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Apple Watch U.S. Online Sales Estimated at 3 Million Through 3 Months
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Yikes. The numbers are actually higher than I expected, if true.
For such an expensive and niche product, that's a LOT of money going into Apple's coffers.
Apple's marketing prowess is formidable. Their diversification from a computer company into a mainstream (and now fashion) company should not be underestimated.
I hope that they still have a division focused on real computers, but that seems less and less likely, given their current offerings.
Still, congrats are merited for Apple.
But I'm still not, and never will be, interested in an Apple watch. It's official: I'm old.
Don't blame it on old age, I'm sixty five and love my Apple Watch.
Although you are right about the trend, it is you who need to look a bit wider also. It is to be expected that there is a short surge of high sales after the product introduction, after which there is a stabilization to more normal sales levels. In addition you forget that this is only US data and that the watch hasn't even launched in most parts of the world.
The only way to say whether the watch is a flop or a success is to look back in about three years and look at actual data from the entire market and when it is a mature product.
No, I don't think it will be the next iPhone, but there is a lot of very profitable room between fad and 'next iPhone'.
You obviously don't own an Apple Watch. Just launch the phone app, go to contacts and select who you want to call. No need to ask Siri.If we could make calls from our watch without having to talk to stupid Siri, i bet it would be a LOT higher
Totally agree with #1. Totally disagree with #2. Even though I'm not remotely interested in the Apple Watch, it's a very impressive piece of hardware engineering. And it's leaps and bounds ahead of other smart watch products.
The number of Apple Watches sold since launch is pretty meaningless. There's a built-in market of hardcore fans. Now we have some idea of that market size. Are sales growing? It doesn't sound like it. That's the issue. Can they build momentum and interest? I don't think so. There's no buzz. The media is indifferent at best. There's no real excitement on social media. I think many people were curious and now that they've seen the watch, the mystery is gone and most people aren't going to pony up $350+ for an iPhone accessory.
I just go off what I see on a daily basis , the Apple watch is very rare. And I'd expect to see more in big cities like Paris/London (live in London and travel to Paris). And I work with lots of tech savvy people in software development.
Not to mention, everytime I am in the Apple Store, the Apple watch display is getting very little loving from customers.
Given Apple is not releasing sales numbers, we are not going to know the success. To me, this says they are low compared to other apple products, though sure, it's probably pulling in profit after all the R&D at 3 or so million ??? It could also be selling well, we can speculate, though as stated, I go off what I see in the wild .
Same here.
I think the product was great actually, far better than the completion. For me the concept of the wearable was the failure. My phone did everything better, faster without awkward constraints.
I hoped apple would redefine the wearable, instead of making the best version of what was out there.
That is true.
Also none of them are perfectionists like jobs was. The products we see today would have been different , cause jobs would have been very much involved in the design and development cycles.
Though meh....it is what it is, it's a new apple. For some of us the golden era is over, some of us have hope, others have left. One thing for sure it will never be the same. Like Topgear without clarkson, Hammond and may! Sure it will continue, but for lots of fans, it will never be the same....
The fact you can view apps and feeds like Twitter and Facebook makes it impressive to me. All I got was notifications on my gear S
All i see are numbers.. Don't mean squat to me. Namely. like Apple themselves, don't take into account Australia...
Very little reason to include is not an option either...... if u'r gonna do stats, do it right.... This is like looking at a half baked chocolate cake.
(...and i do like chocolate cake)
Very little reason to include is not an option either...... if u'r gonna do stats, do it right.... This is like looking at a half baked chocolate cake.
(...and i do like chocolate cake)
Traditionally Apple sells far less relatively outside the US. US Apple market share is in all product categories far better than market share in Europe/Asia or anywhere else. If it looks mediocre in the US, it will be really poor in europe for example. Personally I haven't come across a single iwatch owner in the heart of europe where I live. I know only one who most likely got one but that guy spends lots of money on all kinds of gadgets he just hands over to friends, because he doesn't really need most of the stuff. Has like a full bag full of watches he doesn't use.
It's not "your music" if you are only renting it. So it would be right to revoke access after you stop paying.
I live in Europe and have seen the watch around. They are not as easy to spot as iPhones, but that has everything to do with the fact that people usually wear clothing with sleeves.
I don't disagree that US usually has the best relatve market performance of Apple Products, but the original poster was discussing absolute numbers and in that sense the US is just one region of many (Apple themselves mentioned that China is now their major market).
In addition it does not make that much sense to judge market share and sales numbers of the Apple Watch compared to any of the competitors at this time. There are no models that predict Apple performance in a relatively new market for a new product category. I have done quite a bit of market modelling and sales predictions for my job and this is some of the most difficult work that any market analyst would encounter. The sales predictions by any analyst on this topic are very shaky at best.
As I said in my post (you didn't quote that part), the only way to truly see whether the Apple Watch is successful is to look in three years at a mature product in an established market and do the comparisons against competition then.
Well, I will say that it's rare to have a disagreement with anyone around here who doesn't just say "Nah nah nah nah nah nah Apple is the best, nah nah nah nah nah," so in that regard, thanks
I don't think it's that impressive though. I wasn't impressed with what I was shown, and I certainly wasn't impressed with the Apple Watch that I bought and wore for a week. Though the battery life is better than I expected (I was finishing most days around 50%), the idea of charging a watch each night is just absolutely insane to me. The thing I cared about most with the watch (fitness tracking) seemed to be incredibly off. For example, the first two days I owned it, I went for a 2 hour bike ride each day. Fast biking, along the lake in Chicago, heart rate up, I was sweating, kind of biking. By the end of 2 hours it was recording that I'd done 45 minutes of exercise and was nowhere near close my "move" goal for the day. So I also walked for 2.5 hours, and still didn't meet the move goal - and if you own a watch, I set it to moderate, so you'll know that's like, 4 or 600 calories, I can't remember. I was easily way past that - I blow past 600 in 45 minutes of cardio at the gym most days, so I knew something was wrong. Things load slowly, if at all, and all that really worked well was getting notifications, which admittedly was nice, but it's certainly not revolutionary. At the end of the day I was wearing a not so lovely (although also not incredibly awful) miniature iPhone on my wrist that still needed an iPhone to do anything. It doesn't feel ready for market and it's incredibly un-Apple.
I don't think it's that impressive though. I wasn't impressed with what I was shown, and I certainly wasn't impressed with the Apple Watch that I bought and wore for a week. Though the battery life is better than I expected (I was finishing most days around 50%), the idea of charging a watch each night is just absolutely insane to me. The thing I cared about most with the watch (fitness tracking) seemed to be incredibly off. For example, the first two days I owned it, I went for a 2 hour bike ride each day. Fast biking, along the lake in Chicago, heart rate up, I was sweating, kind of biking. By the end of 2 hours it was recording that I'd done 45 minutes of exercise and was nowhere near close my "move" goal for the day. So I also walked for 2.5 hours, and still didn't meet the move goal - and if you own a watch, I set it to moderate, so you'll know that's like, 4 or 600 calories, I can't remember. I was easily way past that - I blow past 600 in 45 minutes of cardio at the gym most days, so I knew something was wrong. Things load slowly, if at all, and all that really worked well was getting notifications, which admittedly was nice, but it's certainly not revolutionary. At the end of the day I was wearing a not so lovely (although also not incredibly awful) miniature iPhone on my wrist that still needed an iPhone to do anything. It doesn't feel ready for market and it's incredibly un-Apple.
The numbers don't include returns, nor do the numbers include people like me, I.e. who bought two online and didn't use that app to track them.
"This was always going to be a product that some people would be totally into, and probably wouldn't reach the masses."
Fixed that for you. What people expected was for Apple to put forth another product that WAS for the masses. And they didn't.
Fixed that for you. What people expected was for Apple to put forth another product that WAS for the masses. And they didn't.
Regarding the exercise I've read the exact opposite of your experience regarding the Apple watch.Well, I will say that it's rare to have a disagreement with anyone around here who doesn't just say "Nah nah nah nah nah nah Apple is the best, nah nah nah nah nah," so in that regard, thanks
I don't think it's that impressive though. I wasn't impressed with what I was shown, and I certainly wasn't impressed with the Apple Watch that I bought and wore for a week. Though the battery life is better than I expected (I was finishing most days around 50%), the idea of charging a watch each night is just absolutely insane to me. The thing I cared about most with the watch (fitness tracking) seemed to be incredibly off. For example, the first two days I owned it, I went for a 2 hour bike ride each day. Fast biking, along the lake in Chicago, heart rate up, I was sweating, kind of biking. By the end of 2 hours it was recording that I'd done 45 minutes of exercise and was nowhere near close my "move" goal for the day. So I also walked for 2.5 hours, and still didn't meet the move goal - and if you own a watch, I set it to moderate, so you'll know that's like, 4 or 600 calories, I can't remember. I was easily way past that - I blow past 600 in 45 minutes of cardio at the gym most days, so I knew something was wrong. Things load slowly, if at all, and all that really worked well was getting notifications, which admittedly was nice, but it's certainly not revolutionary. At the end of the day I was wearing a not so lovely (although also not incredibly awful) miniature iPhone on my wrist that still needed an iPhone to do anything. It doesn't feel ready for market and it's incredibly un-Apple.
Imo, the entire fitness wearable category/wearable is still in its infancy and there is a lot of ymmv from every manufacturer and the wearable category still needs maturing, but Apple thought through exactly what it wanted it's watch to do.
Then they thought it through poorly. I exercise and work out regularly, and I've been tracking my progress long since before the Apple Watch was available. Either the different methods I've used on different continents that were all consistent were consistently wrong, or Apple doesn't know what they're doing. For me it's the latter.
You are right they aren't that easily spotted. But I just meant in the circle of friends and family I have seen none nor have heard of anyone even interested in them. Maybe I am also the wrong age group with few people in the late 20s rich enough to just buy any toy and not interested enough in watches anyhow.
Market share is difficult to judge with no reliable data but Apple and those that came before all hope that this smartwatch category will be the next big thing to have. And it really does not look like it caught on. Most people aren't interested or even aware of these new thingys.
So one can judge based on expectations and so far the smartwatches have IMO been a let down. The cheaper wrist bands so far had more success. For fitness tracking in general smartwatches are kind of overkill. They are expensive and the notification service they provide is only worth it for some users who use their smartphones a lot.
I am not saying the Apple watch has not been a success but Moto 360, Asus Zenwatch and the whole category isn't really there yet. Apple just served up more of the same.
I think there is just some tech missing. We need a display that looks good(contrast) like OLED but actually can stay on. Better designed chipsets that keep them running longer. Apple just did what everyone else did and they got one more expensive toy. I think wrist bands for health tracking will have more success but they need to be slimmer and longer lasting. Wrist Notification providers aren't all that important to enough people to spend the money I think. It is only the health angle with which they can really start of a new trend I think.
I can see myself getting some annoying device on my wrist when I went without for ever since mobile phones did the job. I can only see the health tracking as interesting and I wouldn't spend 400+$ on it.
I think the wearable market will be more about wrist bands (that last 2 weeks) than about full fledged 1-2 day lasting smartwatches.
Who to believe? The poster who said they got it right or the poster who said they got it wrong? For me since I just ordered the second family Apple watch, I'm in the "they got it right" for me category. Your in the "they got it wrong" for you category. That's why I said ymmv.
I agree with everything you wrote, but I want to comment on particularly this part.
I hoped that the Apple Watch would be more a band-like product similar to the MS band (although better in its implementation). I have some high-end watches that I'm not going to replace by the Apple Watch. I wouldn't mind wearing a band next to my watch, but I'm not prepared to wear two watches. I'm not a cast member of Jersey Shore.
Not sure what Microsoft has to do with Apple not reporting AW sales #s. (I don't know if Surface is a "flop" but it was certainly no game changer and people are still going away from Windows devices, not toward them, so in that regard, yes, Surface is a flop).
Also you are grossly misinterpreting my remarks if you think I'm suggesting the AW is a flop. Everything I've said is in regards to a poor launch. That's not the same as a total product failure. It's only to say Apple did not execute well, as they have in previous big launches.
If you go back and rather than selectively pick out the sentences you want to respond to rather than reading the entire post as a whole and then responding in context, you will note that I keep suggesting that the early adopter sales do not matter, but rather the direction of the sales curve over several quarters. Further, I continue to note that WatchOS 2 will allow Apple to reboot AW promotion for the holiday quarter, and those are the sales to look at.
It's "unknown" in that its never been made public. But logically it's easy to extrapolate. MP came out end 2013 after a long delay in MP updates during the SJ era. A huge ground up overhaul takes more than 2 years to develop from concept to production. Clearly SJ was around at least when the concepts were swirling around the conference table.
Also your #4 comment. Quite an intelligent response. /sarc