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Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year

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

#111
post #81

From my own experience and reading that of others, it's the device that no one can justify until they get one. Then it becomes the device that the vast majority love and some can't live without.

So I've been a serial Pebble smartwatch rather than Apple Watch owner - my original motivation was I thought it's be neat to be able to glance at my wrist while riding the bike and see who was calling/texting so I would know if I wanted to pull over and answer right then, or wait till I'd got to my destination. Turns out the answer was _always_ "No." whoever it was, it could always wait. I was either going to be at h…

>When Pebble sold out to Garmin

They were acquired by Fitbit, not Garmin

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

#112
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The jobs the watch will do aren't as clear cut as it was for the iPod. The iPod let you listen to music and carried lots of (or all of) your music and had software that made it easy to convert and manage your digital music and buy more over the internet. Those were things basically everyone wanted and it did that better than competitors. The watch? Well yeah it tells time, but it's worse at that then most watches and…

>The watch? Well yeah it tells time, but it's worse at that then most watches and everyone already carries a device that tells time which the watch can't replace. Yeah, it gives you slightly faster access to notifications but not everyone needs that. How is it worse at telling time than most watches? It works fine for me except when the battery is dead. Is that what you mean? Bad battery life? I don't use the watch t…

I love my Apple Watch, but it's worse at telling time for me because the screen isn't always on. I can't just glance at it casually, I have to move my wrist in a very specific way to make it wake up.

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

#113
post #46

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…

Don't buy v1 (or series 0 in this case) of Apple devices. The series 2 is a nice device. The battery goes for a couple days, it's fast enough, and the new beta OS also seems address many issues. People forget how rough the original iPhone was around the edges. Edit: fixed typo series 1/0

You mean don't buy the series 0 (the original AW). The more recent series 1 and 2 have the same internals..

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

#114
post #81

From my own experience and reading that of others, it's the device that no one can justify until they get one. Then it becomes the device that the vast majority love and some can't live without.

So I've been a serial Pebble smartwatch rather than Apple Watch owner - my original motivation was I thought it's be neat to be able to glance at my wrist while riding the bike and see who was calling/texting so I would know if I wanted to pull over and answer right then, or wait till I'd got to my destination. Turns out the answer was _always_ "No." whoever it was, it could always wait. I was either going to be at h…

>Turns out the answer was _always_ "No."

My experience has been the opposite. I bought a Pebble so I could know whether I had to put down my tools, pull out my phone, and answer a call from my boss; or if I could just ignore yet another call from an idiot coworker.

>When Pebble sold out to Garmin

I wish. Garmin might have done something with it. They sold out to FitBit, whose major motivation was the elimination of a competitor.

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

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The watch? Well yeah it tells time, but it's worse at that then most watches and everyone already carries a device that tells time which the watch can't replace. Yeah, it gives you slightly faster access to notifications but not everyone needs that. How is it worse at telling time than most watches? It works fine for me except when the battery is dead. Is that what you mean? Bad battery life? I don't use the watch t…

I love my Apple Watch, but it's worse at telling time for me because the screen isn't always on. I can't just glance at it casually, I have to move my wrist in a very specific way to make it wake up.

True, sometimes the screen doesn't turn on without the right movement.

But how is tapping the screen lightly to turn the display on any different from using a regular analog/digital watch in darkness and needing to press a button for its light to turn on?

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

#116

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…

That's interesting, I have the opposite experience.

I'm still wearing my first gen (i.e., Series 0) Apple Watch from the day of release until now. It tracks my daily runs, gives me a quick (and private) glance at notifications, tells the time+weather, and I use the heart rate monitor from time-to-time.

I shower, swim, go to the beach with the watch on. I'm surprised it has lasted this long. Especially considering it's not really "waterproof" but I treat it like it is.

I use a bunch of cheap wristbands from eBay as well as the Apple one that came with it.

The only thing that has started going wrong is the battery is starting to lose charge a bit earlier than normal (around 10pm at night some days). I'd be happy having the battery fixed and using this watch for another year or more.

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

#117
post #38

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.

Well the watch only works with an iPhone right now...

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

#118
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I too have a first gen, and have corrected that! I was under the impression that S1 was a renamed G1, but perhaps not? Its good to see that others are finding it more useful than I did, but in retrospect I should have waited.

The Series 1 is the original Apple Watch but with the processor from the Series 2. It's a different device because of that, and lots of us call the original a Series 0. However, go on Gumtree and you'll see plenty of peppy claiming they're selling a Series 1 when it's actually an Original Apple Watch.

To make matters worse, the SoC in the original Apple Watch is called the S1, and the chip in the Series 1 and Series 2 Apple Watches is called the S2, making the numbering more confusing and preventing us from shortening anything to S1/S2.

Thanks Apple!

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

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love my Apple Watch, but it's worse at telling time for me because the screen isn't always on. I can't just glance at it casually, I have to move my wrist in a very specific way to make it wake up.

True, sometimes the screen doesn't turn on without the right movement. But how is tapping the screen lightly to turn the display on any different from using a regular analog/digital watch in darkness and needing to press a button for its light to turn on?

It's helpful socially to be able to check the time subtly. A tap or large wrist motion makes it look like you're trying to tell whoever you're with that they should be paying attention to the time.

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

#120
post #79

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 watc…

I purchased a 3rd party milanese loop from amazon for $15. As far as I can tell it's indistinguishable from the Apple product. In any case, I agree, it's a great watch band.

I did this too - ebay for 20$. I love it. My only issue is that it's too big for me, but I assume the official Apple band would be too, and that my only choice is to buy the 38mm watch.
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