Apple Watch Market Share Declined Over Summer as Rumors Swirled About Series 3 Models With LTE

[FilmIndustryGuy]

My wife and I just got AW3 GPS models. We didn’t even think for a second about the LTE models (an extra monthly charge x2 and $50/watch more?).

Admittedly when Apple Watches first came out, I thought they were insane, stupid, pointless devices. Having owned one for a week, it is one of the coolest things I’ve had in awhile.



First thing I do is turn off all notifications. I may be rare, but my phone is on silent (no vibrate) 24/7. I’ll give my attention to what I want to give my attention to because my time is limited and valuable. Also, I can’t relax with notifications. If it is important, a voicemail will be left and I’ll respond. If not, it can wait.

So the first thing I did with my Apple Watch 3 was to turn off ALL notifications. I got AutoSleep and HeartWatch - my wife and I teamed up on Activities. We’ve run almost every day since we’ve purchased these watches. Tracking runs is awesome. Seeing heart data is amazing. I’m really enjoying this and I see it only getting better with time.

A previous skeptic, I’m really happy with this purchase - so is my wife.

I like your style. We could be friends.

 

[pdaholic]

If you give the watch to a guy who dominates as if he’s chasing air to breathe, that guy will outperform you no matter what junk you own

You, sir, have inspired me to go out an kick some azz.

 

[Feenician]

My wife and I just got AW3 GPS models. We didn’t even think for a second about the LTE models (an extra monthly charge x2 and $50/watch more?).

Admittedly when Apple Watches first came out, I thought they were insane, stupid, pointless devices. Having owned one for a week, it is one of the coolest things I’ve had in awhile.



First thing I do is turn off all notifications. I may be rare, but my phone is on silent (no vibrate) 24/7. I’ll give my attention to what I want to give my attention to because my time is limited and valuable. Also, I can’t relax with notifications. If it is important, a voicemail will be left and I’ll respond. If not, it can wait.

So the first thing I did with my Apple Watch 3 was to turn off ALL notifications. I got AutoSleep and HeartWatch - my wife and I teamed up on Activities. We’ve run almost every day since we’ve purchased these watches. Tracking runs is awesome. Seeing heart data is amazing. I’m really enjoying this and I see it only getting better with time.

A previous skeptic, I’m really happy with this purchase - so is my wife.

Cool, that’s quite a different opinion on AW than I usually hear, and it’s an interesting perspective because a lot of people, including me, are all about the notification aspect and perhaps health too.

Battery life is probably the biggest problem. Most users don't want to charge a watch frequently just so they can have notifications on their wrist.

By “frequently”, do you mean “daily”? I’m sure there are exceptions but most people sleep for a few hours a day. It’s the perfect time to charge the things you use the rest of the day. Never really understood the multi day battery life thing. I sleep every day, between 5 and 8 hours and charge my things during that.

 

[Applebot1]

My wife bought me a ‘surprise’ series 2 Nike+ which I accidentally found.

Decided to tell her and ask her to send back. The Apple Watch for me isn’t quite there, with battery life being one of the biggest issues.

If I was getting one then cellular is the way forward imo, but not buying into what is effectively gen 1 cellular version.

Will wait until series 4 for now. It’s getting there and hope Apple really innovate in this area going forward.

 

[Bacillus]

While I like my AW - I am ashamed about its clunkiness.
Joni Ive has done such a terrible job - any nameless Samsung designer would have done better.

 

[The Game 161]

The apple watch is an utterly geeky boring piece of junk, that you have to charge every day ..
Just forget about it

Actually you don't

It's about as geeky as using a phone actually.

One of the best products apple have ever Brought out easily.

 

[montycat]

The apple watch is an utterly geeky boring piece of junk, that you have to charge every day ..
Just forget about it

That’s exactly what I thought until I actually got to play around with one at work one day. I went out and bought myself an Apple Watch 3 afterwords. I absolutely love the watch and it is wonderful for cardiac and exercise monitoring. Btw, I get almost 3 days from one battery charge!

 

[Return Zero]

That analogy doesn't work. A better analogy would be the news (and not the Weather Channel) reporting every single time that it's winter.

This article isn't merely a press release from IDC or otherwise a statement of fact; it adds slight commentary and analysis — it implies that the decline is relevant, and speculates that it's in part because of Series 3 rumors.

Alright analogy nazi... I happen to think that my analogy is flawless. It was the result of many hours of capital analogy effectiveness variance considerations. /s

Seriously though, the weather channel reports on weather. They could explain temperature fluctuations in a few different ways, like isobars and sunlight and whatever (I'm no weatherman). Macrumors reports on Apple products. They could explain market share fluctuations in a few different ways, like seasonality and market sentiment based on product cycles (I'm no economist). I fail to see how my specification of the weather channel causes my analogy to fail. I simply left out, for brevity, the fact that the weather channel can and does provide commentary and analysis on temperature fluctuations, which I assumed to be stating the obvious.

 

[BigMcGuire]

My wife bought me a ‘surprise’ series 2 Nike+ which I accidentally found.

Decided to tell her and ask her to send back. The Apple Watch for me isn’t quite there, with battery life being one of the biggest issues.

With rise to wake off and notifications off I’m getting >2 days. With exercise I end my day at 83%+. I use my watch as a timepiece and heath/sleep/heart rate monitor.

My wife has notifications, rise to wake, and texts / uses apps / etc and will end the day around 30%. AW 3 GPS.

 

[convergent]

There really is no one else even touching Apple right now in the sector of the wearable market, partially that's because of the iPhone being the number one selling smart phone in the world. . Given that the only other real competitor is Android and Fitbit, what else really is there to compare to the Apple Watch? Also, your article isn't exactly Indicative of numbers sold, Given Apple doesn't release numbers for the Apple Watch. Xiaomi isn't even relevant in this sector, being their Products are primarily Available in China. Which really leaves Fitbit being the next competitor.

Aside from logistics, overall popularity wise, I would say fitbit would probably win in that sector because of the more affordable price points and they have a larger lineup of products. But given the compatibility with the iPhone, the Apple Watch obviously is the most clear choice for the majority and has clearly grown since the first generation Watch. But regardless, I still believe Apple dominates the wearable market and it's continuing to grow with the Series 3 and LTE.

iOS is only like 10% of smartphone share, so saying iPhone is the number one phone is kind of irrelevant. On current strategy, the Apple Watch is unusable by 90% of the smartphone owners. Just like with smartphones, you are going to have a lot of different products (choice for the consumer) on the non iOS side of the house. I still say that for me, the Gear S3 is a much easier to use device and could easily be competitive if Samsung chooses to push it.

 

[imola.zhp]

I was looking to upgrade two (from Series 0) and buy a third (gift for mom) but no deals at Black Friday... Last year I bought my Series 0 on Black Friday for $180.

 

[Applebot1]

With rise to wake off and notifications off I’m getting >2 days. With exercise I end my day at 83%+. I use my watch as a timepiece and heath/sleep/heart rate monitor.

My wife has notifications, rise to wake, and texts / uses apps / etc and will end the day around 30%. AW 3 GPS.

Thanks for info. My wife would use the fitness aspect of the watch(currently has a fit bit). I’m one click away to ordering a series 3 Nike plus for Xmas which is ironic considering my post.

 

[Matz]

My wife bought me a ‘surprise’ series 2 Nike+ which I accidentally found.

Decided to tell her and ask her to send back. The Apple Watch for me isn’t quite there, with battery life being one of the biggest issues.

If I was getting one then cellular is the way forward imo, but not buying into what is effectively gen 1 cellular version.

Will wait until series 4 for now. It’s getting there and hope Apple really innovate in this area going forward.

I too wondered about the battery life when I ordered my AW Series 0. Turns out it wasn’t an issue for me. Charging it at night hasn’t been a problem. And maybe twice the battery would mysteriously discharge in a few hours, and I’d have to recharge it for an hour.

I liked it enough to buy a Series 3, GPS model. A couple of times I haven’t bothered to recharge it until the second day. Better battery life, for sure. But it wasn’t a problem to begin with, for me.

My AW is an iPhone extension, plain and simple. It reduces bits of friction in my life every day through the various functions it performs. Well worth the price of admission, in my experience.

 

[jimbobb24]

Alternative headline, "Apple still crushing wearable market"

 

[chucker23n1]

The lack of killer features on the Watch is hindering its adoption.

Until battery life, health monitoring sensors, and flexible display technology improves, the Watch is a sidekick, not a must-have.

Battery life is probably the biggest problem. Most users don't want to charge a watch frequently just so they can have notifications on their wrist.

I think killer apps is the bigger problem than battery life. Leaving aside how much battery life has improved (I've seen reports of four days with the Series 3), it really isn't that big a deal to charge it right before or after sleep.
[doublepost=1512167599][/doublepost]

By “frequently”, do you mean “daily”? I’m sure there are exceptions but most people sleep for a few hours a day. It’s the perfect time to charge the things you use the rest of the day. Never really understood the multi day battery life thing. I sleep every day, between 5 and 8 hours and charge my things during that.

Right, but then you give up sleep tracking.

 

[Keirasplace]

My wife bought me a ‘surprise’ series 2 Nike+ which I accidentally found.

Decided to tell her and ask her to send back. The Apple Watch for me isn’t quite there, with battery life being one of the biggest issues.

If I was getting one then cellular is the way forward imo, but not buying into what is effectively gen 1 cellular version.

Will wait until series 4 for now. It’s getting there and hope Apple really innovate in this area going forward.

IT Series 2 42mm can easily last 2 days, so not sure what you're waiting for.
a LTE if the LTE part is used often would undoubtedly last a lot less time (even in a gen 2 of that watch).

 

[Applebot1]

IT Series 2 42mm can easily last 2 days, so not sure what you're waiting for.
a LTE if the LTE part is used often would undoubtedly last a lot less time (even in a gen 2 of that watch).

Thought about it and will be buying a series 3 for the wife as she would use the health aspects lot more than myself.