Apple Retakes Top Spot in Global Wearables Market

[69Mustang]

Did you try changing the bands? I had same problem with standard silicone bands that come with the watch.. My problem wasn't as severe as yours, but I had red skin and irritation... I bought leather straps and I do not have any problems anymore...

The woven nylon bands will probably do better for @rols He's in the tropics and that band should breathe better than silicone or leather
[doublepost=1510664115][/doublepost]

I was commenting about wireless in general. Having a future generation iPhone that won't have any ports at all (meaning not evening lighting port)
Actually, looking at it is not MR fault but mine. Totally mixed up threads. And yeah, you are right.... I took his comment a bit too seriously.

Ahhh, okay. I thought my senility had finally kicked in... either that or my coffee to brandy ratio favors brandy a little too heavily.

 

[CB1234]

The woven nylon bands will probably do better for @rols He's in the tropics and that band should breathe better than silicone or leather
[doublepost=1510664115][/doublepost]
Ahhh, okay. I thought my senility had finally kicked in... either that or my coffee to brandy ratio favors brandy a little too heavily.

I tried the nylon bands, but didn't like them.. Don't forget I live in Dubai and it can go as hot as 50 C during summer months.... Having said that, not many really venture out in that kind of heat...

But yes ,woven bands may work better for him... It would be an expensive exercise trying out different bands to find out which one suits his skin...

 

[69Mustang]

I tried the nylon bands, but didn't like them.. Don't forget I live in Dubai and it can go as hot as 50 C during summer months.... Having said that, not many really venture out in that kind of heat...

But yes ,woven bands may work better for him... It would be an expensive exercise trying out different bands to find out which one suits his skin...

There's an old saying, "It ain't the heat, it's the humidity." Tropical heat is humid, which encourages the issues expressed by rols. Dry heat is something else altogether.

 

[WatchFromAfar]

Series 3 was huge for the Apple Watch this year with LTE. It puts the Apple Watch on another sector away from the iPhone from being tethered. And add in the capabilities of GPS, 50 m water resistance, faster dual core processor, the Watch has matured a lot since its inception in April of 2015.

Why would Apple ever want to untether it? They want you to buy a watch AND an iPhone.

 

[lowendlinux]

1: Watch OS
2: Android Wear
3: Fit Bit
4: Android Wear
5: Tizen

Seems right

 

[manu chao]

And I'm sure that if Apple decided to make a toaster, it would deserve to be the number one selling.

Like with the AppleTV?

 

[CB1234]

There's an old saying, "It ain't the heat, it's the humidity." Tropical heat is humid, which encourages the issues expressed by rols. Dry heat is something else altogether.

well, we always learn something new every day !!!! hope rols can solve his skin problem...

 

[bbeagle]

You don't exactly qualify as "most people". @dilbert99 is right. Most people are rarely separated from their phones. I honestly don't know if that's good or bad... I do know it just is.

Since the Apple Watch 3, I've been without my phone for 90+% of the day now.

I think a lot of people outside teenagers do not want their phone around them all the time.

My phone is in the car with me in the morning and during my workout, at work on my desk, never moves and I never check it, on my car on the way home, and on my hutch charging when I get home and I never touch it except the rare time to make a phone call.

I do my web surfing on either a real computer at work, or my iPad at home. I hate having a phone around, and I'm glad the Apple Watch 3 changed this for me. Now I don't spend stupid amounts of time looking up dumb stuff (at least on the go)

 

[5105973]

I gave up with Apple Watch not because it wasn't useful, I loved it, but it made my wrist so sore I couldn't wear it more than 1/2 a day out of a day, less by day 3. I tried it for 2 weeks and I was red sore and puffy. The desire to keep it on to track everything I do probably didn't make it better. The times I clicked-apple-pay were amazing but I was in quite a lot of pain and had to send it back.

This was a NIKE+, I run a lot, I sweat a lot, I live in the tropics. A watch covers a lot of skin and it sweats even in the aircon. I bought the 42 because I preferred the larger text, it's a fairly large watch on my wrist.

Is there something I missed here? I loved Apple Watch for the insight I got, the full health monitoring and very accurate energy counts, it was just way too hard to wear. If there's a way to mitigate that, I'll by another.

Was the irritation under the band or just the watch itself or all of it? One of my aunts lived on a tropical island and when I visited I noticed skin infections were pretty common among the people there. I think a lot of it was fungal infections because of the incredible humidity. You should consult your doctor when you’re having an outbreak and confirm whether or not it is a fungal reaction. If so, there are antifungal ointments that can help your skin recover more quickly. There are changes you can make to your diet to also make you less prone to fungal infections of the skin, or so I’ve heard.

In hot humid weather I rinse the watch off frequently to get rid of sweat and I wash and rinse my hands and wrists and dry thoroughly.

On very hot days, I wear it only when I’m going to be active and out of the house and away from my iPhone. Like when walking the dog or exercising or doing yard work or housework. It is very liberating to not have to have the phone in my pocket all the time yet still be able to receive important calls.

But when I come inside for lunch or to do a chore or sit and read I take the watch off and give my skin a rest. I find I can not really sleep comfortably with the Apple Watch on. I don’t get a rash but my wrist will ache.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

I am sure Apple could brand a toaster and it would become the number one selling toaster of all time.

It would be a wonderful toaster with simple but beautiful industrial design - no buttons or levers, just a slot that automatically senses the bread and depresses and gestures to set the darkness level (automatically synced to your other toasters via iCloud). Available either in a clean bright white or a sleek black. It would cost significantly more than competing toasters but would offer complete harmony between heating element and Apple bread (available exclusively through the Apple Bakery App). Status of your toast would follow you seamlessly between all your other Apple devices (iPhone, Apple Watch, Apple TV) and unlike competing toasters from Google there would be no advertisements burned into the surface of your bread. One day the FBI would demand access to your toasting history and Apple would even go to court defending the privacy of your breakfast habits. Yes, it would be the greatest selling toaster of all time.

 

[69Mustang]

Since the Apple Watch 3, I've been without my phone for 90+% of the day now.

I think a lot of people outside teenagers do not want their phone around them all the time.

My phone is in the car with me in the morning and during my workout, at work on my desk, never moves and I never check it, on my car on the way home, and on my hutch charging when I get home and I never touch it except the rare time to make a phone call.

I do my web surfing on either a real computer at work, or my iPad at home. I hate having a phone around, and I'm glad the Apple Watch 3 changed this for me. Now I don't spend stupid amounts of time looking up dumb stuff (at least on the go)

Your anecdotal evidence still doesn't counter the claim that most people carry their phones with them. There's no math that can support that. Look at this way. Even if every AW sold in Q317 was an AW3 cellular(it wasn't) and every one of those was activated (they weren't) and every one of the owners left their phones at home (they didn't) you'd still only come up with approximately 4 million people. The math isn't there. What percentage of people do you think don't have their phones with them at pretty much all times?

 

[kemal]

I'm somewhat ashamed to admit I love my LTE. It really fills a tech gap for my needs.

 

[TrueBlou]

Y’know I was still perfectly happy sporting my Series 0 SS Watch, it did basically everything I expected from such a device. Yeah it could be ever so slightly slow doing some things, but it never bothered me.

I’d actually still be wearing it today if my insurance company hadn’t given me a Series 3 for free last month.

I have to admit I do like the speed increase, the screen is nicer, it has a few extra features, love that it’s waterproof, the microphones seem vastly improved (though S0 only had one) and Siri speaking to me is always better than me looking at the screen.

Oh and battery life has been phenomenal (11 hours 20mins standby so far today and 1 hour 12 mins of use and I’m at 92%. Still 8 hours or so before I go to bed so we’ll see) so far and it’s not because my S0 was getting old, it was replaced under AppleCare only a few months ago so still basically new.

All of which rambling gets me to this; If I hadn’t tried one I wouldn’t have seen the point in upgrading yet (cellular in the UK is only on a network I refuse to use) and the gps model just did most of what my old one did.

But I’m a total convert, the speed increase alone makes it much more useable. Where before I’d just give up sometimes and whip out the big boy, now I can actually achieve things on the Watch. Oh, and I’ll never tire of seeing it spit water out

I guess if anyone asked me I’d actually recommend the upgrade now. Y’know, if people don’t mind spending money on non-essentials.

Edit***
Let’s skip the jokes about whipping out the big boy

[doublepost=1510667957][/doublepost]

I gave up with Apple Watch not because it wasn't useful, I loved it, but it made my wrist so sore I couldn't wear it more than 1/2 a day out of a day, less by day 3. I tried it for 2 weeks and I was red sore and puffy. The desire to keep it on to track everything I do probably didn't make it better. The times I clicked-apple-pay were amazing but I was in quite a lot of pain and had to send it back.

This was a NIKE+, I run a lot, I sweat a lot, I live in the tropics. A watch covers a lot of skin and it sweats even in the aircon. I bought the 42 because I preferred the larger text, it's a fairly large watch on my wrist.

Is there something I missed here? I loved Apple Watch for the insight I got, the full health monitoring and very accurate energy counts, it was just way too hard to wear. If there's a way to mitigate that, I'll by another.

I had problems initially, turned out to be the simplest of things. The straps just weren’t right for my arm no matter what position they were in.

I switched to using (mostly) a leather loop and a Milanese and the difference is completely night and day. Because they’re infinitely adjustable you can get exactly the right fit for comfort.

Well it worked for me anyway, you may have already tried that.
[doublepost=1510668036][/doublepost]

1: Watch OS
2: Android Wear
3: Fit Bit
4: Android Wear
5: Tizen

Seems right

6: Casio calculator

 

[pika2000]

Wait, this is based on an estimate, and on number of shipment. Sure, Apple keeps its supply chain really tight, but it's just an estimate made by a bunch of analysts (highly likely to be interns).

Regardless, it is quite a feat how the Apple Watch, which is an iPhone accessory, can do so well on the market (where the competitors are platform agnostic).

 

[TrueBlou]

Your anecdotal evidence still doesn't counter the claim that most people carry their phones with them. There's no math that can support that. Look at this way. Even if every AW sold in Q317 was an AW3 cellular(it wasn't) and every one of those was activated (they weren't) and every one of the owners left their phones at home (they didn't) you'd still only come up with approximately 4 million people. The math isn't there. What percentage of people do you think don't have their phones with them at pretty much all times?

I’d go crazy without my phone, it’s always with me. I feel nakit without it.

 

[convergent]

Your anecdotal evidence still doesn't counter the claim that most people carry their phones with them. There's no math that can support that. Look at this way. Even if every AW sold in Q317 was an AW3 cellular(it wasn't) and every one of those was activated (they weren't) and every one of the owners left their phones at home (they didn't) you'd still only come up with approximately 4 million people. The math isn't there. What percentage of people do you think don't have their phones with them at pretty much all times?

I agree with you that his usage is a bit unusual for the average smartphone user. Most people are not going to be away from their phone 90% of the time.

I have moved away from iPhone and AW, but my experience I think still relates because it basically works the same way. My Gear S3 is LTE.

gym - I leave my watch in the car now when I got to the gym. Interesting that was one of the places he did use his phone. I can stream my music from spotify and track my workout; and if I get a text or call it goes to my watch. So I don't need it there and frankly its freeing to be without it.

home office - I usually through my phone on a wireless charging aisle at my desk and will sometimes walk away without it, but often I do bring it with me as use it all day as my desk phone, primarily for Skype for Business, but sometimes Webex. I would not want to do that on a watch, even if I could... and its not a problem to bring the phone.

stores - I do sometimes leave my phone in the car when running into a store. I can use my watch to pay. If its a store like Best Buy or something though, I definitely keep my phone with me because I'm invariably wanting to do research on some product.

Other than that, my phone is usually "with" me... but it might be on a table across the room or something.

Samsung being in 5th place is a little surprising to me, but probably because Android users have a choice on which watch they use and I don't think Samsung has done much advertising on the Gear line. Having had an Apple Watch for 2 years and now a Gear S3 Frontier for a month, I definitely prefer the Gear S3.

 

[840quadra]

Huge fan of my LTE watch. Being able to “unofficially” get iMessages on my wrist, while I am running my primary SIM in an Android device, is really nice freedom.

I am of the minority of people that also tends to leave my phone in my car, at home, or at work when running errands outside of any of those places. Have some Airpods in your pocket, you have a Phone, and audio player anywhere you go.

Since I swap phones too often now, I actually only have my car Audio paired with my watch, since it is usually with me when I am driving.

 

[acctman]

awww Fitbit once the leader now in 3rd

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Rubbish, most people take their phone everywhere, apart from one or two use cases.

But that is Cook's point. W/ AW LTE you don't have to take your phone with you everywhere -- like when you are just going for a run or walk or somewhere else a phone is more of a burden. The concept is a game changer.

My problem is the concept is really kind of in an Alpha stage when you consider the LTE's limitations. It's still too tethered to iPhone and doesn't work when roaming. It's also another $10/mo for no extra data, not a real phone line. And then the really killer for me is I can't use the AW for running because AW's running data collection still pales in comparison to dedicated running watches like the Garmin 935. So still work for Apple to do there. But the concept, I love the concept.
[doublepost=1510670859][/doublepost]

awww Fitbit once the leader now in 3rd

Given the market power of Fitbit vs Apple, a 3% differential is not bad for Fitbit. Fitbit was the leader when there was no big name in the market. Same was true of iPhone after BB and Palm vanished and Android had yet made it's mark.

Xiaomi has the Chinese market... big market. Of course, they are also giving Apple growth fits in China too.

 

[twolf2919]

Correction: "According to the data, Apple shipped..." should read "According to the ESTIMATES, Apple shipped...". This gets done all the time: reporters, wanting to lend more credence/import to what they're writing, change a word here and there. Screw the fact that what they end up writing is now inaccurate.

 

[DynaFXD]

You don't exactly qualify as "most people". @dilbert99 is right. Most people are rarely separated from their phones. I honestly don't know if that's good or bad... I do know it just is.

Most people never had the option. Now they can leave their phone behind and still be connected to their Apple universe. I can't speak for others, but I actually enjoy not having to lug a phone around everywhere I go. But TBH, I am also not a social media or video junkie. So for calls/messages/email/calendar/weather/iPay, the watch is mostly fine.

 

[citysnaps]

I am sure Apple could brand a toaster and it would become the number one selling toaster of all time.

Only if it offered outstanding design, provided great utility, was full of easy-to-use problem-solving technology not offered by other toaster manufacturers, and priced at a reasonable/competitive cost.

I'm thinking of the Apple Hi-Fi not meeting those objectives and as a result failing, despite being introduced by Steve Jobs.

 

[honglong1976]

Apple really should consider making Apple Watch compatible with Android...I think there's a lot of users out there who would pick up an Apple Watch purely because it's one of the best fitness trackers on the market. Plus it would give me the option of leaving iPhone in future.

But there's clearly several software issues involved in that, namely the fact that Apple Watch apps are designed to match up exactly with iPhone apps - none of which exist on Android (iMessage etc). But then, thinking about it, Android devices have equivalents of those apps - so maybe it wouldn't be so hard.

No!

If it sells and people want it, but you need an iPhone to use it. People will dump Android and buy an iPhone.
[doublepost=1510675420][/doublepost]

It would be a wonderful toaster with simple but beautiful industrial design - no buttons or levers, just a slot that automatically senses the bread and depresses and gestures to set the darkness level (automatically synced to your other toasters via iCloud). Available either in a clean bright white or a sleek black. It would cost significantly more than competing toasters but would offer complete harmony between heating element and Apple bread (available exclusively through the Apple Bakery App). Status of your toast would follow you seamlessly between all your other Apple devices (iPhone, Apple Watch, Apple TV) and unlike competing toasters from Google there would be no advertisements burned into the surface of your bread. One day the FBI would demand access to your toasting history and Apple would even go to court defending the privacy of your breakfast habits. Yes, it would be the greatest selling toaster of all time.

The biggest thing to happen to bread since toast

 

[trusso]

Well, Chinese labor is cheap and they don’t have to pay worker benefit as much as Western companies.

And this is different from Apple how?

 

[neutralguy]

Hmm! What makes you sure about that? Apple seem to bring products that believes people will be highly interested on. At least for the last decade. Toaster, Washing machine, Vacuum cleaner etc.... are left to Samsung.

Btw, I am using Apple Watch original since the first day it was released and still love it. Does exactly what I want it to do. I have used quite few mid range watches (more or less similar price) and never kept any of them for this long.

On a serious note: what does it do more than the time and messages. I gifted my wife Apple watch series 3. She is having a very hard time finding a value in it to keep it. I would like to know all the additional things that the watch can do.