Watch.
While large fashion retailers such as Bloomingdale's and Saks Fifth Avenue in the United States confirmed no immediate plans to carry the Apple Watch, multiple high-end department stores in Europe will be showcasing the smartwatch when it launches. Last month, for example, sources told us that Apple is planning an Apple Watch pop-up shop at Selfridges in London near the iconic 19,000-square-foot Wonder Room. French department store Galeries Lafayette is also setting up an Apple Watch display in Paris.
"Other large retailers, including Macy's, Saks 5th Avenue, Bloomingdales and Barney's said they had no immediate plans to carry the watch. Target and Nordstrom,along with all the major phone carriers, declined to comment on their plans, though a source with knowledge of the situation said Nordstrom has engaged in discussions with Apple."
Apple is expected to provide further details about the Apple Watch during today's "Spring Forward" media event. The keynote begins at 10 AM Pacific with a live video stream available on Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. MacRumors will also have full coverage of the event, with a live blog on our front page, news coverage and updates going out on our @MacRumorsLive Twitter account. Also follow and participate in the conversation in our discussion forums.
Popular Stories
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after Apple released iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2.
iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software update.
There's no word yet on what's included in iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3, ...
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year.
Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie.
The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...
Apple on Monday seeded the first tvOS 18.3 beta to developers for testing. The update will likely be released in January. So far, there are only minor changes for the Apple TV, with one new feature and a few code changes discovered.
Below, we outline what is new in tvOS 18.3 so far.
Robot Vacuum Support in Home App
First, tvOS 18.3 will add robot vacuum support to the Home app on the...
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital."
In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
