Apple Watch Remains Nearly Three Times as Popular as Samsung Smartwatches

[ArtOfWarfare]

In the next 5 years, most (not all) will opt for a tablet over a laptop.

You're behind on this estimate. Peak laptop sales were around 225M in 2012. In 2014, only 210M laptops were sold, vs 266M tablets.

Since then, tablet sales have continued to grow and laptop sales have continued to shrink. So we're already at the point when more tablets are being sold than laptops, and have been at this point for ~2 years. I think within the next few years, it'll become very apparent as old laptops are retired and replaced with tablets.

 

[djcerla]

It's the best smart watch. Though they are more rare than Windows phones...by a large margin

If true, this is just a momentary occurrence, as the Apple Watch already outsells the dying WP hardware.

BTW, it's a long time I don't see a Windows Phone in the wild (and Italy was even WP most successful outpost, at >10% market share), while Watches are flourishing everywhere.

 

[andrewsipes]

Woohoo, they dominate a market segment nobody cares about.

However, your anectdotal evidence doesn't pan out to even this study -- Apple still only has a 47% market share against all smart watches sold. All other smart watches therefore make up a 53% share. Which means, you shouldn't be seeing more Watches than any other kind, but at least in equal numbers.

Most of what you're seeing has likely always been there over the past year when Apple dominated the market with 72%, you're just now making a point to notice whether people are wearing them or not. And that's why anectdotal evidence doesn't really work for any kind of serious analysis ...

Market Share != Wear Rate. There are tons of factors in considering how likely you are to see an Apple Watch in the wild. Your generalization is nearly as misguided as the exclusive use of anecdotal evidence.

 

[enzo thecat]

This is great news. I primarily come to this website for stories like this that help validate my purchase of the Apple Watch. I'm all warm and fuzzy again. I just wish the'yd do Apple Watch success stories more often.

 

[djcerla]

no GPS and current battery would make the AW a glorified tethered accessory. Not an ideal sell.

who leaves home without the cellphone? GPS is not a problem.

and battery isn't either: when navigation is on my AW doesn not burn thru the battery, despite being tethered continuously to the iPhone, so I can't imagine what difference would make a "Pokemon navigation" app.

 

[John Mcgregor]

Here we go again with GPS.
[doublepost=1469114038][/doublepost]

who leaves home without the cellphone? GPS is not a problem.

and battery isn't either: when navigation is on my AW doesn not burn thru the battery, despite being tethered continuously to the iPhone, so I can't imagine what difference would make a "Pokemon navigation" app.

Who leaves home without a head?

 

[Lemon Mac]

Driving Knitting Needles Into Ones Ears Remains Nearly Three Times as Popular as Drilling ones Eyeballs Out With a Hand Drill.

 

[2457282]

You're behind on this estimate. Peak laptop sales were around 225M in 2012. In 2014, only 210M laptops were sold, vs 266M tablets.

Since then, tablet sales have continued to grow and laptop sales have continued to shrink. So we're already at the point when more tablets are being sold than laptops, and have been at this point for ~2 years. I think within the next few years, it'll become very apparent as old laptops are retired and replaced with tablets.

Although I cannot argue your numbers, my point was slightly different. Today most owners of tablets also own a desktop or a laptop. In my family we have a desktop, a laptop and two ipads. My point was that in the next five years we will see most homes with tablets and no laptops or desktops. That will include my home I believe.

 

[LordVic]

The thing with the competing Smart watches is that a lot of them went overboard making them look like regular watches, so they may be around but you don't notice them. I saw some guy wearing a round smart watch but I thought it was a regular watch until he got some sort of text on it. Apple Watches are very noticeable. You can't help but see them.

and thirdly (because both of yours and your reply point out reasons for the AW initial success), is Marketing. Samsung is probably the leader in android world for marketing, and even they haven't really pushed the S2 that much. Huwei, LG, etc, have almost zero marketing. they're on shelves at best buy, and geeks like us know about them, But there's very little else being said in the general public about them

The Apple watch on the other hand underwent a massive, public marketign campaign with prime time TV spots, celebrity endorsements, primetime TV product placements, and impermanence in Apple stores.

you cannot discount that when looking at the numbers chart for how Apple was so easily able to take over most of the smart watch market.

I think the bigger tell about the chart if accurate is the precipitous fall off in sales that occurred after initial launch. While everyone else has seen moderate growth, Apple sales in the watch was cut in half just over a couple quarters, indicating that much of the sales of Apple watch were likely marketing based sales, or people who buy Apple products on launch.

 

[ericwn]

If I were Apple, I would visit the offices of whoever is in charge of Pokémon Go and offer them buckets of money to make a Pokémon Go app for Apple Watch. Notifies you of nearby Pokemons w/o having to have your phone out 24/7. Maybe some other fancy stuff.

Then Tim Cook can sit back, watch Apple Watch sales explode, and cackle maniacally as he takes over Earth.

I think you have a point, but would this not remove the augmented reality aspect pretty much completely?

 

[ericwn]

I agree- I just got a Fitbit HR - I could not justify purchasing the Apple Watch due to the price and I felt like (no offense to some people - they look a little pretentious in my opinion). The fitbit does everything I want it to minus text alerts. It's perfect for me.

Apple watch just does not seemed like a product thats "focused"

But with this logic the iPhone would not be focussed either, since it does way more than phone calls. It is a smart device, a computer of the modern age. The manufacturer can give us the hardware and software, but what applications we run on the platform is up to the users.

 

[Precision Gem]

My personal count hasn't changed one bit over the last months. I still have one colleague in Germany with a Sony smart watch and one colleague in the UK with an Apple Watch. I never see anyone with a smart watch on the ICE or in the streets. "Real" watches, and by that I mean expensive ones, I see way more often than those useless smart watch gadgets.

You need to look outside of Germany. In NYC I see apple watches all the time on the subway, streets and coffee shops.

 

[EricTheHalfBee]

If I were Apple, I would visit the offices of whoever is in charge of Pokémon Go and offer them buckets of money to make a Pokémon Go app for Apple Watch. Notifies you of nearby Pokemons w/o having to have your phone out 24/7. Maybe some other fancy stuff.

Then Tim Cook can sit back, watch Apple Watch sales explode, and cackle maniacally as he takes over Earth.

This makes so much sense. Nintendo already has the watch band thingy you can wear. Why not have an App for the Apple Watch that duplicates the functionality? Charge $4.99 for it to boot.

 

[Precision Gem]

This makes so much sense. Nintendo already has the watch band thingy you can wear. Why not have an App for the Apple Watch that duplicates the functionality? Charge $4.99 for it to boot.

Isn't it mostly children playing Pokeman Go? Will they really buy a watch for a few hundred dollars? I would think the watch is more of an adult thing.

 

[PaulRustad007]

I have an Apple Watch, ever since December 2015. I wear it daily and it does come in handy. I can accept calls without reaching for my phone, I can reply to messages simply by talking, Apple Pay does wonders and is so convenient. Turn by turn directions is pretty handy, though I wish the haptic feedback would tell me the difference between left and right. It seems to be pretty accurate for step-tracking. Typically a charge will last me 2 days. Notifications are nice and not too intrusive. Overall, I am very happy with the device. I am looking forward to WatchOs3 and see how that improves the unit. For a first gen product, I am quite pleased and happy.

 

[44267547]

Where is the pebble? In the other category? I assume pebble falls into the smartwatch category and that they are still doing well, but based on this report, my ass-umptions may be off.

Pebble is still hanging in the balance surprisingly. I know they started a Kickstarter for their new Watch to debut later this year. Where Pebble struggles is their customer service base. I have read and heard horrific experiences, which is half the battle if you cannot meet needs/expectations to the customer. I think they make a suitable Watch, obviously their quality/craftsmanship is not on the level of Apple or Samsung.

 

[UltimaKilo]

If I were Apple, I would visit the offices of whoever is in charge of Pokémon Go and offer them buckets of money to make a Pokémon Go app for Apple Watch. Notifies you of nearby Pokemons w/o having to have your phone out 24/7. Maybe some other fancy stuff.

Then Tim Cook can sit back, watch Apple Watch sales explode, and cackle maniacally as he takes over Earth.

Apple isn't a person, it's a company. But if Tim Cook were to convince Nintendo to do this (they already sell their own Pokemon Band), they would have to charge more for the app than they do for the band. Likewise, it wouldn't be a smart move for Nintendo and eDNA to make the app exclusive to Apple products.

I agree- I just got a Fitbit HR - I could not justify purchasing the Apple Watch due to the price and I felt like (no offense to some people - they look a little pretentious in my opinion). The fitbit does everything I want it to minus text alerts. It's perfect for me.

Apple watch just does not seemed like a product thats "focused"

However, the FitBit is still not as accurate as the Apple Watch for fitness tracking. Considering the Apple Watch is not as accurate as the Microsoft Band 2 or the Moov, neither the FitBit or Apple Watch are great for accuracy and fitness junkies like myself.

You know my rants from the past. In the next 5 years, most (not all) will opt for a tablet over a laptop. Or maybe the Phablet. And I believe as we continue to focus on mobility and as technology pushes forward, you will be able to do a lot with something that is essentially attached to your body (including checking the time). But as many have stated, this is still a product in search of a market, one that they are being careful to cultivate slowly and methodically.

For example, the best thing they did was not put a camera on the watch. I just can't see that working, ever. More health sensors and apps on the other hand I think will continue to drive the watch forward.

The way tablets are moving, I would say 5 or 6 years would be a good time frame for your prediction. Once we get into perfecting 7nm chips, tablets will be able to do almost everything their laptop counterparts can without much performance loss.

The Apple Watch should have more health sensors and needs to be more accurate for fitness, because a I mentioned above, they are trailing behind Microsoft's Band 2 on fitness. Both the Apple TV and the Apple Watch can really help Apple get back on track.

 

[MH01]

If true, this is just a momentary occurrence, as the Apple Watch already outsells the dying WP hardware.

BTW, it's a long time I don't see a Windows Phone in the wild (and Italy was even WP most successful outpost, at >10% market share), while Watches are flourishing everywhere.

I seldom see an Apple Watch in the wild. I still to this day get odd looks when I wear mine, and this is London. And everyone I've talked to, even people who see mine, consider them of little benefit.

 

[Benjamin Frost]

Failing to see how a 55% decline on a year ago is a good thing.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Most smart watches besides Apple are round. Since the initial hype is over and those watches account for over 53% of the entire smart watch market, I'd say Apple had better keep its options open. Function isn't the sole consideration for a product people wear. Never has been.

This time it took not even 20 minutes for the "but it isn't round" complaints to start.

 

[foxcub6]

Well, -55% growth is nothing to brag about, as too is bragging about selling more of a product in a **** market nobody cares about. It is obvious consumers are apathetic towards smartwatches, most are smart enough not to spend $500+ on a glorified Casio digital watch.

You can say that about iPhone ! It depends on users wishes .you can get s phone fraction of the price of a iPhone which does the same or more . I take it you don't have a AW ? So this is your opinion we must be wrong lol

 

[DynaFXD]

Isn't it mostly children playing Pokeman Go? Will they really buy a watch for a few hundred dollars? I would think the watch is more of an adult thing.

Ha! Yeah, you think so. My son plays it, sure. But when we go to the park or out walking I see almost exclusively adults. Not to mention the stock brokers and bankers shuckin through the streets of Manhattan trying to catch them all, among other. This thing has taken everybody by surprise and I don't think anyone should dismiss it as a kid's only crowd. Think of it as geocaching for pokemon, only easier to find. The lure and fun of getting out there and finding things transcends age brackets.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Turn by turn directions is pretty handy, though I wish the haptic feedback would tell me the difference between left and right.

It does, if not in the most intuitive way. It taps 12 times in rapid succession for a right turn, and three pairs of two taps for a left.

 

[foxcub6]

Battery must be better on wearables for this to happen. Otherwise, people are going to crap all over the smartwatch manufacturer. GPS would be helpful too. But that circles back to a better battery. Specifically regarding an app... no GPS and current battery would make the AW a glorified tethered accessory. Not an ideal sell.

But there again my watch batt lasts longer than my iPhone batt not a problem as I ain't up 24 hours I sleep at night and guess what I charge both devices!

 

[DynaFXD]

I seldom see an Apple Watch in the wild. I still to this day get odd looks when I wear mine, and this is London. And everyone I've talked to, even people who see mine, consider them of little benefit.

....trying reeeallllyyy hard to understand why anyone should care about the opinions of others in matters of personal wear and the devices that they choose to use. Just can't see it. Oh wait! Now I get it....nope. That was just passing a little gas. Nevermind.