“One of the things that interests me most with regards to the Apple Watch owner research I’m involved with as a part of Wristly is the way we are able to observe, on a monthly basis, the behaviours of consumers in a brand new category. To my knowledge, nothing like this has been done before,” Ben Bajarin writes for Tech.pinions.
“We believe it is important to tell the whole story with regard to the Apple Watch and smartwatches. Which means, we need to research the bad as well as the good,” Bajarin writes. “So we decided to seek out and learn from those who had less than positive experiences with the Apple Watch and have stopped using it entirely or significantly less than when they first purchased it.”
“We found and asked 340 people who have tried and seemingly moved on from the Apple Watch, at least for now, to share their thoughts on what turned them off,” Bajarin writes. “Following the consistent theme we discover with the Wristly research, there is a heavy negative bias from those who work in the tech industry. In this panel, like many others we have run, the most critical and less satisfied Apple Watch owners are the ones who work in tech, evaluate tech for a living, or are fairly technical. 45% of the respondents of this dissatisfaction panel work in tech and in a tech related function (like a developer).”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Normal” people, non-techies, love their Apple Watches. Some so-called “techie” people act as if they aren’t familiar with the constraints of battery technology or mobile processors (especially in regard to heat dissipation). Many of these same people also seem to have an deep-seated desire for a “Dick Tracy Watch” without ever asking themselves “Why? Why do I want something that was conceived before the Internet and before everyone who’d ever want to wear one had a sophisticated portable pocket computer in their pocket?”
This quest for a “two-way wrist radio” is unending because it’s an outmoded idea and is therefore never coming. People will be wearing “Dick Tracy Hats” en masse before they’re wearing “Dick Tracy Watches.”
People who give up on their Apple Watch generally do so because they simply don’t get it. They approach Apple Watch by trying to shove it into some preconceived idea built upon an idea drawn in a comic strip in the 1940’s. When it doesn’t fit, they give up; their brains seemingly not being malleable enough to use Apple Watch the way it was designed to be used.
Apple Watch users who love their Apple Watches — which is nearly all of them, by the way with Apple Watch satisfaction at an unprecedented 97%, beating the user satisfaction of the original iPhone and iPad — understand.
Everyone else is just on the outside looking in, just like those who were snapping their flip phones closed and muttering to themselves, “my cellphone works fine,” staring blankly as we first generation iPhone owners were already living and working in the future, saving time, up-to-date, at the ready, and with the answers to many, many questions at our fingertips way back in the summer of 2007. The rest of the world would figure it out eventually.
SEE ALSO:
It’s official: The Apple Watch is destroying the so-called competition – November 20, 2015
As Apple Watch sales ramp, Swiss watch makers suffer biggest slump in six years – November 19, 2015
Apple Watch models take top four spots on 10 most-wanted smartwatches list – November 18, 2015
Apple Watch is 2016’s hottest holiday gift – November 18, 2015
Apple Watch changed my life; it’s a great gift for many
Monday, November 16, 2015
Apple has already sold more than $1.7 billion worth of Apple Watches – October 29, 2015
Strategy Analytics: Apple Watch sells 4.5 million units in Q315, takes 74% global smartwatch market share – October 28, 2015
Apple Watch users are abandoning traditional watches – September 15, 2015
Over 1 million Apple Watches already sold in China – September 3, 2015
Apple Watch already dominates smart-wearables market, says IDC – August 28, 2015
IDC estimates Apple sold 3.6 million Apple Watch units in Q2 – August 27, 2015
Best Buy CEO: Apple Watch demand is ‘so strong’ that we’re expanding sales to all 1,050 stores – August 25, 2015
Swiss watch exports decline most since 2009 – August 20, 2015
Apple Watch takes 88% of total smartwatch revenue – August 14, 2015
Apple Watch kills a entire industry in three months – August 12, 2015
U.S. wristwatch sales post biggest drop in seven years after Apple Watch debut – August 7, 2015
Apple Watch dominates smartwatches with 75% market share – July 28, 2015
Juniper Research: Apple is world’s #1 smartwatch maker – July 23, 2015
Canalys: Apple ships 4.2 million Apple Watches in Q2 to become world’s top wearables vendor – July 21, 2015
Apple Watch satisfaction is unprecedented at 97%; beats original iPhone and iPad – July 20, 2015
Non-techies love their Apple Watches even more than tech users – July 20, 2015
Apple Watch is Apple’s most successful product debut ever – June 1, 2015
The long and the short of it is… THE APPLE WATCH IS A COMPLETE, UNNECESSARY, UNMITIGATED, PIECE OF SH*T!
I don’t care how many they make, sell, or diferrent iterations that Apple produces.
“There you go, Mr. Google. I just posted my Apple hit piece for the day. I used a bunch of all-caps words, per your payment requirements… and I even threw in a coded curse word, ’cause, you know, I’m a creative writer. Now, when do I get my $5 check?”
Well, it must be true because you said so… /s
Having had my Apple Watch since early May and using it every day since, I find it to be nice looking and useful.
Depending on usage, I get 2 to 3 days battery life from a single charge.
“Normal” people liked Kim last week and Miley this week. They’ll like Android phones once they have to start paying bills on their own. Those are the ones you go after when you want to make a fast buck, and not the ones that you worry about for the long haul, which Apple doesn’t seem to be too worried about anymore.
A certain class of tech people seem to be personally offended if they can’t get in and “play” around. They don’t see Apple products as finished products. They see them as toys they can’t play with.
My Apple Watch usage tends to vary with how busy I am at work. More work, less time to exercise and less usage on the watch.
I do tend to forget that the watch is there and so don’t use it all the time for checking the time.
Still it will get better over time especially when apps and the OS gets more savvy.
This research says more about “tech” people than it does about the watch.
Yes, Apple’s products sold out like hot cakes. I was able to snap two Apple Watches from Target and Best Buy one on each stores before they were sold out. One for myself and one for Christmas gift.
I love it, I keep tracks on how many calories have been burned a day, so I could adjust my calories intake according to the Apple Watch. How many steps and miles I achieved in a day. This is great, I am looking forward to a new me, which I invest for my health. Health is Wealth which is far more important than the Apple stocks.
Reminds me of the IT negativity towards the Mac because they couldnt fiddle and do all the things for no partularly good reason that 90% of the population have no interest in doing. Indeed that fiddling ability often makes things worse for the rest of us. In geek labs it encourages all that ludicrous TV remote thinking whereby endless buttons and combination of obscure other buttons give you access to all manner of little or never used functionality toad to the specs list that succeed only in confusing and obscuring the needed functions for the rest of us.
It seems that investors, stockbrokers, financial analysts get more value from an Apple Watch than do techies. Perhaps they know time is money.
But the juice for techies is that knowledge is power.
Round 1990 my mother would call me up after a blackout, to reset her appliances and clocks–the blinking twelve problem.
I hated the electronics that made her life and mine miserable with their idiotic features and impenetrable interfaces.
Apple aimed to change all that by making devices smart enough to do things on their own, and intuitive enough to not frustrate users. It’s the secret of their runaway business success.
As for dumbing down OS X and the like; pfft. There’s Terminal and the command line.
His bottom line statement is that the Apple Watch needs…
“– Have better speed and performance in general and with third party applications
– Increase battery life, including an always on display
– Become even more independent from the smartphone
– Lower the price”
Anyone with at least two functioning brain cells could have come up with those (except maybe for the “including an always on display” part).
And, who really fits the “The tilt to check the time ended up too annoying” other than those too damn lazy to really look at their wrist? In my opinion this is the dumbest excuse for not liking the Apple Watch I’ve ever heard. I’m an old geezer and have worn a watch for many decades. I’ve ALWAYS had to rotate my wrist to see the face of the watch clearly.
First, I love my Apple Watch. However, it is annoying that turning my wrist doesn’t always activate the screen, especially when I turn it with my arm vertically oriented (when I working on things above my head) or when I turn it too slowly (when my hands are full and turning it quickly is not an option). Since I work with my hands a lot, I sometimes have to resort to my nose to activate the screen. That’s pretty annoying. Still, I only take it off during sleep and showering.
I love my Apple watch…i have had it from day 1..
And in every shape and form i would be considered a techy …
Do i think Apple Watch can be better? YES.. of course.
Do i think any Apple product can be better and improved upon.. YES!
Do i believe that holds true for most every prroduct out there.. specially technology oriented .. YES!
Is Applewatch the most popular gift item for this holiday season.. Seems like YES.
Is this articles timing kind of suspect with its negative tone ..YES
I like his father, but Ben seems to have too much time on his hands. Quality, Ben. Not quantity. As in playing with every single piece of technology mentioned on Twitter and then name- dropping it all.
I raise my wrist and see the exact time, a
countdown timer for my coffee brewing, the
weather forecast,an alarm clock, and my fitness
monitor. Everything else, there’s a lot, is just
gravy. I love it.
That is one biased article lol
I work in tech and I love my Apple Watch.
I’m glad these so-called “techies” aren’t saddling the Watch with unrealistic expectations or anything.
AW needs a killer app.
– Facetime from the watch (iphone in pocket)
that, and the battery life to support it, would do it.