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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

#171

Post by coldtea »

nichochar wrote: post #158
dsacco wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a few points for you in response: 1. I'm what you'd call a "watch guy." In the time I have had the Apple Watch Series 2, I have barely used my mechanicals (including a Lange & Sohne and a Nomos Glashutte). The Apple Watch comes with me on all but the most formal/elegant occasions, and I now hate changing straps on my mechanical watches in comparison. The Apple Watch may not be as beautiful, but it is far more…

A "watch guy" is someone who likes real watches. You're just a "gadget guy"

First, you probably meant "analog" watches. There's nothing unreal about the Apple Watch.

Second, one can be an analog watch aficionado AND fascinated/converted to a digital watch like the Apple Watch.

You don't suddenly become a "gadget guy" just because you've stopped wearing the analog watches in your collection in favor of something more practical.

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

#172

Post by coldtea »

visarga wrote: post #134
Fezzik wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the health tracking features are the major differentiating feature for wearables. Fit people want to track their exercise and stay fit and the unfit (for the most part) want to get fit. These two groups are 99% of the population. And, as we're finding in the 21st century/age of plenty, fitness takes some work. This thread alone indicates wearable can be a big motivator for fitness. In addition, the health tra…

"Wearable Fitness Devices Don’t Seem to Make You Fitter" https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/upshot/wearable-fitness-d...

Yeah, you also need to move your ass.

Diets don't seem to make people leaner either, but it's a multi-hundred billion industry.

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

#173

Post by coldtea »

epa wrote: post #130
Steko wrote: 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 one thing most people dont realize about why the iPod was popular was because it was actually the fastest device to transfer music to. At the time, music devices were using serial connections if you can believe that, and FireWire was the fastest thing on the market, only available with iPods. This, combined with having the most space (10gb vs 256 mb), combined with windows support on the third version, made the i…

Nope, most had USB. The iPod was popular because it had a sane interface, and didn't resemble a 1990s CD-player or VCR.

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

#174

Post by 333c »

bigiain wrote: post #100
vlozko wrote: 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…

I'm a fellow Pebble user. Currently wearing a Pebble Time. My favorite feature of the watch is the screen, because it's always on, and, like traditional digital watches, ambient light increases visibility of the screen (unlike the Apple Watch, which is hindered by bright ambient light). At the moment, I plan to wear this watch until it stops working or can't hold a charge. After this, I don't know where I'll go. I might try the Apple Watch, but prices seem a bit steep for me. I might just go back to a non-smart watch.

I wish Pebble had managed the business side of things better, because I like(d) the product.

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

#175

Post by usrusr »

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…

The iPod happened during a perfect storm of young people suddenly accumulating fileshared boatloads of unsorted MP3s that they desperately wanted to take away from their computers (then mostly clunky desktop systems), all while carrying significantly less cash into record stores than before. I see nothing that could come even close to that for the watch. To people spending many of their waking hours pondering the cultural relevance of the different strains of pop music (back then: almost everybody under 25), the iPod, together with the underlying file-sharing boom was world-changing, much like having a car is world-changing.

The analogy between iPod and watch might still hold of you look exclusively at buyers of the "minor iPods" at the time when the classic was still dominant (in other words: when the classic was still known as just the iPod). The distinction between people who wanted a portable music player and got the iPod (because it was the best), vs people who wanted an iPod and therefore got a portable music player (because that's what iPods were). The latter pattern could repeat itself with the watch just fine, but I don't know if that can happen with the former pattern happens before. The iPod started as a life changer (for a certain group/generation) that only later turned into a wealth indicator novelty. The watch is taking a bet to skip the first stage, because moving notifications from phone to wrist is a much smaller step than making the wondrously huge filesharing MP3 libraries of the day pocketable.

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

#177

Post by bigiain »

333c wrote: post #174
bigiain wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm a fellow Pebble user. Currently wearing a Pebble Time. My favorite feature of the watch is the screen, because it's always on, and, like traditional digital watches, ambient light increases visibility of the screen (unlike the Apple Watch, which is hindered by bright ambient light). At the moment, I plan to wear this watch until it stops working or can't hold a charge. After this, I don't know where I'll go. I mi…

I'm _vaguely_ considering Dremel-ing open my original Pebble to see if replacing the battery is possible. The Googleable teardowns and xrays seem to suggest there's not a lot of hope though...

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

#178

Post by Lio »

Fezzik wrote: post #92
Steko wrote: 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…

I think the health tracking features are the major differentiating feature for wearables. Fit people want to track their exercise and stay fit and the unfit (for the most part) want to get fit. These two groups are 99% of the population. And, as we're finding in the 21st century/age of plenty, fitness takes some work. This thread alone indicates wearable can be a big motivator for fitness. In addition, the health tra…

This probably fits with the iPod narrative but for me the current Apple Watches just aren't good enough for sports use.

What do I mean? Well specifically they lack ANT+ support so they won't work sensors I already own. E.g. Cycling power meters, heart rate monitors, electronic groupsets, etc.

Some of those I could replace cheaply with Bluetooth alternatives but not all of them.

In the future I'd like to look at things like blood oxygen monitors, not having Ant+ really cramps your choices.

I don't find Garmin products all that reliable but if it was purely for sports I'd currently buy one of their watches over an Apple Watch.

(I own and really like my Mac and iPhone so I think in other areas I must fit the Apple customer profile).

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

#179

Post by hellweaver666 »

tigershark wrote: post #159
Steko wrote: 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…

Why only in Tokyo? In London you can use Apple Pay pretty much everywhere, even in the small food stalls on the street or to enter the underground. I have seen pretty much the same in Australia, and I guess that in a lot of places in the world is no different. EDIT: And actually last time that I went in Japan it was still pretty difficult to even use credit cards, so I won't bet on a pervasive use of Apple Pay there.

In the Netherlands we have contactless payments everywhere and many places that don't accept cash, but for some reason the banks are being really slow to work with Apple... no sign of ApplePay on the horizon from what I can see.

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

#180

Post by 0xbear »

konschubert wrote: post #165
0xbear wrote: post #163

It's been years and people still don't understand what Watch is. Meanwhile, it says what it is directly in the name. It's a watch first, and everything else distant second. By the standards of wristwatches $300 is not that much money.

Just because wristwatches are overpriced doesn't mean that anything that takes their name isn't.

"Overpriced" is a subjective term. 50% growth in sales suggests very competitive pricing. Think of it this way: Apple Watch isn't really competing with "wearable computers" everyone else is making. It plays a completely different ball game, and competes with wristwatches. I can't think of a better watch in $300 price range even though I don't wear one myself (my wife does). My main problem with it is the need to charge it daily. Once they get battery to 3-4 days, I'll buy one. Until then, my solar powered titanium Seiko diver will have to do.
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