9 years ago
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Why The Apple Watch Is Flopping
The Apple Watch, despite years of hype before it was even announced, appears to be flopping after all.
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I think the problem is, the generation that gets really excited about smart phones don't wear watches, and the generation that got really excited about watches can't figure out their smartphones.
Also, who would pay that ridiculous price? The ipod watch is beyond expensive for a lot of people, so that comes in as a bad move too. Not making the price accessible at all. Not to mention there's tons of Apple haters now. Apple is basically living off of apple diehard fanboys who have placed them in the highest of pedestals.
This is my biggest barrier to getting one. If it wasn't the cost of a smart phone I would likely get one. Personally I don't know if I would pay more than $200 for one.
I have seen watch buyers pay ridiculous amounts of money for a watch... the thing is, its not this watch.
there are tons of apple haters? i mean you talk like there weren't more in the past? or i am mistaken, the way i see it there are a lot more people adopting apple's products than before, or am i wrong?
Those watches are also watches that can last for 20 - 30 years if not longer. These things are only going to be good for 4 -5 MAX.
yes exactly, and to be replaced by apple watch 2 next year or in two years, and be unsupported in 4 or 5...
I mean, there's still people out there who like Apple. I guess what I was trying to say was that Apple isn't the "Monster" that it was a few years ago.
You put it best, I think apple is looking like they missed the mark with this product.
As someone that loves watches and smart phones with equal enthusiasm, I just can't justify paying that much money for something that doesn't really do anything more than my smart phone can with more ease. Almost all the functions are just gimmicks.
Not to mention, it's ugly.
I think you may be right, i don't know about the other generation, but i have never used a watch for more than one or two months, i then realize that i didn't like watches, and i can do everything on my phone, my phone is my watch.
I only own one, really nice looking watch that I wear for special occasions. I tried to get a day-watch for work, but it just didn't do it for me.
I can't justify buying an apple watch, I believe the problem is the price range as well, you see, if i am going to spend 600 dollars on an apple watch I might as well get a quality watch, that will give me the time and will last a long time, i don't know much about watches, but for instance my dad has been using a watch that was about 700 or 800 dollars long ago, it has been working for the last 20 or 25 years.
I don't think this is necessarily true. I'm a 20-something, so the perfect target demographic to be buying tech gadgets, but I am still old enough that smartphones weren't really a thing until I was halfway through college.
That means I am in a generation that got excited about watches when we were kids (how many functions does your Timex Ironman Triathlon watch have??) but then also became one of the first groups to buy the iPhone and its competitors in droves.
Thus, I think the iWatch flop is a failure of marketing and/or feature sets, not due to the fact that the target demographic can't or won't get excited about watches. And hey, maybe it's just not the right time yet. You know what one of the coolest features would be for a smart watch? An NFC chip so I can pay for stuff with my wrist. Unfortunately a lot of retailers have shut off their NFC payment systems to try to starve out Apple Pay. If NFC payments were more widely accepted, that would be a killer feature that would almost justify a cheaper smartwatch all on its own. There are probably other things I can't even think of because the tech isn't quite there. It could be that it's just not quite the right time for a smartwatch to really be successful.
I never understood the concept for it. Its a watch... my phone does that already, and better. This is supposed to complement my phone? What purpose does it serve?
Oh, so I can check notifications on my wrist instead of pulling out my phone? How is that any better?
Its such a weird niche device. I have one (work related) and it just feels excessive. Why have a watch when I have a phone that does that same things but better?
Not to mention, these watches are obsolete in less than 2 years time. I can go buy a nice watch at the same price point and it would last a lifetime.
The only reason I really like the watch is for the Heart monitor and the step tracker. I don't carry my phone with me 100% of the time, but with the watch its a bit more accurate.
Steve Jobs understood the need for both form and functionality. He'd have looked at the Apple Watch and asked, "So what?" This is not meant to lionize Job, but his strength was to put out products that worked so well that everyone immediately realized that they could use it. From the Mac to the iphone to the ipad. People who didn't know what to with a computer, a smart phone, or a tablet suddenly got it. He wasn't the first at any of these, but he did make them so well that they couldn't be ignored.
The iphone (along with Android) killed BlackBerry, the previous standard in smartphones. The Mac (along with Windows) put a computer in everyone's home, and made a friendly GUI indispensable. The ipad showed how a tablet could be useful, and led a revolution in how we compute.
The Apple Watch does none of these things. And frankly, I don't see how it can, at least in its current iteration. I don't even see how it would be useful.
I wrote a short paper in Uni for this about a year ago now. My point was pretty much the same as yours. The Apple Watch is an Accessory at best, not a killer app with distinguishing features.
"The entry-level models may be more innocuous, but they're still smartwatches, and smartwatches are still Segways for your wrist"
I think that says it pretty well. I really dont see any benefit in having an Apple Watch over any normal watch. As the article says, if I dont wear it all the time (and due to the lackluster apps even then) I dont get anything out of the Apple Watch and I can just as well have 1-2 nice normal watches for the price.
You're not going to buy a $1000 (or more) watch that you know will be rendered obsolete in a year.
I know someone who did, but they're also in the process of buying a million dollar house. This is a product for people with money to burn. The person I know that owns it literally leaves it in a drawer.
It's flopping because it's an expensive piece of crap.
Yeah, basically.
In no way is the Apple Watch flopping. It has outsold every other smart watch by orders of magnitude and the only thing in its category that has outsold it is an overpriced pedometer. The Apple watch had a meteoric launch day compared to every other smart device and it has still been outselling every other smart watch even though daily sales are 90% below what they were at launch.
Literally the first sentence in the article is wrong. Years of hype? They announced the Apple Watch in September of 2014 and the first deliveries happened in June of 2015. That's 8 months. The first month of Apple Watch sales beat 2013 and 2014 Android wear sales combined. Reasonable estimates put Apple Watch sales at 14 million through the end of 2015. Thats 14 million in 6 months. Even if they are shy of that at like 10 million, sales of Apple Watch destroy Android wear.
Then the next thing they talk about is the celebrities who were seen wearing the Apple Watch. Drake is right handed. Look up video of him signing autographs. That means he wears his watch on his left hand which is partially hidden in the photo. The next guy is literally wearing big ass cuffs. That's like asking a Calvin Klein underwear model why he's covering his underwear with pants. Beyonce isn't wearing any accessories whatsoever in that photo which means it looks like she decided not to wear her watch. It just doesn't go with the image she's created that night.
This whole thing is click bait.
There's already other smart watches out there that people use. Like Fitbit, Garmin, Samsung and Pebble. They seem to of come into a game a little late. And not everyone has an iPhone.
Apple always comes into the game too late though.
Eh, kind of. They usually have something unique and useful about their released product. There's nothing special about this watch that anybody finds very useful.
The problem is that looks like something a 13yo boy would wear and that it doesn't have enough functions. The function I care about most with a wearble is it's ability to track and improve your health: recording stuff as the quality of your sleep, hearbeat etc. You don't need such a large thing around your wist to get that (the Xiaomi mi band that does these things is like 20$ without looking ridiculous.)
I think the problem is a price. These are so expensive and its not a necessity. Why would you need this over a phone? People love their phones and don't want to change to something that's already here and gone. Watches, at least in the united states have been replace by phones and it doesn't make sense to go back to something that we've replaced.
Isn't this the same information we got a week ago? That sales are down 90% from launch? Just with a more click baity title and someones pop analysis (serving no real purpose?) This is a blog spam opinion piece. And I don't even like the Apple Watch.
Just duct tape your phone to your wrist. Easy and cost-effective solution. :D
1) Expensive.
2) Not particularly useful, helpful, or necessary.
You can have one and be fine. You cannot have both.
I wear an LG G Watch (one of the first Android Wear smartwatches) that I purchased on launch day. Before the Apple Watch was actually released everyone that saw mine asked, "Is that an Apple Watch?" Now that it's out no one asks if it is an Apple Watch, I get a lot of "is that one of those Android smartwatches, " or "what kind of phones does that work with?"
I think Apple failed to make it look like something people could own. People still think of it as a luxury, something they can't afford, yet they own the 800$ phone from the same brand.
Plus, am I the only one who think it looks feminine?
One reason for lackluster sales other than the lackluster product is probably the obsolescence that occurs in other tech products makes people weary of buying first generation shit. I mean the first iphone didn't even have 3g.
The only wearable I want is one that's surgically implanted in me and interacts with my nervous system directly.
But in a few years the digital interfaces to your neural interfaces will go obsolete as well.
I love my apple watch, I donät expect it to do ,uch more than showing me the time, allowing me to time stuff etc. It is also nice when you ride the bike, if I get a text I can tell at a glance if I need to stop and answer it. I do understand why a lot of people don't buy it but I hope they keep making them because I love mine and when it breaks I'll want to buy another. Also first post on Snapzu, could someone point me to the gifs?
What keeps me from wanting/getting an Apple Watch:
1. Price. $350 for the least expensive model is a phone-level investment for me, and there's no way I'm going to blow $350 (if not more) on what amounts to an accessory to my phone if it doesn't also offer a laser gun, cloaking device, personal shield, and/or a remote with which I can launch ICBMs. I'm kidding of course (maybe...), but $350 is too much for what the Apple Watch is and offers at present, at least for me.
2. It's a 1st-gen device, and 1st-gen Apple products in particular are often followed up by successors that have at least "one more thing" that makes the 1st-gen look half-baked or gimped. Think iPad 1 vs 2, iPad Mini 1 vs 2, iPhone 2G vs 3G/3G[S], etc. I wouldn't be surprised if the next or following Macbook, for example, offers more ports and makes the current one (the one with only one port) look gimped. Anyone remember the 1st-gen clamshell iBook? Remember how many USB ports it had? Now, how many USB ports did its successor have? Yeah, just like that.
3. It requires an iPhone to function. Although I currently have an iPhone, I don't necessarily always want to use one and may switch to an Android or Windows phone down the line, and if I do the Apple Watch would become about as useful as a paperweight. On that note, this issue isn't exclusive to Apple; smartwatches with Android Wear are the exact same way. This is why if I do get into smartwatches again (I had a Pebble before), it's probably either going to be a Pebble Time or a 2nd-gen Microsoft Band, if only because they're cross-platform.
Not only is it expensive as all get out, it'll be obsolete and unable to update to newer version of iOS in a very short amount of time and on top of that it requires an iPhone to even work. You're looking a thousand dollars for the base model by the time it's said and done. Let alone some of them are upwards of 20,000 dollars. No thanks Apple, you missed it here.
Isn't this normal since the early adopters already got their watches all at once and now it's being bought by the people who are less fan boyish?
Pretty simple, too little functionality for the price point.
I own an Original Pebble that cost me $99. It has pretty much everything the Apple Watch has short of color and a heart rate sensor. Plus the display is always on and the battery lasts for a week.
For $99 I am pleased with the functionality that I am receiving from the Pebble, but I wouldn't be willing to spend $400 for the same.
Good, wearable smart technology isn't a good idea because you'll always have to sacrifice screen size for convenience, and if you can't see what's on the screen, what's the point?