Apple Sold 70% Fewer Apple Watches This Summer Compared to Last

[Tomas Truchly]

The latest numbers from market research firm IDC reveal Apple Watch shipments totaled an estimated 1.1 million units in the third quarter, reflecting a three-month period between July and September, a sharp 71.6% decline compared to an estimated 3.9 million Apple Watch shipments last summer.

The decline can be at least partially attributed to the lack of an Apple Watch refresh until the final two weeks of the quarter, when the Apple Watch Series 2 and slightly updated first-generation models launched. The overall smartwatch market also declined an estimated 51.6% in the third quarter.

Apple still maintained its position as the overall leader of the worldwide smartwatch market with an estimated 41.3% market share, despite posting the second largest year-over-year decline among the leading vendors. Garmin finished in second with an estimated 20.5% market share following strong 342.2% growth.

Garmin's growing list of ConnectIQ-enabled smartwatches and the new fenix Chronos allowed it to leapfrog Samsung, which captured only 14.4% market share based on an estimated 400,000 smartwatch shipments, according to IDC. Lenovo and Pebble rounded off the top five with an estimated 100,000 shipments respectively.

Apple does not disclose Watch sales in its quarterly earning results, instead grouping the device under its "Other Products" category alongside the likes of iPods, Apple TVs, Beats, and accessories. The focus will now shift to the more important fourth quarter, encompassing the busy holiday shopping season.

Article Link: Apple Sold 70% Fewer Apple Watches This Summer Compared to Last

[doublepost=1477383684][/doublepost]Apple Watch Series 2 is unavailable in Europe. There were few pieces sold and now for example Apple Shop Munich Germany shows availability from 17.11.2016.

 

[Vjosullivan]

Well, given the size of it, I don't know how much you can realistically expect. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal to charge it with your phone at night.

Well, the watch I'm wearing (admittedly, not a smart watch but still multifunctional) is solar powered, never needs charging and doesn't need to blank out the display to eek out the battery life. I think that that's a reasonable target to aim for.

As to it not being a big deal to charge the watch each night, that's fine if you never go away. It's annoying to have to carry yet another charger or cable with you just to get you through an overnight trip.

 

[Tunster]

Problem is, it's too expensive to be an "accessory". Unlike phones, laptops, tablets; watches have limited use and accompany other functions/devices etc. This is why the fitbit and anything in that bracket are taking off because they're not too expensive as a product and offer someone much more to that person. Also, they took the wrong path in making the watch out to be a "fashion accessory". As much as the fashion industry applauded it, fitness was the path they should of taken initially. Sports stars and such like carry more enthusiasm for product endorsement as it's a lot more generic than fashion that can be picky.

If Apple can reduce the price of the watch to go into the "accessory" category that compliments all it's other devices plus act as a very good health monitor for fitness; then it's a winner on the third generation. At the moment, it isn't.

I personally love my Series 1 watch. Going to run it in until they stop supporting it.

 

[lowendlinux]

I bought a refurb Moto 360 for $70 I think that's about as far as I'm willing to go until smart watches have a really stand out feature. It monitors my sleep, steps, runs, notifications, and unlocks my phone all of that is nice but not $250+ dollars nice.

 

[ds2000]

You mean a device with short battery life, limited app usage, and main feature is for people too lazy to get to their smart phone for an alert is not selling well? I am just shocked!

When the watch can replace the smart phone, they will sell well. until them it's not even a hobby...

You clearly haven't ever had or used one. I burnt a bit of my companies budget getting myself one and wanted to hate it. A month on, I love it, the battery life is superb - a full day and a 2 hour run, streaming music and using the GPS still sees the battery at 33%. A none running day it'll scrape 2 days.

My phone is pretty much stashed in my pocket these days as I use my Mac to iMessage/Whatsapp and run without my phone. The series 2 is a damn good device.

 

[Col4bin]

What do you want it to do? Iron your clothes?

Maybe functionality a little more practical/useful than just a glorified iPhone notification accompaniment.

 

[bob24]

I feel sorry for those mugs who blew $10k on the GOLD edition to find they don't make it anymore..

Expensive doorstop*

*Can't even use it for that

No need to feel sorry for them. Either money is no object to them and the cost is irrelevant to their budget, or they have very poor judgement.

 

[dilbert99]

I skipped the 1st gen Apple watch (Series 0). Glad I waited for the Series 2. I've had it a little over a month and it's encouraged me to get up and move around more often than I would have otherwise. So far, I've dropped about 5 pounds. No complaints here.

As for this article, I hope someone didn't actually get paid to conduct this "research". Anyone who follows any product will tell you that there is a decline in sales when word gets out that a new version is just around the corner.

Just think, you could have lost 5 pounds a year ago and a lot more since
[doublepost=1477386872][/doublepost]

Maybe functionality a little more practical/useful than just a glorified iPhone notification accompaniment.

Could you give some examples?
[doublepost=1477387314][/doublepost]

Confused where you and every other complainer on here gets "short battery life" from. I guess some people like to talk just to talk.

I've never once had an issue with my battery getting me through a day - 1.5 days isn't out of the question either.

I normally get to the end of the day with approx 50%, but after the new update, I was getting a lot of days last week where it was in the red at the end of the day which was worrying. Its been ok the last few days

 

[Substance90]

Well, it is ridiculously overpriced.

 

[dilbert99]

There just isn't enough perceived value in the Apple watch. When people perceive value in a product at an attractive price point then they will buy.

The only real activity or value that it provides on its own is around activity or movement. The rest essentially have to be provided by the phone. Again there's not enough perceived value because view it as an expensive activity tracker.

For me personally I feel weird having to buy something to use my other Apple product less. Does it make things easier by me just lifting up my wrist to see a notification or a call or a text? Sure I guess. But I'm not spending $270 or easily $400 and above for something like that. Before you know it you're in iPad pricing territory. It's just too expensive for the feature set.

I agree its overpriced, I wouldn't normally spend that much on a watch but for me, I get lots of benefit from mine, stating that the rest have to be provided by the phone is missing the point and many available without the phone.

• Can keep up to date with meetings at work with the calendar on the main screen, I actually know more of my meetings with it being on the watch.
• Timers and stopwatch only a quick siri without the need to get my phone out. just wish Siri could understand the Scottish accent better.
• Heart rate, nice to see and have a record for any potential issues. Yes I know its not a medical device but good as a general guide.
• Its the best digital watch I've had. Clear crisp readable digits.
• Getting notifications, vibrations.
• Answering calls when its difficult to get your phone out of your jeans pocket, e.g. when sitting on a train.
• Can filter calls without getting phone out of pocket.
• Can make calls when you don't have your phone right next to you, this helped me once or twice.

I guess its all down to what you want out of a watch.
[doublepost=1477388751][/doublepost]

My iPhone5 still last 2-4 days for me, a number still unacceptable for a watch.



Not having to have my iPhone on my 24/7 (simply not pratical for me) is sofar the only reason that might make me want a "smartwatch".

I think there must be two groups of user, those who don't use their phone and have a lot of the power hungry features turned off and those that do.

My wifes iPhone 5 is currently sitting at 58% after 12 hours. No way that would last another day.
My newly replaced iPhone 6, sitting at 69% after 12 hours. If it hadn't been replaced recently, it would normally be about 50%, perhaps less.

 

[bob24]

Well, as I understand, apart from GB, iPhone is not that popular in Europe and people without iPhones have no reasons to buy Apple watches.

Depends what you mean but not that popular. UK is at the top but looking at the larger countries Apple is also doing quite fine in France, Germany, or Italy (not so much in Spain).

There just isn't enough perceived value in the Apple watch. When people perceive value in a product at an attractive price point then they will buy.

The only real activity or value that it provides on its own is around activity or movement. The rest essentially have to be provided by the phone. Again there's not enough perceived value because view it as an expensive activity tracker.

For me personally I feel weird having to buy something to use my other Apple product less. Does it make things easier by me just lifting up my wrist to see a notification or a call or a text? Sure I guess. But I'm not spending $270 or easily $400 and above for something like that. Before you know it you're in iPad pricing territory. It's just too expensive for the feature set.

Perceived value for money is definitely part of it, but for me 2 other reasons are:
- Short perceived lifespan. I don't want yet another not that cheap but almost disposable device which needs to be replaced regularly to keep up with marketing and technology (smartphone, tablet, laptop, camera, etc are already too much of a bother). Especially if this is a device I am going wear everyday and therefore would make me want to invest in better materials.
- Short better life and no unified charging mechanism. I also don't want yet another device I need to charge everyday especially since the charging cable is not the same as my other devices.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

More reasons why people love their Apple Watch:

8. No more missed phonecalls or notifications, because the phone ringtone is too quiet to hear either outside or in a noisy environment (This was the MAJOR reason I got an Apple Watch, because I missed a very important phone-call that cost me money, and decided I wasn't going to let the same thing happen again).
9. The convenience of your schedule being on your wrist and checkable at a glance.
10. The ability to review your goals and/or vision board at a glance and be reminded of what you are focused on through the day (using pictures of your goals with the photo watch face).
11. Subtlety. You don't look like a total douche when you navigate somewhere or similar, and are busy staring at your phone or getting verbal directions; all you have are silent buzzes on your wrist guiding you that no one else even realises are taking place. Same thing for things like appointments etc., if you are using silent mode. This is great for maintaining a more professional image with clients.

What you say are reasonable points.

However, that market is essentially very busy businessmen who have hectic schedules. Most people simply don't need to micromanage their day to such an extent, so the Apple Watch is redundant to their needs.

I think that you have the same mindset as Tim Cook and others at Apple when they were dreaming up the use case for the watch. They, too, have extremely busy schedules and clearly derive benefit from the utility of the watch. As we are seeing, though, it appears to be a very niche market, and begs the question: was it really worth expending so much time and effort on such a small market, in view of the fact that Apple still tries to work like a start-up with relatively few resources and staff in order to concentrate on a few things?

My feeling is that the Apple Watch has cost Apple a great deal of focus on their other areas, which has been to the detriment of Apple's overall reputation. This is why I think it would be prudent of them to wind down the Apple Watch and concentrate their attention on Macs, iPhones, iPads, software and services.

 

[Col4bin]

Could you give some examples?

Not my job--Apple doesn't pay me.

 

[MacBH928]

Maybe people wanted a smart "watch" not an iphone mini

 

[mazz0]

I don't know what Apple would have to do to get me excited about the Apple Watch, but they haven't done it yet.

Same here, and I own one.

 

[iTom17]

Actually, round smartwatches work fine. And look good, too.

Circular smartwatches certainly have more than one clock or clock face available. Android smartwatches in particular have thousands of available interactive watchfaces, both analog and digital, square and round, with all sorts of complications.

They do look good, can't disagree with ya on that. But I've seen some of those round smartwatches, and there's one in my class who's got one. I'm not liking how content - especially text - is displayed on it, it looks really weird in my opinion.

And I was referring to 'regular' round watches, not smartwatches. I know there's tons of watch faces on Android Wear watches, haha.

 

[maflynn]

Maybe people wanted a smart "watch" not an iphone mini

Perhaps, but what is a smart watch? I mean that sincerely, what features that the Apple doesn't have make a watch smart?

 

[MH01]

I feel sorry for those mugs who blew $10k on the GOLD edition to find they don't make it anymore..

Expensive doorstop*

*Can't even use it for that

In the numbers they sold, it's a worthwhile collectors item.

 

[admob71]

You do realise that even if Apple settles into a yearly update for the Apple Watch, it doesn't mean you have to upgrade every year?

But but but.....

 

[RumorSeeker]

I am waiting for them to make a pocket watch.

 

[bob24]

You do realise that even if Apple settles into a yearly update for the Apple Watch, it doesn't mean you have to upgrade every year?

Of course not - but similarly to the iPhone yearly releases likely mean that technology and feature gaps (hardware or artificial software ones - often marketing driven) will make the product significantly less useable after about 2-3 years and almost unusable past 4-5 years. People are ready to accept that with a smartphone, but less so with a smartwatch which Apple is selling as much as a lifestyle accessory than for the actual functionality in it (it especially makes the more expensive and luxurious versions a hard sale - which killed the gold version but must also hurt the ceramic and even the steel ones).

 

[OllyW]

I am waiting for them to make a pocket watch.

They already do, it's called the iPhone.

 

[jerry16]

Well, the watch I'm wearing (admittedly, not a smart watch but still multifunctional) is solar powered, never needs charging and doesn't need to blank out the display to eek out the battery life. I think that that's a reasonable target to aim for.

As to it not being a big deal to charge the watch each night, that's fine if you never go away. It's annoying to have to carry yet another charger or cable with you just to get you through an overnight trip.

Well, I guess it just bothers you more than it does me, which is fine. I'm not saying I wouldn't love to charge it less often, just that I don't find the current situation a deterrent.

I travel for work often, sometimes weekly, and just bought another puck to leave in my bag.

Side note - an always on display would be an awesome feature!

 

[2457282]

You say this in jest but you might not be far off target. One could liken the AW to a printer. The bands are the ink/toner. That's where the long money is.

Yes, there is probably something to this. However, since they did not patent the connector, everyone and their mothers are now making knock offs. With the ink/toner example, there is a significant difference between the OEM and the generic brand, to the point I buy OEM only now (also, since I don't print that much, it makes little difference). With the watch bands, my wife has gone through three bands to get to one she likes - the OEM modern buckle, a third party milanese loop, and the current OEM rubber band. I bought the links band and have stuck with it from day one. Don't expect to change until I change the watch. That will be a long time since I there was nothing in the 2 that was important to me (would have liked the faster processor, but not enough justification yet).

 

[admob71]

Side note - an always on display would be an awesome feature!

If folk think the battery life is bad now, blimey...