Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year

#51

Post by seanp2k2 » Wed, Aug 02, 2017, 1:06 AM UTC

EpicEng wrote: post #39

saagarjha wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was getting a ton of exercise with the Watch, broke it, and stopped exercising because I wasn't being reminded to.

I mean, whatever works for you, but I don't understand that at all. You forget to exercise?

Not sure if the Apple watches do the same, but the Garmin watches have a "Move!" reminder plus easy-to-configure step and stair goals, and make your progress obvious. I'm guessing it's more due to those types of little pokes throughout the day than parent actually forgetting to hit the gym every morning.

Re: Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year

#52

Post by dangoor » Wed, Aug 02, 2017, 1:06 AM UTC

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #29

Overall I still regret buying my Generation 1. The hardware was just not ready (Neither was the software, but the updates have improved it quite a bit over the 1.0 disaster). I knew I'd be an early adopter, so some rough edges are to be expected. Even so I experience(d) the following: - Severe lag when triggering Siri - Slow mail updates, to the point where I pull my phone out of my pocket anyway - "This message cont…

As a counter point, I'm still using my first gen (not even Series 1!) Apple Watch after 2 years and it runs well enough for my uses. I would likely use Siri more if it was more responsive, but I use the notifications, Now Playing view, activity tracking and more all the time and it is really nice.

Re: Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year

#53

Post by JustSomeNobody » Wed, Aug 02, 2017, 1:07 AM UTC

abc_lisper wrote: post #48

jychang wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a good example. The reason the iPod sold so poorly the first few years was because you can only sync them with Macs. Very few people owned Macs, so iPod sales were poor. It took iTunes for Windows to come out before things changed.

A parallel would be to have apple watches sync with 'droids..

I don't think so. As was mentioned, a lot of people didn't have Macs so it took iTunes on Windows to increase sales. A lot of people have iPhones. Enough, that Apple doesn't have to care about 'droids.

Re: Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year

#54

Post by rickyc091 » Wed, Aug 02, 2017, 1:08 AM UTC

Mtinie wrote: post #45

saagarjha wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was getting a ton of exercise with the Watch, broke it, and stopped exercising because I wasn't being reminded to.

Why is the Apple Watch the catalyst for this versus any HR monitor or fitness tracker?

Just going to make a few assumptions. Apple has a gamification system similar to fitbit. You complete rings (goals) by walking, standing up and exercising. Except you are competing against yourself and they prompt you with daily reminders / notifications. Being that Apple Watch is more than a notification system, it's a bit more difficult to ignore. Let's say you're on a 80 day streak completing 100% of your goals of standing up, exercising and walking. You'll want to keep going. At 24 hour hackathon, there was someone trying to keep their streak up so they ended up leaving to jog around the block to complete their daily activity.

Of course, this isn't to say that it can't be possible without the Apple Watch. It's just that it's more difficult to ignore.

Re: Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year

#55

Post by mikeash » Wed, Aug 02, 2017, 1:08 AM UTC

abc_lisper wrote: post #48

jychang wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a good example. The reason the iPod sold so poorly the first few years was because you can only sync them with Macs. Very few people owned Macs, so iPod sales were poor. It took iTunes for Windows to come out before things changed.

A parallel would be to have apple watches sync with 'droids..

Except not really, because the installed base of Macs at the time was a few million, while the iPhone installed base is around a billion. Being Mac-only in the early 2000s was orders of magnitude more limiting to potential sales than being iPhone-only today.

Re: Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year

#56

Post by icanhackit » Wed, Aug 02, 2017, 1:09 AM UTC

I've said it a few times when the topic comes up but one of the best features is the magnetic milanese loop. For a watch that typically needs to be taken off once a day for charging (arguably every two days) the ease of taking off and putting on a magnetic milanese loop makes the pain disappear. It's no more effort than yanking your phone out of your pocket to stick it on the charger.

Other things that makes the watch great - vibration alarm wakes me without fail while allowing my partner remain asleep, remotely turn off my phone alarm without getting out of bed (though that does lead to more snoozing...), remotely ping my phone when I've left it somewhere, remotely control my music without my phone including pushing the audio to Airplay, messaging via dictation which seems more accurate than my phone. One that I miss but can't use any more because I switched banks - Apple Pay. You look like a bell-end doing it but it felt like the future.

The sapphire screen seems legit because I've belted the watch face into stone and steel surfaces without a single mark showing up. The stainless steel casing also seems more durable than I expected - not a single permanent mark that I can see...perhaps some micro abrasions. The heart rate monitor casing seems to be the weak point - it has quite a few scratches.

Re: Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year

#57

Post by cr__ » Wed, Aug 02, 2017, 1:09 AM UTC

jychang wrote: post #38

mortenjorck wrote: post #28

I’ve been saying it all along: to understand the Apple Watch, look to the iPod. The first three years of iPod sales were minuscule compared to the following ten: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_qua... The two products occupy a very similar space of affordable luxury; they are not world-changing like the Mac or iPhone, but category-defining. Through gradual iteration and segmentation, Apple sl…

This is not a good example. The reason the iPod sold so poorly the first few years was because you can only sync them with Macs. Very few people owned Macs, so iPod sales were poor. It took iTunes for Windows to come out before things changed.

You can only use the Apple Watch if you have an iPhone.

Re: Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year

#58

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Aug 02, 2017, 1:09 AM UTC

jychang wrote: post #38

mortenjorck wrote: post #28

I’ve been saying it all along: to understand the Apple Watch, look to the iPod. The first three years of iPod sales were minuscule compared to the following ten: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_qua... The two products occupy a very similar space of affordable luxury; they are not world-changing like the Mac or iPhone, but category-defining. Through gradual iteration and segmentation, Apple sl…

This is not a good example. The reason the iPod sold so poorly the first few years was because you can only sync them with Macs. Very few people owned Macs, so iPod sales were poor. It took iTunes for Windows to come out before things changed.

[deleted]

Re: Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year

#59

Post by rickyc091 » Wed, Aug 02, 2017, 1:10 AM UTC

kpwags wrote: post #6

I got the Series 2 in January. I love it, but can also see why it might be more of a niche product. $400 for a watch isn't exactly cheap and I know many people who opt for their smartphone over any kind of watch.

The thing is that you can pick up series 1 for under 200 at times which is about the same cost garmin forerunner. That being said you can pick up the gen 1s for even less than that.

Re: Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year

#60

Post by snuxoll » Wed, Aug 02, 2017, 1:10 AM UTC

donw wrote: post #23

My big question is: what do people do with theirs? Other than notifications and fitness tracking, I'm struggling to think of a use case for owning one.

With the new CPUs in the Series 1 & 2 watches I see uses in some businesses like what Google is trying with Glass.

I work for a medical billing company owned by a physician group, with deeper integration into hospital systems than the demographic-only feeds we get to stuff like labs and monitors would help us better enforce our quality programs in real-time instead of after-the-fact when coding.