“Apple Inc’s new smartwatch may be a tough sell, with 69 percent of Americans indicating they are not interested in buying the gadget, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll,” Alexei Oreskovic reports for Reuters. “However, the survey also showed limited awareness of the watch. The poll was taken after Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook rolled out the product on Monday, and only about half of respondents said they had heard news of the timepiece in the last few days.”
“Also, in an encouraging sign for Apple, roughly 13 percent of survey respondents who did not own an iPhone said that they would consider buying one in order to buy an Apple Watch, which needs an iPhone to work fully,” Oreskovic reports. “Ipsos surveyed 1,245 Americans online between March 9 and March 13. The data was weighted to reflect the U.S. population and has a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points (view results here).”
“One-quarter of respondents said they were interested in purchasing the Apple Watch,” Oreskovic reports. “Some 46 percent of respondents said that the Apple Watch had a ‘cool factor.’ But only 29 percent said they were more interested in purchasing an Apple Watch than another brand of smartwatch.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple Watch is going to be huge!
The ignorati will wake up sooner than later this time around.
A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them. — Steve Jobs, 1998
[Attribution: Technology Tell via iMore. Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
That’d be 60 million, one.
Per the other article on MDN:
“Apple Watch is aiming at the fat middle of the market, where some 5.5 million watches are sold at prices ranging from $150 to $1,000 and which accounted for $1.7 billion in revenue last year in the U.S. alone.”
Once Apple establishes a foothold in that market, it will open up the market of “people who don’t know what they want until you show them.”
If they sell just 1/10 of that 60 million it will be an unqualified success.
For any other company your statement would hold true, but Apple is not judged by those standards. If Apple only sold 6 million AppleWatches it probably would be considered a failure. I’m hoping Apple will sell more than six million in a quarter, but without touching one, I can’t make any predictions. I’m hoping AppleWatch will cause a halo effect to drive more iPhone sales, but I wouldn’t think there’d be anyone buying any AppleWatch and not owning an iPhone. Apple ought to cut some deal where purchasing an iPhone and AppleWatch together would give some discount, but that’s unlikely. Although I’d like to own an AppleWatch Sport I still find it a stretch that tens of millions of consumers would have an interest in buying an AppleWatch but I hope I’m missing the big picture.
I’m sorry, I should be more clear. I think that if they sell 6 million in the first week, it will be an unqualified success. 😉 If they report numbers, that will be good.
6 million units in a market that currently doesn’t exist, you don’t think people would appreciate that?
yes, unless there is an Apple Watch on every single person’s arm within 12 months, it will be an unqualified failure. and yes, that includes everyone in North Korea.
Huge, I tell you! It will be huge!
Funny how the Reuters writer spins the survey with the opposite angle. Shows his innate bias.
I am interested in Tesla but have no interest in buying one of their cars. Likewise, I am following the watch and have no intention of buying one.
As a shareholder since 2001, I think it has been a massive waste of resources.
If you own any stock its most likely from a android company.
Back to your trolling?
I own stock in Apple and Tesla.
Through Mutual Funds I have some level in Android companies, but most people invested in Mutual Funds do.
silverhawk1, that’s a pathetic attempt at a response.
I am with DavGreg. I can’t think of a thing i could do standalone on a tiny screen that i wouldn’t prefer to do on a phone-sized screen or larger. Price is too high and daily recharging is absolutely a deal-killer.
Apple again trots out a fashion accessory that they claim is a computer. It isn’t. You still need a compatible iPhone with you to get any value out of this overpriced geek band.
Mike,
Why exactly is daily recharging a “deal-killer”–do you not sleep?
6 hours every night. but not always in the same place in the same time zone.
Slvhwk, why the need to respond with such an assumption? Is it not possible that a person with vested interest in Apple can take a “contrary” opinion (to yours/mine) and still be reasonable & thoughtful?
As a side note, I’ve held/owned stock since 2000 and before receiving a Fitbit_Pulse for Christmas, the Apple Watch wasn’t a must have. Now, after experiencing the beni’s of the Pulse and knowing the Apple Watch will be vastly superior is all ways and provide much more functionality, I will be getting an A-Watch. I mention this b/c I am proof that one with a vested interest in Apple can have doubt about the A-Watch and do so with reason.
I’d say, open the brain vents a bit b/c it appears your fanboy visor is blocking your vision.
You seem to be implying that there’s an equivalence between the interest in the apple watch indicated by the poll’s 25% of Americans and your interested in Tesla.
IMO there isn’t. You’re stating that you’re NOT interested in buying the Tesla (despite your interest in reading about it), while the 25% in the poll ARE interested in BUYING the aWatch. That’s what the poll’s actual question was.
The idea that 25% of American’s are already interested in buying a product they’ve never seen and which has never had any actual reviews is pretty amazing.
BTW The total annual sales dollars is currently about 50 billion. (With some sources claiming that 80% of that coming from watches costing over $500.) I suspect that apple has a good chance over time of causing that number to double. I’m assuming that a percentage of that increase will go to other smart watches .
Time will tell
The press fails to mention that the Apple Watch will work will all the phone models the currently sell and one they no longer do. The 5. The other smart watchs were only compatible with one or two phones. This gives Apple Watch a customer base that no one else has had. It gives Apple Pay to owners of phones that don’t have NFC, like me. This is a big incentive, and one that increase the size of Apple Pay too. I think Apple Watch will be a big hit, and the press will have no clue why.
Apple iTunes accounts- 800 mil
AppleWatch/iPhone enabled- 300 mil
Actual first purchasers- 20%= 60 mil in Watches to start……..
Not bad………
Will there be a limit on 04/10 pre-orders?? I’d like to order 2…..
I want 4. One for personal use, one for work (because I have a separate work iPhone and probably can’t easily sync it up to more than one iPhone), one for a gift, and one to keep in its original packaging to resell when they sell out.
I need to order 3 April 10. Anyone notice there’s a group of iPad owners without iPhones? I want the WATCH to be allowed to work with paired iPads for them not only iPhones.
The only people with iPads and no iPhone are children whose parents bought them. If they don’t need an iPhone then they don’t need a Watch.
New Mobile Computing Paradigm
Apple is not reinventing the watch, Apple is reinventing computing. Apple is selling a wrist computer that takes the space formerly reserved for use on a person’s wrist for a watch. It’s home screen is a watch face. Calling it a watch gives a person a frame of reference and feeling of familiarity.
Tethering the iPhone and Apple watch synergistically makes each function better where the sum of the two together is greater than either individually, i.e., 1+1>2.
Apple is selling to it’s own customers that already love and enjoy Apple products. Established customers will spread the word about the experience provided by the Apple watch + iPhone combination.
The word-of-mouth about the AW + iPhone experience will be reason enough to cause some people to switch to iPhone, with the intent to later purchase an Apple Watch
Pundits and analysts are attempting to compare a watch, to a wrist worn computer, i.e., Apples to Rolexes. The AWE 18 carat gold watch is in a class by itself, as a wrist worn computer, with a time related functions and applications.
How many watches does Apple been to sell to be deemed successful? Apple recently sold its 700,000,000th iPhone! If only 200,000,000 have an iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, 6, or 6+, that’s a large potential customer base. If 10% of 200,000,000 buy an Apple watch, that’s 20,000,000. And that’s only the present customer base and doesn’t include new Apple iPhone customers.😀
Amazingly ignorant article. So what? 69% do not want it, at least when the survey was taken. That leaves 31%. That is a LOT of people, and that is just the USA. So is the cup 69% empty or 31% full and still getting more full.
MDN chastises indistry analysts for reporting unit sales as evidence of non-Apple product success, but then turns around and touts interest surveys as proof that the Apple Watch is a guaranteed success. Hypocrytes.