“With the advent of the smartphone, many don’t bother to wear a watch. According to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, 1.026 billion watches were shipped in 2015,” Mark Hibben writes for Seeking Alpha. “This compares favorably with the total number of smartphones shipped in 2015 of 1.433 billion, according to IDC. Despite the impact of the smartphone, there’s still a sizable market for wrist watches.”
“Unlike fad products such as 3D printers, smartwatches have a predecessor industry in electronic watches, and [SA contributor Robert Lehar] makes a persuasive case that the advent of the smartwatch is disrupting the watch industry. In addition to the steady decline in Swiss watch exports over the past year that Lehar pointed out, Strategy Analytics estimates that smartwatch shipments overtook Swiss watch shipments in 2015 Q4. According to Strategy Analytics, 8.1 million smartwatches were shipped vs. 7.9 million Swiss Watches.”
“Just as smartphones came to dominate the mobile communication market, I consider it inevitable that smartwatches will dominate the electronic watch market,” Hibben writes. “For 2016, IDC predicts sales of 28.3 million, with Apple Watch having a dominant market share of 49.4%. For 2016 Q1, Apple Watch had the dominant share of the smartwatch category at 46% with 1.5 million units shipped, according to IDC.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Siri, already in many ways at its most powerful on Apple Watch, will only grow more powerful and more useful. And, as Siri’s capabilities grow, so do those of Apple Watch!
“Unlike fad products like 3D printers” really? You just gave your article 0 zero credibility. I think you might want to go out into the real world and see what is happening. 3D printing is revolutionary in so many areas including orthopedics and medicine. My neck of the woods. There is nothing fady about it.
Maybe, he meant for the average consumer, and not the pros.