Apple Retakes Top Spot in Global Wearables Market

[nvmls]

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

Yea and price fills the other "gap"

 

[neutralguy]

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

I think it also creates a void of $10 or $20 every month in your pocket.

 

[44267547]

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

Your Post doesn't make sense. Clearly Apple would want you to buy an iPhone if you want an Apple Watch, because it requires it to be initially paired before you can use the Watch. But LTE gives the Apple Watch the advantage of not being tethered to the iPhone, hence my prior comment about the freedom. However, before it was strictly with Bluetooth/Wi- Fi capable only.

 

[newellj]

Happy to read this news. I was more excited for the Apple Watch than any other device during the keynote. I was waiting for LTE capability and finally purchased my first Watch with the Series 3. I absolutely love this device, wear it every day, and hopefully will have a story to share with Apple in the future. Can’t wait to see what future iterations bring.

Agree. I made fun of the original series. This time Apple got my attention. I bought a S3 LTE expecting to return it. After a week I knew it was a keeper. I think the Series 3 Apple Watch is the iPhone 4 of this product line. It's crossed a line in terms of its capabilities - it's not longer merely a tech-toy.

 

[bbeagle]

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'm not countering the fact that most people carry their cell phones with them - I never even alluded to it. It's definitely true right now.

I just pointed out that some people are starting to switch, including me.

There really hasn't been a choice in the past. If you want to be connected to others to get their texts and phone calls, you need to carry a phone with you. With the recent advent of watches with cell connectivity, this will all change very soon.

Most of the people I know only want to be constantly connected to know what's going on with friends and family. They don't care about large screens, playing games or facebooking/twittering on the go. Things will change in the next 5 years where carrying a hunk of plastic/metal/glass in your pocket is something most people do not want to do.

 

[Sciomar]

What are the other's?

Those would be Suunto, Tag Heuer, Fossil, etc. I think Michael Kors even has a smart watch.

 

[lowendlinux]

Yea and price fills the other "gap"

Apple watches aren't to far outside the normal though, my Android wear is $400 which puts it right in the Aluminum S3 price range

 

[nvmls]

Apple watches aren't to far outside the normal though, my Android wear is $400 which puts it right in the Aluminum S3 price range

Seems you've got all your "gaps" filled already.

 

[69Mustang]

I'm not countering the fact that most people carry their cell phones with them - I never even alluded to it. It's definitely true right now.

I just pointed out that some people are starting to switch, including me.

There really hasn't been a choice in the past. If you want to be connected to others to get their texts and phone calls, you need to carry a phone with you. With the recent advent of watches with cell connectivity, this will all change very soon.

Most of the people I know only want to be constantly connected to know what's going on with friends and family. They don't care about large screens, playing games or facebooking/twittering on the go. Things will change in the next 5 years where carrying a hunk of plastic/metal/glass in your pocket is something most people do not want to do.

Apologies. When you replied to my quote about most people carrying a phone with an anecdote about you not carrying a phone I assumed it was a counter to my point and not just an fyi about habits changing in the future. I honestly didn't pick up that particular message from the words in your quote.

 

[Coarseman]

Unrelated to Apple but it's nice to see Xiaomi doing so well. To offer such great hardware for the price they is amazing.

Xiaomi could give whatever gimmick they concocted for free and I still won't even look at it.
Will never buy a shameless, lazy, blatant rip-off of Apple product and besides I love my Series 3.

 

[entropys]

The interesting thing is hat the Apple Watch is number one even though other companies have products as cheap as chips. Stocking fillers even. It will be interesting what happens in the Christmas quarter.
Also, are these cheap products even included in this count?

 

[newellj]

The interesting thing is hat the Apple Watch is number one even though other companies have products as cheap as chips. Stocking fillers even. It will be interesting what happens in the Christmas quarter.
Also, are these cheap products even included in this count?

I doubt I'm representative of much in terms of market share, but I do not wear the AW as a watch - I still wear a mechanical watch on the other wrist. I also do not wear the AW as a phone adjunct. I bought an LTE version but I haven't hooked it up yet. I have minimal notifications set up but basically still carry my phone and expect that will be true for a while. The reason I bought the AW is because I've tried just about every other "fitness wearable" and found them pretty lame in terms of useful information. To me, the AW makes an incredible health and fitness tool when you combine it with Apple's Health app and a lot of third party apps. YMMV, obviously.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Rubbish. I don’t want to take my phone on the run, or do an errand near my place.

And there are one or two use cases which he stated.

 

[dilbert99]

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.

Ok, i'll rephrase my answer.
Everyone wants to take their phone with them apart from some small use cases. So no game changer.
People want a large screen to do things
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Rubbish. I don’t want to take my phone on the run, or do an errand near my place.

How about reading peoples answers?

I said apart from a small number of use cases. People want a large screen to do things on.

 

[matrix07]

And this is different from Apple how?

I guess you never live in China then.

 

[DeepIn2U]

First off this is excellent news! Love my Apple Watch S2 Nike+ !!

This is going to be a huge revenue stream for Apple in the future it may outpace yet I’m sure with Apple Music streaming capability in S3 and small add-on carrier LTE capabilities its increasing Apple’s Services revenues!

Apple Watch S3 + Apple Music streaming (holding my library in the cloud of it doesn’t screw woth my music changing it) + $10/mth extra on my cell bill is much more useful to me an existing iPhone user than upgrading to an iPhone X ; initially. I love working out in the gym and already keep the iPhone locked away and use my Jabra Sport Pulse + AW S2’s during a workout. If I’m in a rush to work and forgot to charge my iPhone and can go about my day without it, huge bonus!

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.

Psst S2 already had GPS, 50m Water Resistance. The faster cpu, gpu and barometer is welcome. 2018 may actually further increase storage and ram across the board! LTE gets more storage 16GB vs 8.

You’ll see a lot more refined apps and more powerful ones soon enough! More tying into Siri, home security and potentially linking to ATV apps.

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’m on my second Apple Watch S2 Nike+ and I’m also finding the band irritating my wrist more than before. I only wear it for 24hrs at most but had a tiny rash. I do shower and wash my watch separately thoroughly as the rubber does seem to prevent skin breathing. I’m unsure how the leather loops work with water (submerged, showering or in the rain).

I do recommend washing the band on your next try, call Apple Support, check threads on here. Personally I prefer a snug fit but that’s my preference. I’m not certain if that is the root of the issue you and I have faced.

 

[Matz]

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.

Nice gift! Without knowing whether it is the LTE model or not, or how long she’s actually used the watch, I’ll refer to my experience of having just upgraded from a Series 0 to Series 3 GPS only model.

AW, for me, is an extension of my iPhone, which is with me basically all of the time. And I’ve found it to be a surprisingly useful extension.
I like it because of not having to haul out my iPhone for:

• Discreetly noting texts during a meeting or in a conversation.
• Seeing who’s calling and being able to decide whether or not to take it just then.
• Using Maps whilst driving with haptic feedback and not having to refer to the iPhone screen.
• Apple Pay, which makes using the iPhone for that purpose seem quite primitive in comparison.
• Weather, date, day of week at a glance.
• Checking off items on my shopping list
• Reminders to stand, move, exercise (I have a mostly deskbound job)
• Fantastical
• Email from selected individuals

That’s just my daily use case, or most of it. Very little of that may apply to your wife’s. Maybe it’s just not for her.

 

[neutralguy]

Nice gift! Without knowing whether it is the LTE model or not, or how long she’s actually used the watch, I’ll refer to my experience of having just upgraded from a Series 0 to Series 3 GPS only model.

AW, for me, is an extension of my iPhone, which is with me basically all of the time. And I’ve found it to be a surprisingly useful extension.
I like it because of not having to haul out my iPhone for:

• Discreetly noting texts during a meeting or in a conversation.
• Seeing who’s calling and being able to decide whether or not to take it just then.
• Using Maps whilst driving with haptic feedback and not having to refer to the iPhone screen.
• Apple Pay, which makes using the iPhone for that purpose seem quite primitive in comparison.
• Weather, date, day of week at a glance.
• Checking off items on my shopping list
• Reminders to stand, move, exercise (I have a mostly deskbound job)
• Fantastical
• Email from selected individuals

That’s just my daily use case, or most of it. Very little of that may apply to your wife’s. Maybe it’s just not for her.

Thanks. I got the non-LTE version. She is liking the activity tracking.

 

[InuNacho]

I like it because of not having to haul out my iPhone for:

• Discreetly noting texts during a meeting or in a conversation.

The checking of one's watch while in coversation with another person has meant and will always mean "You're boring and I need to go".

 

[lowendlinux]

The checking of one's watch while in coversation with another person has meant and will always mean "You're boring and I need to go".

I've always thought of it as the polite way to say that which is why I tend to use it with my boss

 

[Matz]

The checking of one's watch while in coversation with another person has meant and will always mean "You're boring and I need to go".

Good point! This gesture is archetypal.
When I started using my AW, I was guilty of this. I learned fairly quickly to adjust my behavior with it.
So I should have elaborated on the simple term “discreetly noting.”

Beyond glancing to check the time, the key difference between the AW and a traditional watch is haptic feedback. And unlike my phone set to vibrate - which is noticeable and sometimes annoying to those nearby - the AW lets me know that I have a text, an alert, or a phone call without the person with whom I’m having a conversation, or others in a meeting, even being aware of it.

With the AW I can then decide, based on the type of “tap” alert and the context whether or not to wait to deal with it.

Being in larger meetings, it’s easier to discreetly check an actual message than in a conversation.

In my experience over the last couple of years, the relatively few times I’ve needed to actually interrupt a conversation to glance at a message, saying “excuse me, do you mind if I check this?” is sufficient. And actually checking the message or whatever on the AW is less cumbersome than hauling out my phone.

Perhaps an overly long response to a simple declaration, but you raise an important issue.

 

[kdarling]

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.

Early on, I gave two constant iPhone users in our family Watches. One was a teenage girl, one a mother of two. Neither used the Watch for very long.

Turned out that, because they always had their iPhone in their hand anyway, they simply had no reason to have a secondary, far less capable device strapped to their wrist.

Plus the mother, an avid health nut and runner, totally preferred her Garmin for that purpose.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Like with the AppleTV?

AppleTV isn't the number one selling, is it? I thought Roku had that locked down.
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Pretty sure you're taking the joke by @ChrisCW11 a little too seriously. Kinda obvious he was poking fun at comments like the one made by Iconoclysm.


No judgement regarding your post. Just using it as an example. We all know how much you love Apple.

What I really love is pointing out complete fallacies and biases and this board is rife with them.

Knowing that Apple will build a toaster that costs more than anyone else's out there and knowing they wouldn't even enter that market unless they thought they could change it does not mean I blindly love Apple. I just know what they do and why they do it.

 

[69Mustang]

What I really love is pointing out complete fallacies and biases and this board is rife with them.

Knowing that Apple will build a toaster that costs more than anyone else's out there and knowing they wouldn't even enter that market unless they thought they could change it does not mean I blindly love Apple. I just know what they do and why they do it.

'Twas a joke. Your post just coincidentally matched it's tenor and was in close proximity on the page. Just my opinion but you present as if you take this Apple stuff way too seriously. Dude made a joke about a toaster and you're creating a business case as if it's a viable idea that Apple could/would make a toaster. Was just a joke, not fightin' words.