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Smartwatch sales are tanking

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Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#101

Post by FLGMwt »

drivingmenuts wrote: post #65

Why do I need a smartwatch, when I have a perfectly acceptable smartphone that does about 10x10 things more than the smartwatch will ever be able to do? If I just needed to know the time, I'd buy a watch. If I need to know the time and make a call, I'd buy a smartphone. Which I did. Welcome to the future. We don't really solve problems - we just invent new ones and call the old problems solved. Hell, I don't even rem…

Dunno if it's just because of Chicago winters, but not having to unglove and unbundle my phone is pretty nice for:

- Screening calls

- Switching/pausing music

- Reading and (briefly) responding to texts

- checking the time (no, seriously : p)

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#102

Post by agumonkey »

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…

Most of the smart- era is a regression in street UI. All old devices were static, touch driven, instantaneous, no brainers. No I have to look, swipe, wait, dig, to do anything. Nails.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#103

Post by harlanji »

sp332 wrote: post #39
treve wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you buy 5 when you only have 4 arms, you might be biased about the pebble's success ;)

It's true! We got one each when they first came out on Kickstarter, then I bought a Steel because it looked nicer, then we both got Times when they came out, then I got her a Round because she liked the look. counts Oh wait, that's 6. And the last one was in December... so actually, we're part of the reason for the YoY decline!

I'm with you, been wearing the Steel daily since it came out. Lovely product. Firmware upgrade was actually welcome; I'll keep it, I love that you can roll back easily by installing a different app version. Dismal market share! :( -- though, people have complimented it frequently, most don't know it's a smart watch which I consider a feature.

Looks like they should turn to some niche marketing strategies if they're not already because people who like Pebbles REALLY like Pebbles I find, though they are rare to begin with.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#104

Post by kenferry »

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…

This is typical of any new thing, no?

It has to solve SOME problem that some subset of people care about so intensely that you don't mind the many ways in which it is not as mature as the incumbent.

It's clear that the current smart watches do not accomplish this for you. That's ok as long as there is an initial target audience for which they do. Whether that is the case right now.. well, we'll see.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#105

Post by InclinedPlane »

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 use a pebble. It has a battery life of about a week, but if I forget to charge it for a day after it tells me it needs charging it still works fine, and it charges pretty fast even if I charge it during the day. It displays the time 24/7 and all I have to do is jiggle my wrist to light up the backlight if it's dark outside. It shows me notifications from my phone which makes it easy to keep track of what's going on and which notifications I actually need to take action on or reply to. When I go bike riding and use Strava it switches over to show me the time, distance, etc. for my ride, which is super convenient. Overall it ends up being very useful for me.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#106

Post by x1798DE »

dkokelley wrote: post #55
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…

For you I'd suggest checking out what Pebble has been doing. Battery life is about 7-10 days on some models, and has an 'always on' display.

For these reasons, for me, Pebble was the only smartwatch that appealed to me, hardware-wise, but it's worth noting that the ToS on their Pebble software is ridiculously anti-privacy. There's an alternative app on Android that is privacy-conscious (gadget bridge), but it's still a work in progress (and they have to reverse engineer everything on the device).

I'm still happy enough with being able to more or less customize my watchface, but if you both care about your privacy and want to make serious use of the "smart" smartwatch features, I don't think there's currently anything on the market for you.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#107

Post by ant512 »

dmfwinder wrote: post #94
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 with you. I have a mechanical Rolex watch with an automatic winder. I can keep it on my wrist 24/7, even at night. It glows in the dark. I can instantly see the time when I look at the watch. There is no smartwatch in the world that matches these features. And it does all this without me ever having to "charge" it. Yes, I do have to adjust the time once a week because it runs about 1 second fast per day. But…

Does your Rolex show you your email?

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#108

Post by WalterBright »

shuntress wrote: post #47
WalterBright wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Haha, I have a "Mad Men" style Samsonite briefcase that my father gave me in the 1970s. Here's a picture of one:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/57044295/samsonite-briefcase-wi...

It works great as a case for my laptop. It's fun being unhip :-)

Edit: I've used modern soft laptop bags, but they tend to develop tears and small holes through which things fall out unnoticed. Urgh. The Samsonite doesn't have that failure mode.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#109

Post by rm445 »

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…

Conversely, I have stopped wearing other watches because I believe my rather rudimentary smartwatch has made them obsolete.

The device in question is a Fitbit fitness tracker. The killer feature regarding the battery is the ratio of life to charging time, viz that I can wear it all day and all night (gaining sleep tracking and, best of all, a silent vibrating alarm) and keep the battery topped up in the duration of a daily shower. Not 24/7, but 23.6/7 easily.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#110

Post by nostrademons »

kenferry wrote: post #104
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…

This is typical of any new thing, no? It has to solve SOME problem that some subset of people care about so intensely that you don't mind the many ways in which it is not as mature as the incumbent. It's clear that the current smart watches do not accomplish this for you. That's ok as long as there is an initial target audience for which they do. Whether that is the case right now.. well, we'll see.

I think it's pretty clear that there is some group that is getting value out of smartwatches. The 1st-gen Apple Watch sold 10-20M units, which is more than all Apple 2 PCs combined. And many of those users are quite satisfied (I am).

The tricky part is that they face a crossing-the-chasm problem now. The initial group of users is happy - but does that generalize to all users? Is it worth continuing to invest money into what's currently a niche market? Tivos, Blackberries, WebTV, 1st-gen PCs all found success in an early adopter market that was roughly as large as the smartwatch market is now, but it took a major re-envisioning of the concept before they became a mainstream product that all customers wanted.

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