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Smartwatch sales are tanking

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Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#131

Post by douche »

WalterBright wrote: post #108
shuntress wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 mod…

Stuff from that era that still exists might as well be indestructible. A little bit of survivorship bias, but it's hard to find anything that well made at any price now.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#132

Post by dozzie »

tedunangst wrote: post #116
ben_jones wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Well, you probably have your phone next to you, your alarm clock next to the bed, and several other clocks nearby in the bedroom." So I should supplement my smart watch with other devices in order to know what time it is? Makes $ense.

Do people wear dumb watches to bed just so they know what time it is when they wake up in the middle of the night? I take my watch off to sleep.

No(t only). People wear traditional watches to bed because they have waterproof watches and couldn't be bothered with taking them off, and don't set their strap/bracelet too tight.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#133

Post by xutopia »

sua_3000 wrote: post #2

had one and returned it. They don't provide much value beyond real-time notifications & a fancy pedometer.

I won my Apple watch in a contest. I wouldn't have bought it. I find the notifications on my wrist are really great. I don't take my phone out nearly as often as before.

I now pay for gas, small groceries and various other things with my watch. I unlock my computer by just pressing the spacebar instead of typing my password. The killer app for me is when I'm cycling or motorbiking and have directions appear on my wrist instead of my pocket.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#134

Post by sumitgt »

jmcdiesel wrote: post #71
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…

The question is does this opinion comes from experience, or from assumption? Having an Apple Watch now for about 6 months, I can say I love it, and none of those things (and I shared the same skepticism before buying one) have proven to be issues. I don't tend to look at my watch when I sleep - so that one's easy, and when you charge the watch its in a mode that gives off a low-light time (nightstand mode, i think th…

"comparing it to a traditional watch and holding to the same standards is not a position of common sense"

Totally agree, the old Nokia phones used to last entire week with a single charge, I don't see people hanging on to it.

I've seen many skeptics who end up actually likeing smart watches after using them.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#135

Post by aetherson »

sumitgt wrote: post #134
jmcdiesel wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is does this opinion comes from experience, or from assumption? Having an Apple Watch now for about 6 months, I can say I love it, and none of those things (and I shared the same skepticism before buying one) have proven to be issues. I don't tend to look at my watch when I sleep - so that one's easy, and when you charge the watch its in a mode that gives off a low-light time (nightstand mode, i think th…

"comparing it to a traditional watch and holding to the same standards is not a position of common sense" Totally agree, the old Nokia phones used to last entire week with a single charge, I don't see people hanging on to it. I've seen many skeptics who end up actually likeing smart watches after using them.

Everyone I've known who has had a smartwatch has basically liked it (including people who have Android Wear smartwatches).

Only one person I've known who's had a smartwatch has told me that they were worth the money. In general, the consensus has been "Given that I have it, I like it. But it's not a big enough deal to be worth several hundred dollars."

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#136

Post by pm90 »

jmcdiesel wrote: post #71
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…

The question is does this opinion comes from experience, or from assumption? Having an Apple Watch now for about 6 months, I can say I love it, and none of those things (and I shared the same skepticism before buying one) have proven to be issues. I don't tend to look at my watch when I sleep - so that one's easy, and when you charge the watch its in a mode that gives off a low-light time (nightstand mode, i think th…

> If you want a traditional watch, then get a traditional watch - comparing it to a traditional watch and holding to the same standards is not a position of common sense...

I don't think this is accurate. Someone brought up a comparison of smartphone to a Nokia phone, but this is not the same kind of comparison. A smartphone greatly simplified user interface and made accessing the internet and sharing much easier, and also created new ways of interacting (swiping etc). Whereas, the watch seems to be very featureful sure, but the internet is already accessible using your phone. And the added worry of carrying yet another charger when traveling (and the horror of losing it...). Now, a traditional watch, you don't worry about it for YEARS, not a week. Its mostly another ornament, like a cap or a shirt.

It may be a difference in temperament. But personally, I like to reduce things in my life which require any form of attention: because I forget things very easily (or am just too lazy to do them).

Also, this may not apply to everyone, but there is simply too many beautifully crafted wristwatches out there for me to ever seriously consider a smartwatch.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#137

Post by aetherson »

coldtea wrote: post #77
Mahn wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> 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. People might also not have 5-6" devices in their pockets, but special glasses…

If we're assuming the existence of non-sucky smart glasses or contact lenses [1], why exactly would anyone use a smart watch?

[1] Smart contact lenses are such a crock. Seriously, guys, how do you think you're going to power these things?

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#138

Post by ska »

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…

"feature parody"

Some might say that's exactly what they have :)

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#139

Post by iaw »

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 wear my Seiko 5 every day, I need to set the day once every other month and the time once every ~3 weeks, it winds perpetually.

After the world is over, I'll still be able to tell time.

I would love a smart watchband so I can get meeting alerts but I don't see a way they can make a smartwatch that beats my $100 mechanical.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#140

Post by toyg »

nostrademons wrote: post #96
Mahn wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

FWIW, I said the same thing about smartphones when they came out - who'd want to browse the web on a tiny 4" screen when you've got a 13" laptop? And indeed, I do very little web-browsing on my smartphone; it's generally just used to answer quick questions when I absolutely need information (or, well, when I want to win an argument over dinner :-P). What made smartphones useful was people discovered new uses that you…

> What the watch gives you is hands-free information

But your phone can also give you that, through earphones or headsets. Smartwatches must find new uses that a phone cannot also do as well, which is a much harder bar to clear.

For example:

> notifications [...] while I'm driving there

Phones can do that already, and will do more and more as CarPlay etc become mainstream.

> checking off items on my shopping list while carrying shopping bags

Siri can probably do that already (I use Trello for my shopping lists and it works fine as it is, tbh).

The one use where smartwatches will likely be unbeatable, forever and ever, is fitness/health: carrying around a phone in those circumstances is simply more annoying than carrying a watch. Once they get cheap enough, they might replace smartcards and badges for access control. If smartglasses become mainstream, they could augment each other (your glasses display and record, your watch stores and computes) and actually replace phones altogether; but alone, I don't see them going anywhere.

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