It appears like plastic is making a triumphant return to Apple’s product portfolio. According to Bloomberg, the following Apple Watch SE will ditch its metallic enclosure in favor of a plastic shell, and it might arrive this fall.
This can be the primary time that Apple would use plastic as the principle constructing materials for its smartwatch. The key goal is to carry down the manufacturing prices, with hopes of placing it near round a $200 retail worth.
A lower cost positively appears like an alluring proposition. But there may very well be a handful of different benefits that include utilizing plastic. Compared to steel, which is costlier to supply and difficult to color, plastic is cheaper and permits a richer gamut of coloration choice with relative ease.
Moreover, with a decrease price, Apple is outwardly giving a stronger smartwatch push to the youthful phase, particularly amongst children. “With recent school phone bans, Apple has been touting its watch as a low-cost phone alternative that can help parents stay in touch with their children — and track their whereabouts,” says the report.
Apple’s historical past with plastic on mainstream merchandise hasn’t precisely yielded unanimously nice leads to latest instances. Take, for instance, the iPhone 5c, which adopted a plastic design within the title of affordability.
But regardless of laying the foundations for what would primarily turn out to be 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 artistic 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 a company that doesn’t do “cheap.” It makes merchandise for individuals who care about design, simplicity, high quality and an awesome expertise — and are prepared to pay extra for this stuff,” Segall wrote again in 2014. “For Apple to compromise in any of these areas would be a violation of the Prime Directive.”
But the aforementioned conundrum was for a cellphone that price over $700, which might elevate eyebrows even in 2024. We are speaking a few smartwatch right here, one that’s doubtless aiming for round a $200 asking worth. Given the wealthy watchOS ecosystem and Apple’s stable set of well-received well being options, there’s a excessive likelihood {that a} plastic Apple Watch SE would succeed somewhat than style an ignominious failure.