It seems like plastic is making a triumphant return to Apple’s product portfolio. In response to Bloomberg, the subsequent Apple Watch SE will ditch its metallic enclosure in favor of a plastic shell, and it may arrive this fall.
This may be the primary time that Apple would use plastic as the principle constructing materials for its smartwatch. The important thing goal is to carry down the manufacturing prices, with hopes of placing it near round a $200 retail value.
A cheaper price undoubtedly appears like an alluring proposition. However there may very well be a handful of different benefits that include utilizing plastic. In comparison with steel, which is dearer to supply and difficult to color, plastic is cheaper and permits a richer gamut of coloration choice with relative ease.
Furthermore, with a decrease value, Apple is outwardly giving a stronger smartwatch push to the youthful section, particularly amongst youngsters. “With latest faculty cellphone bans, Apple has been touting its watch as a low-cost cellphone different that may assist dad and mom keep in contact with their youngsters — and monitor their whereabouts,” says the report.
Apple’s historical past with plastic on mainstream merchandise hasn’t precisely yielded unanimously nice ends in latest occasions. Take, for instance, the iPhone 5c, which adopted a plastic design within the title of affordability.
However regardless of laying the foundations for what would primarily turn into the iPhone SE, Apple by no means made a direct successor to the iPhone 5c. Ken Segall, who labored with Steve Jobs on Apple’s inventive advertising aspect for over a decade, stated the failure needed to do with the notion of plastic as low cost and its conflict with Apple’s style for premium aesthetics.
“Apple is an organization that doesn’t do “low cost.” It makes merchandise for individuals who care about design, simplicity, high quality and an awesome expertise — and are keen to pay extra for this stuff,” Segall wrote again in 2014. “For Apple to compromise in any of those areas can be a violation of the Prime Directive.”
However the aforementioned conundrum was for a cellphone that value over $700, which might increase eyebrows even in 2024. We’re speaking a few smartwatch right here, one that’s doubtless aiming for round a $200 asking value. Given the wealthy watchOS ecosystem and Apple’s strong set of well-received well being options, there’s a excessive probability {that a} plastic Apple Watch SE would succeed reasonably than style an ignominious failure.
