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Smartwatch sales are tanking

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Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#41

Post by DanBC »

jfoutz wrote: post #18

I've always been skeptical of smart watches. As others say, if it can't outright replace my phone, i just don't see much value in them. I wear "nice" watches occasionally, usually any time i have to wear a suit. As a toy, an epaper watch with actual physical hands would be pretty cool. The two extra hands on something like a diving watch could be used for other gauges, maybe unread email count or something goofy like…

> Sort of like a modern pager.

One of the original smart watches was Swatch's The Beep - a watch / pager mashup.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/wear-your-heart-on-y...

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#42

Post by choward »

The biggest issue for me with the "smartwatch" is that they don't have feature parody with dumb watches. I've had many watches in the past and the battery lasts for years. I can also turn my wrist and see the time instantly. Who would have thought?

What I get now is some piece of crap that needs to be charged every night. So I basically have no features while I'm sleeping. I can't just wake up in the middle of the night an instantly know what the time is.

As a battery saving measure, the time isn't displayed until I turn my wrist and wait some obscene amount of time (around a second?). It also goes from being dark to being lit... so much for being discrete.

I wish they would stop calling these things "watches" just because they go on your wrist. I expect anything called a watch to have the features of a watch and be on my wrist pretty much all of the time. Call it a fitness tracker if it's not meant to be worn 24/7.

Let me know when battery life is within a couple of orders of magnitude of real watches, then maybe I'll revisit.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#43

Post by j_syk »

carsongross wrote: post #5

Seems like they will stay a niche until they can replace phones entirely, and perhaps even past then. A lot of people just don't like having something strapped to their wrist and/or want a large screen. As a watch guy (and most watch people are guys) the first smart watch I've been excited about is the upcoming gear S3: http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-s3/ Because it looks like a real watch and has the rotat…

The gear S2 has a similar rotating bezel, though it's less obviously looking at it. The strap design on the S2 is awful- too easy to break. Good to see they are moving to normal watch bands. One thing that would keep me from buying a samsung again is if they stick with SVoice instead of letting you use Google voice search (especially with Google Assistant)

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#44

Post by shepard »

I'm wondering why no one discusses that Q3 was the Quarter right before new Apple Watch introduction, and Apple owns a majority share in the market? Of course people were waiting to buy a new device. Q4/Q1 will be more relevant.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#45

Post by Mahn »

carsongross wrote: post #5

Seems like they will stay a niche until they can replace phones entirely, and perhaps even past then. A lot of people just don't like having something strapped to their wrist and/or want a large screen. As a watch guy (and most watch people are guys) the first smart watch I've been excited about is the upcoming gear S3: http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-s3/ Because it looks like a real watch and has the rotat…

> until they can replace phones entirely

I.e. never? I mean, I can picture making phone calls or dictating SMS by voice with a smart watch, but people are not going to be browsing the web or taking pictures with a tiny wrist device when they already have a 5-6" inches display device on their pockets, and almost no one would ditch the latter for the former if they had to choose.

I think it's likely that smart watches will continue to be niche devices for the foreseeable future, at very least until someone figures out a killer feature that sets them apart from smartphones.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#46

Post by bertiewhykovich »

newswriter9 wrote: post #12

I don't get it. Decades of science fiction depicting Heads-up-Display glasses and wrist-strapped laptops, with people wishing and wishing we lived in such a world. Now here we are and society isn't going in for it. Bluetooth head sets, smartwatches, Google Glass, none of it is sticking. Even though smart phones are becoming cumbersome due to size and inability to use hands-free or even one-handed well. Are we ever go…

It's almost like fantasies aren't a model for real life... nah, that's crazy.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#47

Post by shuntress »

WalterBright wrote: post #23
mjevans wrote: post #9

I suspect people /want/ a smart watch so they can feel like Dick Tracy and Roger Smith (Anime, Big O). The reality is that the smart watch is little more than a smaller screen attached by wireless personal area network to the real computer; which has a better (bigger, brighter, larger buttons) and more responsive screen. I stopped wearing a normal watch once I had a decent pocket chronometer (a comparatively primitiv…

> I stopped wearing a normal watch once I had a decent pocket chronometer I continue to wear one because it is easier to check the time that way than dig the thing out of my pocket, turn it on, get it to recognize my thumb or demand a pin, etc., especially when driving. And, of course, because I'm old and not hip.

I'm young and not hip and I wear a conventional watch almost every day.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#48

Post by dublinben »

choward wrote: post #42

The biggest issue for me with the "smartwatch" is that they don't have feature parody with dumb watches. I've had many watches in the past and the battery lasts for years. I can also turn my wrist and see the time instantly. Who would have thought? What I get now is some piece of crap that needs to be charged every night. So I basically have no features while I'm sleeping. I can't just wake up in the middle of the ni…

I would say that most smartwatches are indeed a parody of real watches. They certainly do not have feature parity with their traditional competitors.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#49

Post by steaminghacker »

choward wrote: post #42

The biggest issue for me with the "smartwatch" is that they don't have feature parody with dumb watches. I've had many watches in the past and the battery lasts for years. I can also turn my wrist and see the time instantly. Who would have thought? What I get now is some piece of crap that needs to be charged every night. So I basically have no features while I'm sleeping. I can't just wake up in the middle of the ni…

I agree. I think the mistake made by the industry is selling them as "watches" and not gadgets like bands or wearables in general.

A watch should be good to tell the time. smartwatches are a throwback to the 70's where you had to press a little button.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#50

Post by milesokeefe »

steaminghacker wrote: post #29

Haven't they figured out yet that telling the time is the thing that smart watches do the worst. instead, i want a band. I'm still waiting for an Android Wear band. i want something a bit like the Microsoft band 2 [1], but slimmer and a smaller screen. something as a notification device and to take voice notes. but i don't need it to replace my watch because it's not "on" when i look at it. For telling the time, I'll…

Pebble doesn't have that problem.
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