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Apple Watch Loses Market Share as Android Wear Grows in Popularity
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I see as more people bought the watch, the discovered how limiting it is and not recommending it to others. I enjoy my watch but I don't recommend it to non tech people due to its slowness, the excessive price of the bands and Apples insistence that only they know how to design a watch face
I disagree. I've only seen ONE Apple Watch in the real world so far. But I've also only seen one Android smartwatch in the wild. The reason for that could simply be that most people here in Germany simply regard smartwatches as what they are: Useless toys that are simply not worth spending money on.
‘creepy watches,’ - Love it!!!!
I knew them Apple watches reminded me of something, and now I know what: Electronic tags that are used for offenders.
I would never buy one.
Losing share. As in Android Wear watches are actually selling at all now. The overall market is growing. Unless Android Wear *never* starts selling in reasonable quantities , just mathematically Apple is going to lose share. That doesn't mean that they're selling fewer watches.
I would go a step further and say that this thing only makes real sense if it can REPLACE your phone.
If people want a watch, they buy a real watch, not some smartphone add-on. But people stopped buying watches when mobile phones - regular, stupid mobile phones, not smartphones - became common place. Unless you need to show off a status symbol, the average person just looked at the phone to know the time. No need for a watch anymore.
A smartwatch with a bluetooth headset would currently be the most ergonomic way to replace a smartphone. (The other option would be one of those augmented reality glasses with an integrated phone.)
I'm not sure what business experience you have, but your reply that sales equal market share which then leads to profits is absolutely not correct.
You can have sales in small numbers (low market share) that still provides for a profitable business. The idea that you need to gain market share by selling for less money and less profit, because the volume makes up for the lower margin is a recipe for disaster as we have seen with countless businesses.
It means apple is not catching up with the market growth. It is that simple.
The point is it's premature to call the AW a niche product. It's doing pretty well as a first generation, having sold more units compared to even the first generation iPad. We will see whether or not it actually turns out to be a niche product in a few years (like the Apple TV).
I bet it'll become more popular once it's "iPhone-free," which will most likely happen. Right now you need an iPhone in order to use the AW.
You are assuming that Apple is interested in maximising the number of watches sold. Apple could easily sell 200 million watches a year if they wanted (by giving a $5 watch away for free with every iPhone sale).
I agree to a point....but if you have smaller sales/market share then you will have smaller profits. Aren't all businesses plans to make more profits? Even if you have large profit margins from your products you still need sales to make that profit. If sales/market share decreses so does profits.
But Apple _wins_ in the PR game. They just don't win in the "fans have to spin the truth" game.
It has been published that Apple's watch revenue was $6bn vs. Rolex revenue of $4.5bn. Well, that's good for Apple. But this article here compares number of watches sold, and Apple would probably outsell Rolex 10 to 1.
Never go into business. The market share you read about here is the number of watches sold. You need to see how much profit is made from each watch sold. Apple here is in the same situation they were in with the iPhone: They released a top quality, expensive product, with good profits. And more and more cheaper items come in, reducing Apple's market share, but not the sales and not the profits. iPhone takes over 90% of the profits in the smartphone market. Do you think anyone but Apple makes money selling smartphones?
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Make everything even more thin with minimal specs, Apple. At least that appears to be your obsession and modus operandi for trying to capture the attention of the consumer. 
It is! But, doesn't matter at all.
Ah specs. The "I have 3 gigapoinks" vs "I don't really see a problem with my phone" discussion. The fight the girlfriends always win but never get the gloryMake everything even more thin with minimal specs, Apple. At least that appears to be your obsession and modus operandi for trying to capture the attention of the consumer.
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New requirement that app must now run natively on the watch.
Moves in the direction of compatibility with other platforms.
I think Apple getting out their watch with it's marketing brought more awareness to the the smartwatch category overall. If you use Android your going to go for that more than likely. Also there have been great deals on Android wear watches I saw last gen Moto 360's refurbished for $89.00 on eBay last week.
FaceTime camera, expanded Wi-Fi abilities, andcellular connectivity. New bands, finishes, and models are always a possibility as well.
All of these rumors of enhancements are more of the same that we ALREADY have. New bands and finishes won't promote more sales either. What wearables needs is to give it utility that we didn't have before. The first iphone put the internet in our hands in an extremely easy way (albeit slow). What do wearables do? They need to provide new information, and the new information is health info!
Timmy said this thing is revolutionary, but he wouldn't know revolutionary if it hit him in the head!
29 silicon and nylon bands
69 all leather bands
99 Milanese (A color for every watch plus blue, red, purple.....)
119 stainless bands
ebay and amazon band have been just fine so far.
There's a few things in play here:
1. The Apple Watch is a niche device. Not hugely useful but I do wear it daily because it looks nice.
2. The Apple Watch and bands are too expensive. I'd say easily 20% more than what they should be.
3. Crap Android Wear devices (they aren't all crap) are beginning to flood the market.
1. The Apple Watch is a niche device. Not hugely useful but I do wear it daily because it looks nice.
2. The Apple Watch and bands are too expensive. I'd say easily 20% more than what they should be.
3. Crap Android Wear devices (they aren't all crap) are beginning to flood the market.
You don't get what they're trying to do. They want more health info -for everyone- even the ones that don't know it yet. But mainly they want people to go back for the thing if they forgot it at home. Even if they can't pinpoint why that is exactly.
Quite right but it doesn't take any business experience to understand this. Just look at what Apple has done. In market after market, Apple has captured the lion's share of profits by producing high-margin products instead of chasing market share. This is the strategy that has made Apple the behemoth they are today. This strategy needs to be radically altered now?