Ironfire Capital‘s Eric Jackson achieved an admirable density of insight Monday in an e-mail exchange with Asymco‘s Horace Dediu.
“The interview is vintage Horace,” writes Jackson. “So much to think about in so few words.”
A few excerpts:
- On sapphire: “I expect Sapphire will become a signature feature across many [Apple] products. I don’t know if they will have capacity to deploy on iPhone this year but on a watch it’s essential… It’s a significant material because it allows design freedom in new directions, especially curved (concave) touch surfaces that retain a jewel-like feel. This has Jony Ive [written] all over it.”
- On prices: “I think Apple holds a black belt in pricing. They seem to define their position in the market by anchoring certain prices and ‘owning’ them… The average selling price (ASP) I expect to remain constant on a year-long average.”
- On the ‘iWatch’: “I will be shocked to the core if it does not run iOS. It is my opinion that making iOS work on it is the entire reason Apple is sweating this segment. They are in it because they are trying to make a platform product with a novel user experience and all the power of an ecosystem run on a wrist.”
- On wearables: “Now you might ask what users are asking for in this segment. The answer is nothing. Nobody is asking for this. As nobody asked for the iPhone (or the Mac or the iPad). It’s a new computer form factor and how it will be used will be determined by the apps written for it. But it will work and be magical out of the box in version 1. This is in contrast to the single purpose or accessory model of wearables we see to date.”
Link: What to expect when Apple is expecting.
Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at coins2day.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.