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Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year

techcrunch.com

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

#191

Post by cromulent »

mistersquid wrote: post #142
vlozko wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you get a notification saying you've increased your daily move goal streak to 200+ days, you're tempted to not break it. There are already quite a few people I've seen hitting 800 days.

I don't disbelieve you, but in my particular case this would not be possible. I exercise intensely at least 3 times per week. If you achieve your move goal 5 times per week, the Apple Watch software will automatically raise your move goal the following week, giving you the option to manually adjust it on the start of a new week. Because I let the software take its automatic course, my move goal at one point was 1160…

I set mine manually only once, when I bought it, and it has never changed.

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

#192

Post by aetherson »

rimliu wrote: post #181
wongarsu wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone install base is certainly not a billion, there have only been 1.2 billion ever sold. Estimates for the install base vary wildly, with the upper estimates at about 3/4 of a billion and more reasonable estimates at half a billion. In any case, iPhones have about 15%-25% of the global smartphone install base (with the US being the big outlier). I certainly count that as very limiting. Maybe not on quite the s…

> iPhones have about 15%-25% of the global smartphone > install base I would like to know how much of the remaining 75%-85% are used as smartphones and not just dumbphones with an smartphone OS on them. I am sure the many of the cheapest models are used this way.

Why are you sure of that?

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

#193

Post by gehsty »

I own a series 2 watch, the one with GPS and I really like it. I bought it not really knowing what I'd use it for but now I've got it setup for what I want I find myself really missing it when I'm not wearing it.

My main uses are telling the time, notifications from whatsapp & being able to see which meeting room my next meeting is in by glancing at my wrist.

I don't use any actual app on the watch itself. Its still to slow to really do anything, even if it was quicker I'm not sure reading twitter feeds / emails would be that great on it anyway.

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

#194

Post by aetherson »

I don't have a lot of use for the Apple watch myself, but it's been great for my wife. She, like a lot of women, regularly wears clothing without pockets that can hold her phone, and puts her phone in her purse.

Having your phone in your purse radically changes the value of the watch. She used to often miss notifications, and sometimes calls, that she couldn't hear or feel. And even if she did notice them, digging your phone out of your purse is considerably less convenient than taking it out of your pocket.

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

#195

Post by calvinbhai »

the Series 0 (first gen) watch was my first watch ever (never felt the need for a watch until then)

Been using it for over 2 years and I'm super happy with it.

Watch OS 3 made a huge difference in terms of usability for the watch. The background updates and swiping to change watch faces means I have my most used watch Complications in the 3 watchfaces I use. Weather, podcast, music and timer apps (from complications) are so useful! I feel if you don't make use of multiple complications with watch faces, you are not using your watch to the fullest :)

Haven't used it much for Siri nor have I tried testing its water resistance. And I'll probably for in for a series 3 or series 4 based on my needs.

Watch sales up 50%: I think the Apple Watch and the AirPods are peripherals for the iPhone that are so well priced (is Apple making any profit on these sales?) that I doubt if they have a huge margin. Having the highest margin phone and low margin peripherals like Watch, AirPods (probably glasses soon?) means once you go iPhone you don't look back. In the years when an iPhone owner chooses not to upgrade iPhone, he/she may choose to upgrade one of the peripherals. Which means higher LTV customer for Apple!

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

#196

Post by rayiner »

Steko wrote: post #151
rayiner wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're a long way from where it's acceptable to have a headset with a screen on in a business meeting. Meanwhile, during a meeting I can surreptitiously glance down at my watch to check when my next meeting or a email alert. It's a surprisingly good form factor, combining voice touch and a display in an accessory that's already socially acceptable to wear everywhere.

Apologies, I didn't mean a headset with a screen, should have been clearer. I just meant you can get notifications thru the headphones.

But on a headset without a screen you can't quickly see and dismiss an email or text that comes in without pulling out your phone. Or you can't glance quickly at it to remember your next appointment. I found that the bit reduced friction actually made me much more likely to rely on my phone to manage my schedule.

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

#197

Post by m_st »

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.

The requirement was FireWire. Me and my brother both had iPods synchronizing with our Windows PC through a Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live sound card with FireWire using the MusicMatch software distributed by Apple with the iPod.

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

#198

Post by m_st »

aetherson wrote: post #194

I don't have a lot of use for the Apple watch myself, but it's been great for my wife. She, like a lot of women, regularly wears clothing without pockets that can hold her phone, and puts her phone in her purse. Having your phone in your purse radically changes the value of the watch. She used to often miss notifications, and sometimes calls, that she couldn't hear or feel. And even if she did notice them, digging yo…

Same use case here with my wife. She loves her original Apple Watch and the different bands and I can finally reach her by phone.

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

#199

Post by usrusr »

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…

In my observation, the most immediate effect of the Apple watch has been that enthusiasts seem to be more willing now to show off their Polars and Garmins in "civilian" settings. To those who have been using HRM straps for years or even decades, the fitness aspects of the Apple watch feel cute at best, much like the minimalistic fitness trackers that recently created a market as always-on step counters.

The actual technology is converging. The latest offerings from all three traditions share the same feature sets: sports HRM/GPS watches now have messaging and background tracking, communication watches have added GPS and HRM and even the minimalistic always-on activity monitors have evolved into full smart watches, e.g. Fitbit Blaze.

With features converged, the key differentiator is image, which has been the main driver of the wristwatch market for almost a century. Back to normal, in a way. Apple for those who identify with business, Garmin or Polar for those who identify with enthusiast level sports and Fitbit etc for those who identify with more casual fitness. Apple feels surprisingly "Microsoft" in this group.

What remains interesting is if the fitness and sports traditions will eventually merge on the image level (with "sports" strictly higher status as in "more serious") or if those brands will end up binned away in a spartan "training geek" category that casuals would go to lengths to avoid being associated with.

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

#200

Post by dangoor »

FireBeyond wrote: post #154
dangoor wrote: 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.

"runs well enough" for a device that is barely two years old and several hundred dollars, already obsoleted by the manufacturer, is hardly a ringing endorsement.

Fair enough, though I wouldn't say it's obsoleted. I can still run the latest WatchOS and that's true of the forthcoming WatchOS as well.

I didn't feel compelled to get a Series 2 watch and unless there's something dramatic in this fall's hardware, I'm not planning to upgrade to the next one either. I'm happy with what the watch does.

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