Huh? Apple Watch is a tremendously successful product.
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'Apple Watch Pro' Rumored to Feature Larger 47mm Case Size With Flat Display
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Huh? Apple Watch is a tremendously successful product.
I think there was one rumor and then everyone used that as the source but could be wrong
If it’s going to be made out of some special titanium alloy like Liquidmetal AND seeing as how the Steel version goes for up to $799 depending on the band, AND the current titanium goes for up to $849, $999 doesn’t seem like much of a stretch.
Compared to what? Compared to smartphones vs. feature phones, smart watches are nowhere near the same market penetration/market interest.
Compared to watches, they are large, thick, expensive, have atrocious battery life, and require daily charging with a special device you need to bring along when travelling from home.
Compared to cell phones they are extremely limited in functionality - and since you are likely to bring a cell phone in any case, that limited functionality is superfluous. (Which is also why having a watch strapped to your arm at all is nowhere near as common as it used to be.)
Smartwatches live in an in-between space, and that space is pretty narrow.
Clearly it’s a subset of other products. You can’t use an Apple Watch without an iPhone, so there will always be more iPhones than Apple watches.
The Apple Watch is the biggest selling watch in the world, so I’d say that’s a hell of a lot more than "pretty narrow space".
I don’t know how you can even compare an Apple Watch to a smart phone market. It’s ridiculous, and pointless.
Smart Phone Sales 2021 1.4 Billion (Apple 15% of the market)
Smart Watch Sales 2021 127.5 Million (Apple 30% if the market)
First of all, you have to decide if you‘re talking about Apple Watch (the product) or smart watches in general (the segment). Then, how does it make sense to compare anything to the success level of iPhone (or smart phones in general)? That was (and is) a once-in-a-lifetime market opportunity. Nothing in the consumer electronics space will ever be as successful as the iPhone.
Compared to other consumer electronic gadgets, Apple Watch is huge. Apple right now has about 40 billion dollars annual revenue for „Wearables, Home, and Accessories“, most of that from the Watch.
Leaving aside the question of how much sense it makes to compare smart watches to dumb watches in the first place (because they really have nothing in common except for the place you wear them), all of these things have nothing to do with „success“ in the marketplace but are only things that apparently annoy you on a personal level. Also, most dumb watches I see men wear are actually larger than Apple Watch.
No. They share some functions, and some functions the iPhone obviously has over the Watch - and vice versa. As a health/sleep/training tracker, for instance, the Watch is infinitely better than the iPhone. Apple Pay is more convenient on the Watch. The taptic engine means I can get silent notifications and can have the iPhone on silent permanently (i.e. less distracting). I get so much info just quicker by glancing at the Watch. I could go on and on.
One of the wonderful things a cellular Watch enables is to not bring a cell phone in any case. I can for example go for a run and still listen to my music streaming from the Watch to my AirPods, can still be reached by phone in case of an emergency, can still get important messages/notifications, all without the iPhone‘s weight annoyingly dangling in my shorts pocket.
I don‘t know where you live, but since the ascent of the smart watch (and Apple Watch in particular), from what I have been observing watch wearing has soared again. Which Apple‘s massive sales numbers bear out.
Also, so much this. Apple basically owns the (not only smart) watch market, excluding Android users, extreme fitness niches like Garmin and the luxury market of Rolex et al. And even a lot of the folks attached to the latter are having more and more of a hard time ignoring the ever-increasing functionality of these tiny computers strapped to the wrist. Now imagine adding blood pressure and (the grail for now) blood sugar … at that point, resistance will indeed be completely futile.
Might seem sensible, but I can imagine family circumstances in which everyone has an Apple Watch but only the adults have iPhones.
I'd even go so far as to suggest a child-friendly Apple Watch could be a winner. Smaller and limited but allowing communication.
(I haven't thought through all the consequences. There again, all too often neither has anyone else.)
The main reason I and MILLIONS of other people worldwide have an AW is because we use it to track our workouts. I don’t see that FACT anywhere in your post.
And, in the US, the Apple Watch sells better.
“In the US market, … in the fourth quarter of 2018, … smartwatches outsold traditional watches 55% to 45%.”
You have basically described the Watch SE. That is what a lot of people get for their children. They can put various limits on it.
I think the SE is too large for smaller children. And maybe make it even less expensive by not including heart rate?
The Apple Watch SE is available at a 40 mm size.
Just grabbed the first “children’s watch” I found from a list of “best for 2022!”
XPLORA X5 Play - Watch Phone for Children (4G) - Calls, Messages, Kids School Mode, SOS Function, GPS Location, Camera and Pedometer - (Subscription Required) (Black)
Recommended Age 4 years old +
www.amazon.com
Second
GizmoWatch Disney Edition Smartwatch | Verizon
Check out the GizmoWatch Disney Edition smartwatch from Verizon. Help children learn to manage tasks and enjoy features like an SOS button and Auto Answer.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I agree with Unregistered 4U that the SE is probably not too large for children old enough to wear a watch. It might make sense to remove the heart rate and related sensors to reduce cost and to reduce the bulk for a Kids-focused watch. Kids may less need of the fitness related heart rate tracking or the ECG feature or the blood O2 sensor but more in need of the cellular connection.
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I’d see the heart rate sensors as a boon. How invaluable would it be in the future to have a history of your own heart health from the age of 7 on up?
Every 2-3 days. I’m on medical retirement and use it as an emergency phone in case of dialysis related issues (at home). Every now and then I’ll talk to my sister 1/2 way across the continent or text. Most of my phone use is spent
a) talking to tech support when some toy, some ecosystem fails
b) talking to customer service to order stuff
c) as a network server to stream movies, tv and music
d) to control my robot toys
e) to play chess with some e-boards
f) to analyze chess positions
g) to keep track of grocery orders I write in Goodnotes on an iPad Pro.
h) camera/apps
i) weather forecasting, which is always on and set to receive weather alerts for SW corner of Nova Scotia (Bay of Fundy)
Analysing chess positions chews up the battery, so sometimes run that plugged in.
Just the more battery life the better. Also cause I live outside of a town, I’m purchasing a whole home backup battery - cause when the electricity goes out (twice in 1 year) there’s only a pellet stoce to keep the house warm. The pellet stove needs an electricity source to operate/self regulate. Fridge/Freezer, tv, monitor, one Macbook, coffee maker and microwave os what I need. The dialysis runs w/o power.
And there’s floor standing bluetooth speakers. They can operate plugged in or w/o power cords.
What can I say. I’m lusting after multiple KWh storage batteries 🇨🇦 and 4 solar power arrays
B/c I spend 100% of my time at home save for when I buy groceries/hospital visit I’ve adapted into a high electricity consumption lifestyle. My watch use would be similar
Tom
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Since I’m on home dialysis, I usually have to provide blood once every 6 weeks or so for the medical people to assess biological stability and efficiency of my home dialysis. Take regular bp. would def use O2 saturation, ekg and any other biological sensors they can cram in there.
Ideally I’d go into the hospital/dialysis, meet with the head nurse and do an Apple Watch > whatever Apple brand computer/tablet/watch/etc they have. no need for needles or blood drawn - just continuous monitoring and a quick transfer of data.
Once a year I go in for a ‘team’ assessment. Nurse, Pharmacist, Dietitian, social worker amd Nephrologist. The town hospital now has a Nephrologist specializing in my type of dialysis but for the first 1/2 year it was in person for everyone except tele health nephrologist. My health team always had to physically FAX or email my info to the Nephrologist< wait while he would read it and start the 6 person consult.
It would be so much easier with an Apple Watch. I see the potential. Almost begging to charge me whatever you want Apple, just please with the battery
Tom
Or please, non biologically harmful wireless charging so I can bump-up the battery while wearing it and sleeping.
Ideally I’d go into the hospital/dialysis, meet with the head nurse and do an Apple Watch > whatever Apple brand computer/tablet/watch/etc they have. no need for needles or blood drawn - just continuous monitoring and a quick transfer of data.
Once a year I go in for a ‘team’ assessment. Nurse, Pharmacist, Dietitian, social worker amd Nephrologist. The town hospital now has a Nephrologist specializing in my type of dialysis but for the first 1/2 year it was in person for everyone except tele health nephrologist. My health team always had to physically FAX or email my info to the Nephrologist< wait while he would read it and start the 6 person consult.
It would be so much easier with an Apple Watch. I see the potential. Almost begging to charge me whatever you want Apple, just please with the battery
Tom
Or please, non biologically harmful wireless charging so I can bump-up the battery while wearing it and sleeping.
45mm is already a clown size on most people's wrists. they just don't realise it.
Completely agree! I’m average height with what I consider small wrists (Apple stretchy watch band size 4/5), and I chose the LTE AW7 in 45mm. It looks perfectly fine on my wrist. My wife even recommended the 45 size and said the 41 would look too small and silly on me. I am not looking to upgrade so soon but if I didn’t already have an Apple Watch then I would definitely consider/prefer a 47mm.
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Or maybe it is just you see it that way and others don't. Ever think of that?