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by Cupertino95014 1323 days ago
I think it's a thickly veiled ad, if it's an ad at all.

It's legitimate news that some parents do it. It's business news that Apple's trying to make it kid-friendly.

The article doesn't extoll the virtues of giving a smartwatch to your kids. I guess you wanted them to trash the whole idea? They do say in the first paragraph, "The smart watch cost $279, and he worried that its recipient would immediately break or lose it."
1 comments
MichaelCollins 1323 days ago
Ads often mention the price of the product. The article goes on and on about the supposed benefits of giving your kid a smart watch, specifically the Apple brand of smart watch, contrasting it favorably to buying them a phone instead.

At the very least, it's not negative coverage of Apple. Even if you think it neutral coverage (I don't), it's a counter-example to the supposed directive that all tech coverage have a negative tone. And they categorized it as tech news, not business news.

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Cupertino95014 1323 days ago
OK, $279 is actually a negative for a lot of parents, but I guess not for you.
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MichaelCollins 1323 days ago
The article is promoting this product as a better alternative than buying a smartphone for your kids. $279 is cheaper than most smartphones. And it's not too hard to find overt Apple ads that list much higher prices. Listing the price of a product in an article singing praises of that product does not constitute the article being critical of Apple.
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Cupertino95014 1323 days ago
Perhaps we've exhausted this topic. I view it as mildly positive and very weak journalism, not balanced. Your view is more drastic.

A balanced article would have found some parents who all said, "Hell, no, I'm not buying that for him. He'll lose it inside of a month." There are probably a lot of such parents.

As for "singing praises of that product" -- I think that is totally legitimate. It IS a product that does a lot of stuff and some people might like it for that. Do you expect them to invent some faults with it?

I'd also expect a real journalist to get some numbers on their sales, not just find one user who likes it.

(On the other hand, Walt Mossberg would have tried it for a week and given it a grade, idk what.)

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