Apple, like all big-name tech companies, spends millions of dollars promoting its products through advertisement, but while it seems to be accepted as fact that most celebrities are iPhone users, Apple rarely utilizes star status to push unreleased products. With Apple Watch, however, things have changed, and a number of stars including Katy Perry and Drake have already been seen sporting their gold Apple Watch Edition models.
Amid the launch of the iPhone, many celebrities tried, and failed, to land themselves a device before it had launched. Even basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal, who’d had a phone conversation with Steve Jobs at the time, tried to score himself a unit, but despite being accustomed to jumping the queue on most occasions, the late Apple co-founder would not budge.
Zoom forward eight years from the launch of the original iPhone, and Apple seems a little more open-minded with regards to celebrity endorsement, and among those to get the Watch early are music icons Katy Perry and Drake.
Both have shared images on social media of them wearing the $17,000 Watch Edition, and given the following these stars have — Perry’s the most-followed account on all of Twitter — it’s not too surprising that Apple has relaxed those initial policies.
Earlier this week, Pharrell Williams was seen wearing Apple Watch Edition with a white band. Later he posted a video of it on Instagram.
Indeed, a lot has changed in the way Apple does business recently, and it’s not all to do with the fact that Jobs is no longer with us and Tim Cook is at the helm. Angela Ahrendts, former Burberry CEO, is now head of retail at Apple, and seems clued-in as she attempts to bolster the company’s reputation as a high-end fashion brand. You don’t have to be an expert of her experience to know that celebrity endorsements can work magic for increasing brand identity (see the now Apple-owned Beats Electronics, for example), but with two weeks to go until the wearable actually ships, expect to see your favorite celeb waxing poetic of Apple Watch in the near future.
Here’s to hoping, despite the fashion-centric nature of the device, that it doesn’t forget its heritage, and that Apple remains focused on keeping the performance of a high level.
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