Technology - Google News

7 out of 10 Apple Watch customers are first time buyers, not upgraders - 9to5Mac

Posted: 18 Sep 2019 09:17 AM PDT

Apple Watch is still a maturing product category for Apple, and that shows in the adoption data. According to CNBC, Apple says a whole 70% of Apple Watch customers are buying their very first model. That means that 30% of Apple Watch customers are actually upgrading from older models, but Apple hasn't fully tapped into the upgrade pool yet.

Instead, Apple Watch has focused on adding key features with each version — GPS and swim tracking, cellular connectivity, ECG and fall detection, and the new always-on display — but even Apple Watch Series 4's redesign didn't open the flood gates of upgraders.

Apple is still growing the customer base (while dominating marketshare) which makes sense for a product still in its relative infancy compared to iPhone and iPad.

Aside from the redesign that we saw last year, Apple hasn't fundamentally evolved the Apple Watch since the first version either. If that's something coming in the future, perhaps we could see upgrade customers reach higher numbers. But for now, buyers are enjoying their Apple Watch, and every Apple Watch model sold since Series 1 still has support for watchOS software updates.

Of course, that data likely doesn't include Apple Watch Series 5 yet. Apple opened orders for the brand new Apple Watch last week, but the new model won't hit stores until Friday.

Meanwhile, Apple has also significantly lowered the entry price for iPhone users to become Apple Watch customers. The new $199 price for the Apple Watch Series 3 bests Fitbit's fitness tracker for the same price, adding GPS and deeper iPhone integration.

Read our review of the now $199 Apple Watch Series 3 plus our roundup of the first Apple Watch Series 5 reviews. 9to5Mac will have a full review of the new Apple Watch Series 5 in the coming days.

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Amazon Music Launches High-Fidelity Streaming - Pitchfork

Posted: 17 Sep 2019 03:52 PM PDT

Amazon Music has launched a new "HD" subscription level of their streaming service, becoming the first of the three major streaming services to offer high-fidelity digital audio. It joins the likes of Tidal, Deezer, and French service Qobuz, which are all smaller streaming platforms that boast high-quality audio options. The two biggest streaming services, Spotify and Apple Music, do not yet offer high-resolution tiers.

Amazon Music HD subscribers now have access to about 50 million songs in what the company calls "HD," which is essentially CD quality audio (16-bit files with sampling rates of 44.1 kilohertz). A subset of "millions" of those songs, according to The New York Times, will be available at the "Ultra HD" level (up to 24-bit and 192 kHz). The recordings are encoded with FLAC, a format that allows for the lossless compression of audio. The bit depth, sampling rate, and audio format all contribute to how much audio information is preserved in each file.

Amazon Music HD is available now for $12.99 per month for Amazon Prime members and $14.99 per month for regular customers, or an additional $5 per month for current subscribers on Individual or Family Plans. "With this pricing, we are signaling to the world that quality is for everybody," Steve Boom, the vice president of Amazon Music, told the Times.

While streaming services continue to offer subscribers high-quality audio, its value has been highly doubted—especially because many academic studies have shown that average consumers cannot discern the difference between high-quality and low-quality audio.

Nevertheless, Neil Young, who has previously tried to launch his own high-fidelity audio venture called Pono, is in support of Amazon Music's new tier. "Earth will be changed forever when Amazon introduces high quality streaming to the masses," Young told the Times. "This will be the biggest thing to happen in music since the introduction of digital audio 40 years ago."

Revisit Pitchfork's feature "The Record Industry Expects a Windfall. Where Will the Money Go?"

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