“It took fourteen months but it finally happened last week. I began seeing Apple Watches on a daily basis. Just a few months earlier, it would have been rare for me to see someone wearing an Apple Watch. Something has changed,” Neil Cybart writes for Above Avalon. “Despite the short amount of time on the market, the Apple Watch has been called everything from Apple’s largest flop in decades to the next big thing after the iPhone. In reality, we actually know much more about how the Apple Watch has performed to date, and there is evidence Apple is still just getting started.”
“As seen with the rethought user interface included in watchOS 3, Apple spent the past year studying how people were using Apple Watch. Friction points such as a clunky interface and little-used features, including Glances, were removed,” Cybart writes. “Instead, Apple went back to the basics with a simpler interface and additional focus on Watch faces as the device’s most valued real estate.”
“In terms of Apple Watch unit sales and revenue, we haven’t been left as much in the dark as initially feared,” Cybart writes. “Every three months during Apple’s earnings calls, we have been given at least one major clue as to how Watch sales had fared… In taking all of these clues into consideration, I have a high degree of confidence that Apple has sold 12 million Apple Watches to date… I estimate that if Apple Watch was a standalone entity, it would be worth $10 billion… This is even before all of the significant changes in watchOS 3 were unveiled on stage at WWDC.”
Much more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Prior to watchOS 3, we wrote:
Apple Watch is currently in the same situation as iPhone was in 2007, saddled with 2G speed and prior to the iPhone OS SDK (March 6, 2008) and the resultant App Store (July 10, 2008). A few of us had iPhones for that year while the rest of the world looked at them as a curiosity, but we knew.
We wouldn’t trade that early iPhone or this early Apple Watch experience for anything.
You can have our Apple Watches when you pry them off our cold, dead wrists. — MacDailyNews, December 1, 2015
SEE ALSO:
Previewing watchOS 3: The Apple Watch comes into its own – June 24, 2016
With watchOS 3, Apple paves the way for major Apple Watch innovation – June 24, 2016
Apple watched how we actually used our Apple Watches and adapted watchOS to fit – June 16, 2016
Apple reveals watchOS 3; faster, simpler with breakthrough health features
Monday, June 13, 2016
Apple Watch: Why let facts cloud the debate? – June 6, 2016
Apple Watch: Still the leader of a growing smartwatch pack – May 31, 2016
Looking back on a year of wearing an Apple Watch – May 31, 2016
Living with Apple Watch for one year – May 4, 2016
Reasons why I still wear my Apple Watch every day – April 25, 2016
A year with the Apple Watch: What works, what doesn’t, and what lies ahead – April 22, 2016
Cybart does a good job. His stuff is interesting and worth a read.
Above Avalon… Add to favorits!
Apple Watch is still not available from official Apple re-sellers in several EU countries. True story. I happen to live in one these countries.
I have 5 other watches and then my wife and kids bought me an Apple Watch. I always thought of it as a nice-to-have but not game changing for me.
I haven’t worn my other watches since. My favorite feature is having my meetings on the main screen that keeps me in the loop.
I got an Apple watch shortly after getting two cardiac stents. The ability to monitor my heart rate about every 3 seconds while I do cardiac rehab workouts (which include a facility-owned and nurse-monitored recorder) and while I ride my bicycle on my own is priceless. I have seen almost zero problems with the accuracy of the Apple watch heart rate readings compared to the rehab facility recorder.
I can see and time heart rate recovery times in between sets or when I stop to eat a snack in the middle of an ~15 mile bike ride. As I increase my bicycling distance, with 60 miles as my goal, my Apple watch will only grow more valuable to me. (I used to do 60-150 mile bicycle rides…)
I have other watches, but never wear them any more. I can definitely believe Apple watch sales are going up and up.
Sometime it takes a new device a few revs before it hits mainstream.
For me the iPod 3G finally had the capacity I needed.
Likewise the iPhone 3GS had the 3rd party apps that I wanted (navigation was the key for me).
Now I’m a bit older and more disposal income so can jump on the bandwagon at the 1st rev if I like what I saw.
When will the press start reporting facts and only facts again…?
Some flop huh?
That’s so odd. I live in the SF bay area and don’t see an increase of watches at all.