“Few tech products are as polarising as the Apple Watch,” Tim Bradshaw reports for The Financial Times. “Even before it was revealed in September 2014, it has divided consumers, investors and tech pundits alike.”
“Apple’s refusal to reveal Watch sales figures has only fuelled the argument,” Bradshaw reports. “On Tuesday, Apple finally took its first steps towards revealing the Watch’s performance by indicating that total sales for its ‘wearable’ products exceeded $5bn over the past 12 months.”
“Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, told analysts on Tuesday’s earnings call that revenue from ‘wearable products,’ including Apple Watch and its headphones, Beats and AirPods, ‘in the past four quarters was the size of a Fortune 500 company,'” Bradshaw reports. “Watch revenues are included in Apple’s ‘other products’ category, with the declining iPod, Apple TV box and various accessories, where sales in the March quarter grew 31 per cent year on year to $2.9bn.”
“With Mr Cook adding later that its wearables business would be ‘well into the Fortune 500,’ analysts have assumed that the ad hoc division is turning over close to $6bn a year, including Watch sales of more than 3m units in the past quarter alone,” Bradshaw reports. “Gene Munster, the former Apple analyst turned tech investor at Loup Ventures, estimates that of the $6bn total, about $4.7bn came from the Watch. ‘It’s a good reminder that this is a real business,’ he says.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: When Apple Watch gets its own cellular capability and can communicate without iPhone, sales will shift into overdrive. (Apple Watch will always require an iPhone for certain things because the screen is just too small. For example, you’ll always want your iPhone to read larger articles, attachments, see images as prompted by your Watch, as it works today).
We really want to be able to get/make a call in case of emergency while on a run. Right now, with our Apple Watch Nike+ units, we have everything else we need on our wrist during a run (music, GPS, run tracking, heart rate, etc.) except cellular connectivity.
SEE ALSO:
As it turns two, Apple Watch focuses on core strengths – April 24, 2017
Happy second birthday, Apple Watch! – April 24, 2017
New limited edition Apple Watch Nikelab champions neutral-toned style – April 20, 2017
Apple Watch Series 3 coming in second half 2017, sources say – April 5, 2017
The Apple Watch is still the best designed smartwatch – March 14, 2017
The Apple Watch is winning – March 2, 2017
Apple Watch had massive holiday quarter; took nearly 80% share of total smartwatch revenue – February 10, 2017
The Apple Watch ‘WOW’ moment – February 3, 2017
Apple Watch dominates with 63% of worldwide smartwatch market – February 2, 2017
Apple smashes Street; iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch set all-time records – January 31, 2017
Apple Watch has blood on its hands: Pebble is dead – December 7, 2016
Apple Watch has blood on its hands: ‘Microsoft Band’ wearable is dead – October 4, 2016
Computerworld reviews Apple Watch Series 2: It’s time to jump in – September 27, 2016
Ars Technica reviews Apple Watch Series 2: ‘Great experience with very few hiccups’ – September 22, 2016
Mossberg reviews Apple’s watchOS 3: Quicker, easier, and more useful – September 21, 2016
CNET reviews Apple Watch Series 2: ‘The smooth wrist companion it was always meant to be’ – September 14, 2016
WSJ reviews Apple Watch Series 2: ‘Apple Watch finds its purpose in life’ – September 14, 2016
The Verge reviews Apple Watch Series 2: There’s something effortlessly cool about it – September 14, 2016
Apple Watch Series 2: Apple refocuses its smartwatch – September 12, 2016
The watch is a dud. They have to lump it into other devices to prop the numbers up.
If Cook was truly brave, he would have the watch as a separate entity and be bold enough to say that they sold a few dozen watches. Instead, he has to hide the numbers.
Watch is an amazing success. Apple owns about 50-60% of the market worldwide.
Perhaps. Now, how large is the smartwatch market and what proportion of iPhone users does the Apple watch portion represent?
Apple Watch was always meant to be an accessory that only some people can afford and find useful. Many people just hate anything on their hands in principle. No one has ever honestly thought that Apple Watch can be an iPhone or something, Watch will be always only a subset market among those who can theoretically use it as they have iPhones.
Ah, then we are agreed that the bar for ‘success’ for Apple Watch is set rather low as it is meant to be an accessory only some can afford and then limited to those that have iPhones. As an ‘amazing’ success I guess we can say they did better than they anticipated. About 20% of all iPhone users?
DErss – Agree. For people who find the Apple Watch useful, it is another element in the ecosystem that keeps Apple customers happy. Who has a problem with that? If the Apple Watch won’t make _you_ happy, then don’t buy it. It is not as if the Watch is single-handedly causing Apple to tank. Plus, it will just bet better over time. So I have no problem with Apple working on it and selling it.
There is probably plenty of gear (and software) that other people own that I am just not into. It does not make me trash-talk all that gear/software. It just means _this consumer_ does not perceive it to have value to me.
Rubbish.
I’ve purchased two, and given several away as gifts. Wear it everyday.
It’s a well-made, useful product if you’re into fitness.
Typically, a new product line has to exceed 5% of a company’s sales in order to get broken out in financials. Look it up. In other words, your comment lacks credibility, until Apple Watch sales exceed $10B
That’s interesting. I guess that explains Hormel separating out Hawaii sales of SPAM from the rest of the States, territories and Global revenues in their annual report.
What page of Hormel’s annual report? I could only find SPAM lumped into their Grocery Products and International segments, with no separate line for SPAM, much less SPAM in Hawai’i. Grocery products as a whole (which also includes Skippy Peanut Butter, Hormel Chili and microwave meals, Dinty Moore Stew, Herdez Salsas, and several other brands) only represents 20% of Hormel revenue.
I was not aware that any company treated sales in a single state as a distinct product segment from sales in the other 49, even if the sales in that state exceed 10% of the total. Otherwise, California, Texas, and New York would need to be accounted for separately by most companies.
It’s been years since I first saw it and you’re right, it doesn’t seem to be separated out anymore. It was amusing when I was first told about it and remember being shown the actual printed annual report. Gave you 5-stars for pointing out it’s not true anymore.
On an aside in the process of looking for the separated line item, I found a map of if each State was represented by a meat. SPAM musubi (rice ball/block) for Hawaii. 😀
Whoops forgot the link:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2014/03/united_steaks_of_america_map_if_each_state_could_have_only_one_meat_what.html
There are about 50 Apple Watch users who regularly read MDM and they don’t like you bad mouthing that watch.
Smartwatches are unnecessary: they hardly do anything better than a smartphone. Screens too small; battery life too short; form factor and position too awkward to make them good computing devices.
They’re good at a narrow and limited set of things, and for some people, this is good enough. But they’ll never turn into some magical computing device like a smartphone that everyone wants and needs.
Which makes more profit than Amazon and Netflix.
I have aPebble 2 and use it to read text, show me callers, control Bluetooth speakers and that’s it. The battery lasts for at least a week. I don’t need all the rest that an Apple Watch can do. Until Apple is able to make a watch that can match that battery life I can’t justify getting one.
I was an original Kickstarter Pebble user. It’s good for what it is, but the battery was flaky. Presumably newer iterations improved, but lots of original Pebble owners had their batteries die suddenly. When I got my AppleWatch, the Pebble got connected to its charger, never to leave. I can’t give it away to my nephews since it’s so scratched up. I keep it like a lot of original tech devices I own.
As for the battery life on the AppleWatch, a total non-issue. I can’t wear my watch 24hrs a day, so when I take it off at night to shower, I put it on its charging stand next to the iPhone. Not sure what the big deal is to charge it at night is, since it’s already part of the routine for electronics. I used to charge my Pebble every night too, cause it used to flake out if the charge got too low.
Yeah, i’m not sure why people make a big deal about charging the apple watch. I can go 2 full days with it, but i take it off at night and set it on the charger anyway. Not sure how the difference between setting it down normally and setting it down on a charger could be a big deal? SMH
Thing is I wear my Pebble at night so as to use it as a silent, vibrating, alarm to not wake my partner in them early morning.
If I took it off every night that could make a difference.
The Watch is in its infancy. Once the technological bottlenecks are eased (and Apple has the money to ease it) The Watch will generate far more money than Macs and iPads combined.
Once the Watch can accurately monitor your health issues, you better believe it will be more of a “must-have” than a smartphone.
Let’s hope so, and before the competition overtakes it like it did with Siri.
Yeah, sadly no chance of that any time soon. Apple is so far ahead of the competition that i doubt anyone can catch up in the foreseeable future.
Which in my opinion is a bad thing. We need more competition in this field. The only one capable of competing against the Apple Watch is Google. And their Android Wear is a huge zero.
Alexa doesn’t do everything Siri does. I don’t expect the device that overtakes Apple Watch to have a matching or superset of Apple Watch’s feature set. I think it’s more than possible that like the Echo the functions that matter most will be implemented with maybe some features not present in Apple Watch. Apple products lean towards devices that are more one-size for all than slightly more specialized in an area. That’s good and bad but leaves nice niches for those devices that succeed in those niches. Fitbit for example still holds its ground in the area of simple, affordable exercise monitoring. A niche like LifeAlert fills for the elderly might exist for a health wearable competitor.
Let’s remember when people compare Siri competitors is that when Apple bought Siri, it could do do a lot more. Apple reigned it in.
It’s not that Alexa or Google are better at anything, it’s about how Apple values customer privacy. Rightly or wrongly.
But that’s also a reason customers are loyal to Apple. Apple has a reputation it has upheld.
Agreed, I am aware Siri did a lot more before they ‘lobotomized’ (my term 😛 ) Siri. As I understood the original, it could access 3rd party apps to start them or allow the user to select one if multiple apps could support the request made much like what Android does. Nonetheless if you hobble something you can’t also claim it continues to be equally or more advanced than the competitors’ product since the general user will never have access to the original.
I also agree with you that Apple places privacy above all else for good or bad. Now it is pretty much Apple’s ‘brand’. The danger is that should Apple ever deviate from that singular purpose, its ‘brand’ will forever be tarnished.
In the meantime, what Apple cannot provide and is found to be convenient enough will be obtained by the consumer purchasing other products possibly including Android-based devices and Amazon products and services.
I agree. They have cultivated this image, and now they have to work twice as hard to maintain it. P
likewise, people have been prepared to think Google doesn’t care about privacy so they can get away with bad PR a lot easier.
I read a lot of comments from people extolling the virtues of Apple Watch, but no one has yet provided a single reason why I should purchase Apple Watch. C’mon, guys, try harder!
Agree 100%. I wear my Apple iPhone watch on my belt, back pocket or backpack. Can do so much more and no daily charging required …
Because ii’s there.
I see it as the future. Today it’s not a must-have for you. It a nice notifications device. But I see it as the original Mac. That device was really limited too. And people just like you, rightly said the same thing about it. But little by little that myopia was eased by technical advancements and unforeseen uses and applications.
By single reason I mean a single reason that is universally profound, useful, economic, and prudent. Try harder, fanboys.
Please try not to be more of a petulant, whining dick than you have to be. There is no reason that is “universally profound, useful, economic and prudent” — for this or electronic product.
You got that right. Apple Watch is purposeless, an answer in search of a question.
If you purchased it, it’d drag down the value to all other Apple Watch owners. Don’t do it!
Frank. The Watch is amazing if you are really busy, and more amazing the busier you are. The calendar/scheduling interface on the Watch is useful. And the tactics, too. Add quick & easy text message and iPhone interface and it is awesome in a busy business sense. The busier you are, the more awesome it will be. Provided, of course, you load your iPhone calendar with events, appointments, meetings, deadlines, etc. And assuming you prefer the discretion (and taptic reminders) of glancing at your watch, rather than pulling out your phone all the time. Is it necessary? Probably not: people can get by without it. But is it useful? Yes; and the more busy you are, the more useful it is. Unfortunately it is not all that useful to me simply because I am not all that busy; my daily schedule is actually fairly calm. Still and all, I like mine. But you don’t need one. Maybe the same way a lot of people don’t really need an iPhone. Or even a smartphone at all…
It’s your job to decide if you wish to buy or not buy an Apple Watch. If you’re interested in the watch, do some research on your own, hold Apple Watch in your hand, put it on your wrist.
And then make your decision.
You don’t want feedback; you’re trolling, plain and simple.
My comment intended for “Frank”.
Pitiful.
I just wish they would call it the ‘Apple wearable’ instead of the ‘Apple watch’ cause if anything, the watch part is overrated. How many of you actually use the watch portion much?
I’ve found no compelling reason to purchase an Apple Watch.
I’ve found no compelling reason why it even exists!
It’s huge! It’s bulky! It’s heavy and if you want the very light ceramic case version, you’re going to pay a mint for this thing!
For staters, I won’t even purchase one of these until eveything in the watch that needs an iPhone for, NOW, is ACTUALLY completely self contained inside of the watch, itself!!
NO FRIGGIN’ EXTRA iPHONE NEEDED!!!!
AND it better be thinner and more form fitting to the wrist!
SJ would have NEVER done a watch! He never did!!!!!
The watch could only come out of Tim Cook’s Apple!
He cares more about fashion accessories than all of Apple’s core products and businesses!
Friggin’ “Pipeline Tim”!
Gawd! Get a grip! Such ravings over a product! So you don’t want one. Good for you. Plenty of people do. Good for them.
Good for them? Then why such hatred for those that don’t want Apple Watch? Why such animosity? Easy! Those who purchased Apple Watch have to justify their behavior. They can’t be content, they have to malign. It’s all about their lack of confidence, their worry and doubt, their own shame and regret. Poor, pitiful fanboys.
I’m sorry, but Apple Watch owners do not have to justify their behavior to you. The people who appear to be raving and hating here are those who don’t have an Apple Watch and don’t want one. Nobody is making them buy the product, but they rave on nonetheless.
Most of those who are supporting the Watch are people (like me) who own one and find it useful for their own use case. What we object to is not the folks who don’t want one, but the people who don’t want us to have one.
The “if I don’t want it, nobody needs it” syndrome does not just surface on this subject:
(1) Those who insist that there is a single ideal iPhone screen size and all those who prefer some alternative are fools.
(3) Those who insist that Pages and Numbers have all the features that anybody could ever need, so those who find them lacking are idiots or shills for Microsoft.
(2) Those who insist that a MacBook port that they occasionally use should be paid for by every user. That is why some products have more ports than others. If you need more than one port, buy a computer with more than one port.
More generally: Don’t complain about a device that was built for somebody else and their requirements. Don’t attack those who choose to buy that product because it meets their requirements and not yours.
Oops, didn’t close the brackets around my /i tag. Sorry. Wish you could edit after posting.