One of the first things Apple announced at their iPhone 7 party was that the ability to play Pokémon GO using your iWatch was coming, as well as a new Bluetooth device you wear on your wrist or on your belt.
The device became available on Friday at Gamestop, Walmart and Toys R US. $34.99 is the list price and the available supply immediately vaporized. Nobody has any for sale. eBay scammers are out in full force. The panic has begun.
The device lets you do about 2/3 of playing the game for you – with your iDevice running the app, but in lock mode with the screen turned off, the Plus buzzes when a pokestop or Pokémon has come in range. Pressing the button gathers supplies or tries to catch the Pokémon. With nothing to look at, the losing focus issue goes away. It shouldn’t at all distracting while in a vehicle or riding a bicycle.
After you gather up supplies and catch random Pokémon, when you are in a safe place, you can inventory what you caught and harvest the Pokémon that are too weak or you don’t need. It won’t catch a variety you haven’t caught yet, and you still have to do the fighting at pokégyms, but the “grinding” part has a way now to advance without spending 18 hours a day.
I’m not going to pay a premium for one, but after the pokémadness calms down a bit, I’m definitely a potential customer.
I love watching the black market in action. Nintendo says it will be the end of October until any new supplies show up. Amazon retailers are asking $100 without any evidence they actually have any in stock. Prices on eBay are around $75
Related, there is a secondary product being sold – skin covers to hide that you have a Pokémon thing on your wrist. People are worried about looking like a dork.
This unexpected huge demand worldwide for this device is obvious proof that Nintendo is going to suffer huge losses. When business sales go up, stock prices crash. Federal Reserve Economics 101