Apple Watch Remains Nearly Three Times as Popular as Samsung Smartwatches

[a.gomez]

No idea where is the good news in that chart. Not surprised that it is all crashing - most people I know have iphones non of them have an apple watch. My girlfriend got a watch for work after her promotion this year, No "gadget watch" (as she calls them) made the list.

 

[PaulRustad007]

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.

Thanks...I will have to focus more and see if I get the same results.

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.

I have seen everyone playing this game from 6 year old to 66 year olds....

 

[Saturn007]

...

I think the worst thing about the watch was it's original introduction - the selling point was unclear. How hard would it have been to say something along the lines of

"Apple Watch a health and fitness device. For the best results, we can't add health and fitness hardware to your iPhone, it has to be a dedicated device that's constantly on your wrist.

"If you're going to wear it all day, every day, it needs to look great, reflect your style and taste, and be customisable.

"And, if you're wearing this on your wrist, it's the perfect device to receive notifications. Answer a call, respond to a message, or check send your heartbeat to a friend."

In fact, they said all those things; they just packaged them differently. It would have limited sales greatly to have marketed it as a fitness device--their vision of the product and the consumers they wanted to reach wanted the full package--a smartwatch not a fitness companion (or nag!).

 

[pdqgp]

I have seen more lately but never really see anyone using them. I've enjoyed and continue to use my Samsung Gear S paired with my Note 5. Works great for what it is and makes not having to carry a phone around a nice thing.

I just picked up an LG Urbane 2nd Edition this week too. Love it! Much much nicer in terms of appearance. Charger is light-years better than the Gear S which is fairly fragile (cheap amazon $10 ones work great too though). So far the LG Is far better when working remotely and I enjoy having "okay google" back even when not tethered. The good news is the apps and OS on the two are different and thus they overlap but not much.

So far the Urbane 2 is the winner for me. I really see no point in having a smart watch that has to be connected via bluetooth thus why I go with LTE/3G one's.

 

[macs4nw]

Still sitting on the AppleWatch fence, but I know sooner or later I will join that (r)evolution. Just too tantalizing to pass up. With increased miniaturization, added functionality and vastly improved battery tech, the AppleWatch will eventually, rather than augment, actually replace the iPhone as our primary personal communications device.

All that will of course not happen in the next iteration, but version 2.0 may have enough added functionality to lure many 'fence-sitters'.

 

[44267547]

well it's just awesome.
Gone from 250 pounds to 190 (current) since I got it

That's inspiring. Good for you. Keep up the good effort.
[doublepost=1469147019][/doublepost]

For a first gen device it's pretty amazing

Glad your liking your Apple Watch. Will you upgrade to version 2 when released? I love mine as well. I customize it every day.

 

[John Mcgregor]

Of Course!

"There's no point being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes." - The Doctor

Quoting some mouth-breather makes a really bad argument.

 

[Luscious]

Taking a closer look at the data, shipments of non-Apple smartwatches increased 93% y/y. The smartwatch category is growing fast,just not the Apple Watch . Either every who wanted an Apple Watch got one as soon as they were released, or once the Apple Watch was released people were not was excited about it, or a bit of both.

Or not. I just bought the watch Saturday and I love it!!!! The fact of the matter is that it's a successful product that people want to purchase even today knowing that a new model is just around the corner.

 

[Kroo]

[doublepost=1469163915][/doublepost]

At least they lead in one market, which amounts to the 2.5Bn $ of their 50Bn $ income, despite their sales in total dropped 30% since last year and despite Samsung sold almost double the amount of phones (81M vs 51M) where mobile phones is their main market. But sure they are first in something, so let's drink to that!

One big hole in your theory. Samsung don't release sales figures, just shipments. If you can believe anything samsung tell you, then I have a bridge I have to sell you..... Lets drink to that!

 

[kdarling]

One big hole in your theory. Samsung don't release sales figures, just shipments. ..

Samsung normally doesn't detail any figures, for the same supposed competitive reasons that Apple doesn't detail Apple Watch figures or their iPhone model sales breakdown.

So we have to rely on analyst figures for discussion.

As for "shipments vs sales", that's a popular point of confusion. "Sales" in company reports do not mean just "end user" sales. They also include sales to retailers' stock, which is the overwhelming majority of quarterly reported sales revenue.

That accounting method is also used by Apple. In fact, as noted in their respective SEC filings, the biggest difference is that Samsung doesn't record a revenue sale until a device arrives at a retailer, whereas Apple includes it in their public count the moment that a device ships to a retailer.

When we see headlines like "ten million XX sold the first weekend", many of those are units only sold to retailers, and might even be still in the process of being shipped to them. Often, millions of those highly reported sales are not yet ultimately resold to an end user.

The upshot is that everyone... including Apple... uses what you seem to be calling "shipped" figures. But to Apple and others, it's been "sold", because they already got paid, even if the units are sitting in a store's warehouse. Analysts use the same method, with rare exception.

 

[thekeyring]

In fact, they said all those things; they just packaged them differently. It would have limited sales greatly to have marketed it as a fitness device--their vision of the product and the consumers they wanted to reach wanted the full package--a smartwatch not a fitness companion (or nag!).

Fair point!

 

[deusx]

If you're gonna compare sales of units... make sure they are somewhat congruent.

Don't forget... Samsung sells a ton of $100 phones... while you need at least $400 to get an Apple phone.

Cheap things sell more... and Apple doesn't do cheap.

It's also no surprise that Lenovo, HP and Dell sell more laptops than Apple... when Apple's laptops start at $900.

Sure, you have a point there. I do not have any intention to compare them as a whole, neither to go into the details of the quality of their devices. But since Apple turned from a personal computer company to a mobile phone company, and since they supposedly want to be a good at it, I quoted number of sales because a) this is what is currently available to compare and b) it still is one indication of success, if one had to be good at making smartphones.

Also regarding cheap devices sales wrt volume of sales, my understanding is that if apple didn't care all that much about volume of sales in smartphones but rather had interest in selling premium class devices only, then we wouldn't see hilarious attempts in lower cost and entry level markets with quite a few edition of 5C SE etc. Of course it makes sense for them to have more users engaged in the app store / music ecosystem in the long run and it is quite evident that at some point (kind of late though) they compromised towards the sell cheap/sell more direction.

Prices in the high-end range are very comparable to high-end android devices as well. But (soon) asking even around 1000$ for a smartphone is plain ridiculous. Not for the price, but mainly because it simply is not worth that much. Maybe it used to, but now not. Mostly because the quality of the hardware and also the services offered behind that price tag, are just crap, but nicely packaged.

 

[osokona]

Someone at Samsung must be fired. Why is this company always trying to change their best creation to make them look like someone else's? They destroyed the Galaxy and Note series by trying to make them look like iPhone, dropping the back cover, SD card and infrared in the process. Next, they destroyed the Gear watch by making it round to match the Motorola 360. What next? I am so pissed.
The only reason

 

[attila]

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 don't think the target group of Pokemon Go could afford both an iPhone and an Apple Watch.

 

[Savor]

And in other news, Samsung is still the world's largest TV manufacturer since 2006 and world's largest smartphone manufacturer since 2012. Samsung sells a TV for as much as $120,000. An Apple Watch at its most expensive variant still isn't as expensive. Outselling more smartwatches is like saying you won the Special Olympics.

Level of practicality to most people -
Smartphone > Smart TV > Smartwatch
Samsung Washing Machine > Apple Watch

Hmm, watch TV and wash my clothes or wear a smartwatch which is far less capable than a smartphone where I can check the time and do more with it too? Nice to see Apple dominate a gimmicky, niche market though. Smartwatches is as gimmicky as Google Glass and probably less useful than VR headsets to watch movies and Microsoft HoloLens.

I think Apple is following Sony's footsteps. Sony lost the TV market to Samsung. Sony lost the portable music market to Apple. Sony doing well only in niche markets like gaming and compact digital cameras. Apple needs to dominate markets where we know it is practical for anyone to own.

Not everyone needs a PlayStation or Apple Watch. But people NEED appliances in their homes like a washing machine and refrigerator. Smartphones basically eliminated iPods, gaming handhelds, small digital cameras, and the desire to wear watches. Cater to practical needs. Not wants.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...g-became-the-worlds-no-dot-1-smartphone-maker

In 1991, Samsung started making LCD panels it sold to other television brands. In 1994 it started making flash memory for devices such as the iPod and smartphones. Samsung is now the No. 1 maker of LCD televisions and sells more flash memory and RAM chips than any other company in the world. And in 2012 it passed Nokia to become the
world’s largest mobile-phone manufacturer.

 

[Pilgrim1099]

Speaking of the Apple Watch, this was bound to happen when the sales drop down to 55%:

http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/22/news/companies/apple-watch-smartwatch-sales-report/index.html

Not even Tim Cook can deny or hide this.

 

[cdmoore74]

I own 2 Android Wear watches and 1 original Pebble. I keep going back to the Pebble not because Android Wear is bad but because I only want basic notifications and long battery life. Only thing missing is Apple pay from the wrist but that's the reason for buying a smaller phone in the first place. And the idea of launching apps from such a small screen is a total turn off for me.
[doublepost=1469196221][/doublepost]

I feel like if Pokemon go made a companion app. There would be a visible shift in apple watches and even Samsung. This one game could literally change the smart watch market.

So you want to replace people holding phones in their hands vs people holding watches much closer to their face while walking around looking for Pokemon? It's bad of enough that people are not paying attention while walking and driving.

 

[coolspot18]

Not really surprising. Smart watches are gimmick devices. It's no wonder more Apple fans buy into this sort of thing. I say this as a AW wearer.

Too expensive, too basic, and too short of a battery life... perhaps in a generation or two, when the price falls to the $200 range will people actually pick these things up. I'm not paying $500 to $1000+ for a device that barely does anything.

 

[LCPepper]

I mean, to be fair, if I were going to go out and buy a SmartWatch, it would be the Apple Watch every single time!

I love 

 

[tooltalk]

Why are the Samsung smartwatches all circular?

The only reason to make your watch a circle is because it's an analog device... my digital watches have a much more rectangular shape, closer to that of an Apple Watch. There's nothing about your wrist that makes a circle a better usage of space.

My wife told me two days ago that she's thinking about getting an Apple Watch for the fitness features. I'm the nerd. Not her. She's more interested in it than I am. Which suggests that Apple is probably doing something right.

Samsung has had various wearable devices in their Fit and Gear series that are rectangular, curved, or circular. I suspect that the aesthetic wasn't the only factor in Gear Watch's circular design. Or perhaps it's because Samsung can make circular displays -- while others can't. Samsung is far and away ahead of competitors in mobile display business -- in some areas like AMOLED, it has something like 90+% of global market share.

 

[theluggage]

The only reason to make your watch a circle is because it's an analog device...

...whereas a digital device can be any shape you want (especially if you are Samsung or LG and can make your own display) so why not a circle?

If your main display is going to be an analogue-style clock face (which is a popular & convenient way of visualising the time) then a circle makes sense: you can fit a larger watch face for a given bulk. Its a watch - so I'd normally be wanting big, bold, at-a-glance visual representations first, text and numbers second: if you're cramming corner-to-corner information onto the display then you're doing it wrong.

Also, the Samsung watches use the bezel as a control - which strikes me as a lot less fiddly than using the "crown".

Now, I've never had a serious play with the Samsung, so its quite possible that the quality of implementation is not up to Apple standards (it usually isn't) but, in principle, all things being equal, I'd choose a circular face and bezel control over square with a crown. Of course, choice is good...

 

[jonnysods]

That's inspiring. Good for you. Keep up the good effort.
[doublepost=1469147019][/doublepost]

Glad your liking your Apple Watch. Will you upgrade to version 2 when released? I love mine as well. I customize it every day.

I'm totally upgrading! The one I have now is second hand to fill in time until the next one comes out. Had such low expectations for the first gen but I was blown away.

 

[inkswamp]

It's disappointing how negative MacRumors commenters are nowadays. Most of the comments are anecdotal (no, the number of Apple Watches you've seen at your local Starbucks/gym/workplace is meaningless) or just betray a very negative and childish attitude ("So what? Tim Cook sucks." "They'll never be as big as Samsung!")

Technology products have always been about squeezing the future down into a little box of electronics. I'm constantly amazed by the things I see Apple and other companies doing. If you're not a fan of that kind of thing, why are you here? Furthermore, why waste your time commenting here or on any tech site?

I don't understand some of you people.

 

[mi7chy]

AW is a useless since it requires tethering to phone. Gear 2 with built in cellular to operate untethered is better and it doesn't look like the old ugly Casio calculator watch but I'll wait until 3rd gen for further refinement.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

Why are the Samsung smartwatches all circular?

The only reason to make your watch a circle is because it's an analog device... my digital watches have a much more rectangular shape, closer to that of an Apple Watch. There's nothing about your wrist that makes a circle a better usage of space.

My wife told me two days ago that she's thinking about getting an Apple Watch for the fitness features. I'm the nerd. Not her. She's more interested in it than I am. Which suggests that Apple is probably doing something right.

My wife and I had the same conversation. She said, "You've lost 28lbs wearing that thing, and I guess it works." I've managed to bring her to the dark side!