Ondrej Holzman The Apple Watch has been on sale for over a month. However, stocks of the Apple Watch are still very limited, so at least in the next few weeks and maybe even months, they will not be available for sale in any other country than the existing nine countries. The Czech Republic does not have to wait - at least not yet - at all.
Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Great Britain and the United States of America - this is the list of countries in which the Apple Watch can be purchased from April 24. The Californian company has not yet specified when we could expect its watches in other countries, so the possible dates for the next wave of sales are only a matter of speculation.
Apple Watches are most often imported to the Czech Republic from Germany, where it is closest, and when watches are available for sale directly in stores, the whole process will be much easier for the Czech customer. Until now, it is necessary to have an acquaintance with a German address or to use various transport services.
Nevertheless, of course, the simplest option would be if it were possible to purchase a Watch directly in the Czech Republic. However, there are two reasons why it is possible that the Apple Watch will be completely avoided in Czech stores.
There is nowhere to sell
For Apple, we are no longer a small insignificant place in the middle of Europe, and the latest products with the bitten apple logo often reach us like other countries of the world shortly after their introduction. However, there is one problem with selling the Watch: Apple has nowhere to sell it.
Although we already have a fairly dense network of so-called premium Apple retailers, that may not be enough for the Watch. Apple has taken an unprecedented approach to user experience and customer service for its latest product, and the Apple Store, the official brick-and-mortar store of the Californian giant, plays a key role in the entire experience.
Fourteen days before the start of sales, Apple let customers try and compare different Watch sizes and several types of bands at Apple Stores. This is because it is the most personal product that Apple has ever sold, so it wanted to provide customers with the maximum possible comfort. In short, so that people don't buy the so-called rabbit in the bag, but for hundreds of dollars they end up buying exactly the watch that will suit them.
"There's never been anything like this," she explained in April, the new approach of Angela Ahrendtsová, who is in charge of Apple Story. Apple store employees have undergone special training to comprehensively provide customers at the counters with everything they want and need to know about the watch.
Although Apple has similar demands on the state of services at APR (Apple Premium Reseller), the control is far from the same. After all, I know from my own experience that there is a fundamental difference if you step into an official Apple Store abroad or into one of the APR stores here. At the same time, for Apple, the shopping experience - even more so with watches than other products - is an absolutely key stage, so the question is whether it wants to risk selling watches where things may not go according to its ideas.
Sellers from countries where the Watch is not yet available will certainly put pressure on Apple because Apple watches are in demand all over the world, but if managers decide that everything needs to be 100%, sellers can beg as much as they can, but it won't do them any good . As an alternative option, it would be offered that Apple would start selling the watch in its online stores. Unlike brick-and-mortar stores, it has these in many more countries.
But here again we come across that key part of the entire user experience: the opportunity to try the watch before buying. Many customers would certainly do without this option, but if Apple has changed its entire philosophy for one product, there is no reason to believe that it would want to practice it only in selected countries. Rather, you can bet on an all-or-nothing approach. Especially now that Apple still can't keep up with demand and can't keep up with production.
When Siri learns Czech
In addition, there is one more problem that can issue a red card for the sale of the Watch in the Czech Republic. That problem is called Siri, and even if Apple solved all the obstacles outlined above with the sale itself, Siri is a practically unsolvable issue.
After its debut on the iPhone this year, the voice assistant also moved to the Apple Watch, where it plays a much more important role. Siri is practically an indispensable component for controlling the Apple Watch. Respectively, you can control the Watch even without your voice, but the experience will not be nearly the same as Apple imagines it to be.
A small display, the absence of a keyboard, a minimum of buttons, all this predisposes a very personal product that you wear on your wrist to be controlled in a different way than it is necessary for smartphones - i.e. by voice. You can ask Siri about the time, start measuring your activity, but above all, dictate answers to incoming messages or initiate calls through it.
Just raise your hand, say "Hey Siri" and you've got your ever-present assistant ready for action. Many things can be done in another way, but it is not as convenient. Especially if you're on the go and can't be bothered staring at the watch's miniature display.
And finally, we come to the problem with the launch of Apple Watch sales in the Czech Republic. Siri does not speak Czech. Since her birth in 2011, Siri has gradually learned to speak sixteen languages, but Czech is still not among them. In the Czech Republic, it is not yet possible to use the Watch to its full potential, which is apparently a much bigger obstacle for Apple than possible problems with sales.
The fact that Apple would have to leave out such a vital part as Siri when promoting its hot news is hardly conceivable at this point. This situation does not only concern the Czech Republic. Croatians, Finns, Hungarians, Poles or Norwegians may not get Apple watches either. All these nations, including us, can only understand Siri when dictating, but not when saying "Hey Siri, navigate me home".
That is why there is talk that until Siri learns to speak other languages, even the new watch will not reach other countries. When Apple optimizes production, satisfies the initial massive demand and decides on other countries that will see the Watch, it will most likely be Singapore, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Denmark or Turkey. The languages of all these countries are understood by Siri.
On the other hand, there may be something positive about this premise - that Apple will not start selling watches in countries where Siri is not yet fully localized -. In Cupertino, they are certainly interested in the Apple Watch reaching all corners of the world as soon as possible. And if it finally means Siri in Czech, maybe we won't mind the wait so much after all.
If you don't want to wait, you already have an apple watch with a high probability ordered somewhere across the border or even on your wrist.
This is not entirely true with Siri and Czech. If it is triggered by holding the crown, it does not understand Czech commands, but it can recognize some Czech names.
But the absolute bomb is that you can dictate messages in Czech and the watch understands it in the vast majority of cases. So, in some way, the Czech language must already be implemented in Siri. It is not as comfortable as for English-speaking nations, but it is possible and hopefully we will see full integration as soon as possible.
The watch is a piece of shit!
Watches, well WATCHES, are the last beautiful mechanical device in this HiTec age. Of course, this does not apply to those stores from Apple.
so so. or ba ba :)
Apple watch does not have the moral right to use the name WATCH.. just because the watch shows the time and is worn on the hand does not mean that it is a watch.
You are a cunt.
It is something else to transcribe/recognize the text (= dictation) and at the same time understand/evaluate the text (= Siri). In addition, if I'm not mistaken, it's not just about understanding the text, but also about the integration of services (for example, maps) - the English Siri can't deal with maps in the Czech Republic yet (for example, searching for a nearby restaurant, etc.) One way or another, there are rumors on the Internet that that the Czech Siri could be introduced in a week at WWDC, so we'll see...
Siri has been able to find places in your neighborhood (restaurants, etc.) in the Czech Republic for a few weeks now. :) Try "Hey Siri, I'm hungry" on her.
Cool, I didn't know that, thanks for the info :)
But dictation is not Siri... Yes :) You use Siri for tasks, commands or information and not for dictation, so Siri is not in Czech at all. The fact that I understand iOS Czech does not mean that I can speak and answer questions about what Siri is basically... Otherwise, God will pay for that dictation at least :)
The watch is crap and before the Czech Siri comes, the Cortada from MS will be here. In English and in other languages, it gives Apple a hard time, and in the summer we all have it in iOS. Including Czech.
So I'm curious... In iOS9 or in watchOS 2 (where there is no road at all) there is no Siri in the road, and there has been speculation since iOS7 that Siri will "finally" be in Czech with the arrival of the new iOS.
Does anyone know how to order a watch from Germany via a transport company to the Czech Republic?
Mailbox.de, for example, should work http://mailboxde.cz
They say there is a problem with ordering from the German apple store because of the payment card, which must be German. Does anyone have experience with this?
I personally don't know how it is in Germany, but overall it seems stupid to me. I ordered the 5S anno domini to a US address for my family, I paid normally from my CZ Local Apple Store account with a CZ credit card and I didn't experience any problems. I see no reason why it would be any different in the Reich :-)
My point is that I have no address in Germany. So I need to make some arrangements. Only now I don't know if it's not stupid when soon the Watch will be available to pick up at the store. The question is how much longer will we have to wait.
Through the mailboxde you create an address from which they will send it to your home, I am also waiting for a personal pick-up, but if they sent it to me by mail from the mailboxde, I would save time and money for the trip. I think we will learn more about personal collection on 8.6.
I'll wait until the 8th and see. In the UK, reservations can be picked up at stores, absolutely ideal. But the way ;)
Repair, on UPS. Not for stores.
An acquaintance ordered a Watch from Germany via Mailbox.de today, paid with a Czech credit card, everything is fine - so it works.
I ordered a CZ Apple ID via a Czech card to Germany and everything went without a problem. They even arrived within 10 days, instead of the original reported 3-5 weeks.
So that's cool, and did you order through mailboxde.cz? I don't have much confidence in the service, but that the watch would accidentally get lost somewhere.
Well, unfortunately, the watch won't teach you grammar.
Crap. I ordered it from the German Apple Store and paid with a normal Czech card. Only the address must be Germany.
It's simply not worth it for the 5 vain fools who would buy them in the Czech Republic.. (No offense, just an opinion.)
But they will sell them as soon as the boom subsides. I don't know, I've had them for a week, but somehow I still can't be charmed.
But they will sell them as soon as the boom subsides. I don't know, I've had them for a week, but somehow I still can't be charmed.
It can be connected. iPad Air with apple watch?
No. Only with iPhone