What if the Apple Watch price drives people from iOS?

Last weekend on the debate, we examined the price of the Apple Watch. The cheapest Apple watch came in at 33% greater than the most expensive competition, the Pebble Time Steel. Whether or not the price is too high isn’t the question this week. What we’re going to examine this week is whether or not the Apple Watch price will help or hinder the platform in general. After that, I promise we won’t talk about money.

Here’s the part where I say that pricing for all of these devices varies by region, so we’re going to concentrate of US pricing for the sake of consistency. Consider for a moment, you are in the smartphone market. You want to go out and get a brand new smartphone and smart watch. Looking at the options out there, is the Apple watch still a viable entity? The “Apple tax” isn’t really there for phones. Flagship pricing for both iOS and Android are comparable to each other. So let’s dispel that notion right off the bat.

Variety is the spice of life

If you’re in the market for an Android Phone and an Android watch, then you have a pretty wide variety of choices. Of course there are a ton of flagship Android phones out there, but there are a lot of respectable mid-range phones as well, including the Nexus 5, Moto G, Moto X, HTC Desire Eye and others. So right off the bat, you’re saving some money over Apple which offers the iPhone 5c, iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. It could be argued that the iPhone 5 flavors of phones are the “midrange” offerings for Apple, but I’m sorry. I just have a hard time taking that screen size seriously – and so should you.

So Android’s variety offers Android an advantage in this arena. The cost of entry is significantly cheaper than it is for Apple. Could this actually drive iPhone customers to Android? It may very well do that, but that’s harder to imaging considering in that scenario, the user already has an iPhone, and the Apple Watch is the only thing on the wish list, as opposed to phone and watch for Android. But for the user whose contract is up, or is in the market to buy an new phone and watch, the advantage clearly falls to Android.

And yet…

Consider not just the device, but also the software behind the device. We are talking about apps, and media of course. Many people have put a lot of money into the iOS ecosystem and might be hesitant to leave. Putting aside the savings in (potentially) the phone and (definitely) the watch, there’s a lot of replacement that would have to happen. It’s not necessarily the cost of the replacement. Honestly, that probably wouldn’t even come close to erasing the monetary savings. What I’m referring to is more the annoyance factor in replacing an entire ecosystem. A user would have to dig in and find apps that replaced the apps already on the other phone, they’d have to buy them, set them up, and it’s really just a major pain.

Selling power

Plus, let’s not forget that we’re talking about Apple. I promise this is the last time I will say this, but if there is any company that can sell an overpriced smartwatch, it’s Apple. Apple has bred a culture of people who don’t mind spending more for perceived (or, let’s be honest, sometimes actual) superiority over other offerings. Apple can price the Apple Watch anywhere it wants and chances are the darn thing will sell. So this alone will not turn away people en masse. Sure, some people may be turned away from the entire platform because of the price of the watch, but realistically those will be the exceptions, not the rules.

What do you think? Will the price of the Apple Watch drive people away from the platform? Is the price enough to make people switch away to a platform with more affordable options? If you were in the market for a smartphone/smartwatch, would price be a major determining factor? Or is it just a matter of sticking with what you know because that’s what works for you? If you had to pick between Apple and Android, or even between Windows Phone (and the Microsoft Band) and Apple, who is going to be getting your hard-earned greenbacks? Sound off below in the comments and let’s see if we can figure this out.