Now see I was going just the opposite direction and am expecting (based on Apple pension to disregard usability for size reduction) an Apple Watch iPhone version. Same size as the Apple Watch today, but half as thick and includes all the functionality of the iPhone 6s only bluetooth wireless ear plugs.
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Apple Watch Predicted to Capture 50% Market Share in 2016 on 14 Million Sales
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Now see I was going just the opposite direction and am expecting (based on Apple pension to disregard usability for size reduction) an Apple Watch iPhone version. Same size as the Apple Watch today, but half as thick and includes all the functionality of the iPhone 6s only bluetooth wireless ear plugs.
You have no experience with the AW so how did you come to the conclusion that the battery needs to be improved, or are you getting this from the same pundits that called the AW a flop?
That's like a dumbphone owner asking "Do we have a smartphone with a week of battery life?" Dumbphone owners got over charging their new smartphones nightly and so did smartwatch owners.
If Pebble was released in 1995 I would say I couldn't imagine it still being around in 1996. I think Casio calculator watches from the 80s had less bezel than the Pebble, atrocious. While the Apple watch is pretty hideous itself, it looks like a beauty queen next to the Pebble.
Siri can't take notes on the Apple watch? For shame! Why can't apple just add everything that matters - I hate this trickle down effect. The ONLY purpose of a watch should be to replace redundant functions of a phone. If that is going to be the case, then we need all those features now. Not that hard to do, since they're simple tasks. But instead they're busy putting a camera into the band.
One thing for sure, the AW is great at notification. If the iPhone SE has 128gb of ram I'm probably moving down to it from my 6.
Wonder how the AW would work as a cuff instead of a watch?
Wonder how the AW would work as a cuff instead of a watch?
Finally we've found something less reliable than the weather forecast.
Let us harken back to 2011. The global economy was climbing its way out of the Great Recession of 2008. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 2 was all the rage. Apple released iPad 2 and iPhone 4s, and of course, that was the year Steve Jobs died after many years of battling cancer. It was also when Gartner and IDC both predicted that Microsoft's Windows Phone would surpass Apple's iPhone to become the world's second biggest mobile platform. SPOILER: It didn't.
Revisiting Gartner and IDC 2011 Predictions that Windows Phone Would Pass iOS in 2015
Let us harken back to 2011. The global economy was climbing its way out of the Great Recession of 2008. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 2 was all the rage. Apple released iPad 2 and iPhone 4s, and of course, that was the year Steve Jobs died after many years of battling cancer. It was also when Gartner and IDC both predicted that Microsoft's Windows Phone would surpass Apple's iPhone to become the world's second biggest mobile platform. SPOILER: It didn't.
Kind of like smart phones were when the iPhone was new. I mean, look at those underwhelming numbers from the iPhone's first year!
Sure looks like flop territory to me!
"If these trends continue.......ayeeeeeeeeeee"
Apparently MacRumors failed to read the comments from previous articles, or other insightful 'news' outlets like Gizmodo that have clearly identified how disappointing the Apple Watch rollout was for Apple, what a waste of money it was, how it fell far below expectations, yada, yada, yada.
Holding out for one that uses the finest Corinthian leather.
Yes, but you have to understand the iPhone's place in the market relative to the watch. The iPhone was a brand new untried product competing for a foothold in the massive cell phone market, and it was radical and untried technology compared to the reigning technology -- the Blackberry. Since then, Apple has earned a name for itself with the general public and slowly eroded the traditional phone market with its superior technology which the competition has copied and sold for less.
But the watch is totally different. There were already smart watches on the market, some as nice as Apple's. Apple has raised the bar on style, and drawn more attention to the product category as a whole, but not necessarily introduced any new radical technology that puts it in a different category than the competition like the iPhone did. The main thing it did was bring superior interface to the iPhone, that none of the existing smartwatches could compete with. So anyone who ever looked at a smartwatch and passed, already ruled out what it could do for them. But the Watch works exclusively with the iPhone, and opens up the door for a second look. Now, there's about 400 million active iPhone's worldwide. Which means in about a year, Apple has sold an Watch to less than ~4% of the clearly defined captive target market. So, while 12 to 15 million sales for any other company would be an excellent start, for Apple, it seriously underrepresents the potential market.
And here's the rub -- anyone who ever thought about a smart watch who owns an iPhone, presumably has a had a year to look at the Watch, and decided to opt in, or out. So now, Apple has to attract customers who never thought about looking at a smart watch, and again from a very specific, well defined, and active audience -- existing iPhone users. Considering Apple's reputation, and massive marketing rollout for the watch, I'd say that anyone who was seriously considering an Watch has had a year to decide whether they were interested or not. And you've got a massive ~96% of all iPhone users who voted no. So for Apple that's a pretty big loss. Now, yes it takes time to build up interest in a new device, but for one that has a pretty well defined and targeted market, those are pretty underwhelming numbers.
That's what makes next week's event particularly disappointing if they don't introduce a new watch. Again, this is just my observation, but I'd say anybody interested in buying a Gen 1 Watch has already decided they will or won't and most of the 1st gen purchases have likely been made. Yes there will be more, but I"m hard pressed to imagine that there will even be similar numbers to the launch year over another 12 months. But a 2nd get watch with new features, or styling would get those who passed the first time to take another look. Again, compared to the iPhone, even it released a substantial upgrade every year (even if only a processor upgrade and enhanced software features), which continued to bring more attention to the platform. Call me a pessimist, but if all Apple offers are new watch bands, as rumored, I don't really see that changing anybody's mind who already passed on the watch.
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And yet every time I read a story about the watch, people call it a flop and say Tim should either resign for it or discontinue the product. Amazing.
11.5 million is peanuts for a device that can be bought worldwide. The real issue for the next iteration is not how many they sell, but how many people are willing to upgrade to the latest model of those older 11.5 million units.
I think if apple had called this a pet project then people would be less inclined to call it a flop.
For me personally the tech vs the price is still not worth it to replace any of my 6 watches I have in rotation. I still don't see more than a few watches here or there.
BTW here is how many watches are sold worldwide ~1,200,000,000... So you can see how low 11.5 million truly is.. .
LOL - totally agree. If Pebble was actually trying to create a throwback, 1980's-style watch, I would cut them some slack, but I think they thought it was a good design.
Well thought out. My comment was really just to put in perspective for those that think the iPhone was an overnight success. It wasn't. But time has a way with playing with people's memories.
I think it comes down to to 3 things. Need, value, and watch traditionalist. Nobody needs a smartwatch/apple watch and for what it costs it's not a fun impulse type of buy. Everyone needs a smart phone so there is just a much higher demand.
As much as I like tech products I don't feel a need to have a tablet so I've never bought one since I have a macbook which isn't restrictive to use like an ipad, though I still see more value in ipad than an iwatch.
Lastly the people that have money to throw around on watches and are true watch people probably rather save for a higher end designer watch that isn't going to be outdated every year.
Smart watches might take off one day especially if NFC payments continue to get mainstream, battery life gets better and the prices come down but I think that's a few years away still.
Worldwide meaning they rolled out the AW in several waves. It's not like they were available in all countries all year long, thereby undercutting the prospective sales.
Calling it a pet project wouldn't satisfy the many pundits who'd only look at the latest generation iPhone and iPad numbers and declare it a flop based on that. Apple sold more AWs compared to the original iPad at launch (which is pretty good considering that the AW is not exactly "iPhone-free"), and I don't remember anyone calling the iPad a flop, at least as much as they did with the AW.
Jokes aside, this is exactly what I did on my last trip at a hotel in Europe where the number of wall outlets were 2, including the shaver outlet in the bathroom. Since the iPad and the iPhone needed more time to charge, I charged my Apple watch first in an hour or so, then turned the watch off for the night and used the available plugs to charge my iphone and my iPad overnight. In the morning, my Apple watch was ready to go with 100% charge once I turned it on again.Congrats. You solved the mystery to extend all battery life!
Next time I go on a trip, I'll bring along an extension cord with multiple outlets.
The battery life of the Apple Watch is no issue.
Just charge it while you're sleeping.
At the end of a long day you'll have > 20% battery left. Easily.
Just charge it every night. Why is that so difficult?
I purchased a five port USP charging station that's about the size of a deck of cards. Works great and you only need one outlet to charge all of your devices.
I've seen just one in the wild; that was about a year ago in London, where I live.
Fraid to say, the Apple Watch is a failure. We have no idea how many Apple have sold, as Tim Cook has never told us. In addition, Apple have said very little about it in the past six months, which leads me to believe that sales have been very poor. Even if IDC guess correctly, 11.5 million is very low in relation to the iPhone user base. Remember, when the iPad sold over 15 million in its first year, the iPhone had only been out for less than three years, and the iPhone user base was much smaller than last year. And the Apple Watch is $150 cheaper than the iPad in 2010. In that context, the iWatch's sales would be very disappointing. What's more, IDC are notoriously inaccurate, so their prediction may be wildly optimistic even then.
As someone has already said, if Apple had approached this as a hobby like the Apple TV, the public would have been much more forgiving, but they sold it like it was the next big thing after the iPhone. In that sense, it has assuredly fallen short.
I would say that there is a crisis of confidence at Apple, as their design department is flailing wildly with horrors like the Apple Battery Case. Cook has been given a filip in the form of the FBI saga, which he has mercifully latched onto. And I am pleased for him that he can finally get his teeth into something which might actually portray Apple in a positive light after all these years. But it's not enough. The hardware coming out this year is looking ominously underpowered and uncompetitive, and the smartphone market has matured.
Once can only hope that the spirit of Steve Jobs might inspire some bright spark to reinvigorate Apple; if only Scott Forstall would return! Nonetheless, I will be looking forward to the keynote on Monday, even if my optimism is forlorn. Here's to a crazy Apple.
Fraid to say, the Apple Watch is a failure. We have no idea how many Apple have sold, as Tim Cook has never told us. In addition, Apple have said very little about it in the past six months, which leads me to believe that sales have been very poor. Even if IDC guess correctly, 11.5 million is very low in relation to the iPhone user base. Remember, when the iPad sold over 15 million in its first year, the iPhone had only been out for less than three years, and the iPhone user base was much smaller than last year. And the Apple Watch is $150 cheaper than the iPad in 2010. In that context, the iWatch's sales would be very disappointing. What's more, IDC are notoriously inaccurate, so their prediction may be wildly optimistic even then.
As someone has already said, if Apple had approached this as a hobby like the Apple TV, the public would have been much more forgiving, but they sold it like it was the next big thing after the iPhone. In that sense, it has assuredly fallen short.
I would say that there is a crisis of confidence at Apple, as their design department is flailing wildly with horrors like the Apple Battery Case. Cook has been given a filip in the form of the FBI saga, which he has mercifully latched onto. And I am pleased for him that he can finally get his teeth into something which might actually portray Apple in a positive light after all these years. But it's not enough. The hardware coming out this year is looking ominously underpowered and uncompetitive, and the smartphone market has matured.
Once can only hope that the spirit of Steve Jobs might inspire some bright spark to reinvigorate Apple; if only Scott Forstall would return! Nonetheless, I will be looking forward to the keynote on Monday, even if my optimism is forlorn. Here's to a crazy Apple.
I'm going to guess we will not be seeing a major change to the watch this year. Better processor, and innards sure, but I would imagine they won't have a redesign until next year along with a major iPhone redesign, a ten year anniversary of it and the opening of the new spaceship campus.
I think Apple has major happenings planned for 2017
I think Apple has major happenings planned for 2017
The problem is that this isn't what they aimed for, but the exact opposite - four years after the iPad, Tim & Co. presented the Apple Watch with the intention to prove that they are still able to change the whole industry, re-define our daily life and land a game changer of Steve dimensions even without Steve. The iPod, the iPhone, the iPad ... the Apple Watch. Nothing less in their very hopeful (and probably secretly more and more desperate out of ideas) minds.
They failed with that and the chance of still building an Apple watch momentum will get even more slim if the 2nd generation of the watch won't be a SIGNIFICANT update.
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Fitbit sold 8.3 mio devices in Q4 2015. 21.4 mio in 2015, yet they didn't include it in the table. It's has a clock on it.
I'm very excited about the upcoming Garmin Vivoactive HR. 8 day battery life under normal conditions, always-on display, GPS, HRM, and modes to track cross-country skiing which nobody else seems to try to do. Has notifications, and even an app store. All for USD250. For anyone who's buying a watch for fitness, this sounds like the best device out there. Next month, anyway.
As an aside, here in rural Canada I've basically never seen an Apple Watch outside the Apple Store. I just came back from California though and lost track of the number of people I saw wearing them. For something that's basically a luxury device it sure crosses a lot of economic boundaries.
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It's called the Microsoft Band 2. I bought one and then returned it due to its inability to get me through a workout using GPS without running out of batteries, and its lack of a "general exercise with GPS" mode. It's very close to being a great device, with just a couple flaw that made it a failure for what I wanted.