“One in ten US broadband households plan to buy a smartwatch in 2015, however, 84 percent of them won’t spend over $250 on the device, according to recent wearable research,” Phoebe Jennelyn Magdirila reports for BetaNews.
“The survey, from Parks Associates, suggests that the price point of $100 (£65) to $250 (£160) is roughly equivalent to a high-end fitness tracker,” Magdirila reports. “In addition, the study reveals that those who are willing to spend more than $500 (£320) on a smartwatch will only buy one if it works without a smartphone.”
Magdirila reports, “This is bad news for Apple as it means that not everyone will likely to purchase an Apple Watch, because of its current tethered setup and most especially because of its price tag, which begins at $349.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: People who do not have an Apple Watch do not understand what they want – as evidenced by the desire to “buy one if it works without a smartphone.” That’s not the point of Apple Watch. How often are you without your smartphone?
Was that “if it works without a smartphone” answer prompted by the way the survey question was asked? We bet it was.
This is like asking people in February 2007 — after they’d seen Steve Jobs reveal the iPhone, but before they ever used one — what they wanted most from a smartphone, a virtual keyboard or a keyboard with physical buttons? “Ooh, ooh, we need a physical keyboard!” the ignorati, who had until then had only ever touched physical keyboards, replied in lockstep unison. Yeah, well, no ya don’t.
As those who own and wear Apple Watches understand. It offers tremendous value for the money, significant time savings, and simply does not need to be untethered from your smartphone. It’s not an iPhone for your wrist. It’s an Apple Watch.
Yes, it’s still too expensive and many of its features are not must/ haves. Might as well get a Fitbit. Still waiting. No need to insult people who aren’t rushing out to buy one, MDN.
I don’t believe hubris is in MDN/s vocabulary.
I meant MDN’s vocabulary.
Here we go again with the ‘Apple products are too expensive’ bullshit.
The intellectually limited ‘experts’ have been saying about the Mac for years, yet it’s the only brand/platform gaining market share. They said this about the iPod, which then took over the mobile digital music player market, CAUSING DOZENS OF LOW PRICE MANUFACTURERS TO EXIT THE CATEGORY. They said this about the iPhone, which today controls 20% smartphone unit market share and 90+% of industry profits, after destroying Nokia, Blackberry, Motorola and HTC (all four of which were market leaders prior to the iPhone, and today are virtually extinct). Enter the iPad and it’s a repeat of iPhone unit/profit market shares.
And finally they said the iPhone was too expensive for the Chinese market. Yet here we are 3 years later and China is Apple’s largest iPhone market.
Espousing “price is too high” identifies the pundit as having little to no business/marketing expertise. When I see articles such as these I immediately eliminate the authors from my reading list. Their musings aren’t worthy of my time.
Today in my free iOS class I had a senior female psychotherapist arrive with her iPad mini 1 and her iPhone 5S. Before the 90 minute class was over, she had installed the Apple Store app on both devices and purchased a 42mm Space Gray WATCH SPORT for her 170mm wrist. (Mine’s 160mm) when she saw how she could talk to her WATCH to create and send text messages, she was instantly sold.💥⌚️😱😜😍
And she has to wait 10 days to get it. Does that sound like sales are in a slump? All stories about WATCH sales declining are total BS.😱
On Saturday I came across an iPhone 6 owner who I told she should get an WATCH to go with it. She said she couldn’t afford it because they all cost over $1,000. When I told her the are only $483 including AppleCare Plus insurance and sales tax she was shocked at how little they cost. Any notion an WATCH SPORT is too expensive is total poppycock.⌚️😱💥👀😖😜
Um, dude, $350 for an item of moderate usefulness (at this point, at least) is too expensive for a lot of people.
It has IMENSE usefulness not moderate usefulness. It’s a freaking 1GHz Dual Core 512MB system RAM 8GB storage Wrist Computer. How the hell do you perceive that as moderately useful? Admit it. You just don’t understand what it is and how useful it is.😡
I dare you to wear one for a ten days and still tell us it’s only moderately useful and that you’re returning it for a refund.💥😖😩😂
I’ve had one for over a month now, you arrogant jackhole. I wear it all day every day. I find it moderately useful, but it’s far from a game-changer at this stage.
Stupid, stupid analysis of extremely flawed (if not just plain old made up) data.
There are approximately 100 million household in the US with broadband in 2015. One in ten are going to buy a smart watch (10,000,000). Of these 16% have indicated that they will buy a smart watch costing more than $250 (1,600,000 units).
Apple sold almost twice that many, at a starting price of $349, in the first week of sales.
Another great example of garbage in/garbage out made up numbers by a supposed “research” firm.
It is incredibly CHEAP. The idea that it’s priced too high is totally absurd. It’s a dual core 1GHz Wrist Computer. The power of TWO iPhone 4Ses. Anyone who thinks $399 is a lot of money is dirt poor. You can pan handle $399 – $483 with AppleCare Plus and sales tax – in week. Just put out a sign “Change for an WATCH” and I’m sure you’ll have the money to buy one in only a few days.😜⌚️💥
I’m sure the same type of surveys would show iPhone and iPad being too expensive. Yet they still sell in the tens of millions every quarter. There is a concerted effort with in the media to make the Watch look like an abysmal failure.
You are absolutely right about surveys. The results depend a great deal on how they are formulated and delivered. In addition, people always want more for less – they always want the price to be lower and the capabilities to be greater. That is why Steve Jobs did not rely on surveys and consumer focus groups. These tools do not typically provide visionary feedback.
I saw an article today from a reviewer who complained that the Apple Watch buzzed and prodded him too much. He wanted a wearable that somehow anticipated and accomplished everything that he wanted without input and without bothering him in any way. In other words, some type of 23rd century AI. As far as the buzzing and prodding goes, I would hazard a guess that this fellow did not bother to customize the Apple Watch to fit his needs/desires. I suppose that it should somehow read his mind and self-configure. Someday Apple will get there.
Down vote me all you want.
I’m a loyal apple fan and active first adopter.
But do wonder if I spent too much on it every time I put it on.
Should have bought the sport, then, eh?
The MDN take is mean and immature.
Don’t insult people who think a product is over-priced, MDN. You could have dealt with facts and observations, but you had to go low.
That’s the MDN way. Insult people. Copy and paste into future post. Repeat ad nauseam. I like my Apple Watch, but I still have my doubts about its overall usefulness.
And, re: “when do you not have your phone with you?” Well, my wife is an avid runner, but she has no interest in having to bring her phone with her on her runs.
She doesn’t need her phone with her to record runs with the WATCH SPORT except to calibrate it to begin with. After a 20 minute calibration she can leave her iPhone at home all runs going forward.😘
Well, she borrowed my watch the other day (not synced to a phone), and it told her she had run for 20 miles, when she had in fact run for 15 miles, so something wasn’t working properly. Also the tutorial videos from Apple recommend bringing your phone with you when you use the Workout app, for “best performance,” or whatever it says.
She needs to have the watch Bluetooth connected to an iPhone and the go for a run WITH the iPhone to CALIBRATE IT. It’s right there in the instructions. After a minimum 20 minute run, or in her case 20 mile run, she can ditch the iPhone for future runs and it should report correctly.😃
I’m saving up for an Apple Watch. But I can already afford an Apple Watch Sport Band. I’m wearing one now just for the prestige.
Oh no, many people can’t afford a Maserati car also. Are they doomed too?
Worth every cent. Works flawlessly with MyFitnessPal and ForeFlight’s aviation software. All the other stuff is gravy.
Remember the first iPhone and the price drop after? And the fact that most people buy subsidized phones? Well guess what MDN? Price does matter to most people. Get over it.
Price does matter to most people, but to be successful on Apple’s scale Apple only targets those that appreciate quality and are willing to pay for it.
There are ONLY reasons to be in business: the first is to make a profit, the other 9 don’t count.
IPhone controls 92% OS smartphone profits, while only having 20% unit market share.
“MacDailyNews Take: People who do not have an Apple Watch do not understand what they want”
That is a pretty broad and baseless posit.
A lot of us do not want a watch made by anybody- including Apple and many of us also view the price as ridiculous for such a limited toy. Yes, I said toy.
This is a take on the whole Henry Ford, “if I asked people what they want they’d say they want a faster horse” thing.
It’s important to remember that Apple has had plenty of flops in its history. Not saying or hoping this is one, but this arrogant, totalitarian thinking is dumb.
It’s not a watch bozo. It’s a Wrist Computer and it has way super unlimited capabilities.⌚️💥😱
Guy with condescending attitude toward anyone who doesn’t agree with him and who feels the need to use multiple emoticons after each message calls someone else a bozo. #selfawareness
Just because you think use of emoticons is childish doesn’t make it so. And YES. I proudly condescend to all who disagree with my opinion. That’s why I so popular here and everywhere else.💥😱😜
That is why it is tethered to your iPhone. Right RetroMedia?
It is expensive, which will limit its sales (even among all us loaded Apple fans). I think there is a similarity here with the Newton, and what is more important is what the watch will lead to. Apple is always judged using a rear view mirror, and that is the wrong way to look at this. However, Apple is opaque when it comes to what is coming, so we will have to wait and see.
It is NOT EXPENSIVE. IT IS INCREDIBLY INexpensive – DIRT CHEAP. Apple is practically giving them away. How you can perceive WATCH as expensive is beyond my ability to comprehend. What universe are you living in?😡😩😖😏😰😭😱
My black stainless steel Apple Watch is awesome. Until this particular watch I never paid more than $150 for a watch.
Geez talk about sensitive. Everyone has different opinions on every single topic. For those who are fans of Apple products, and those are after all the 1st target market; it comes down to preference. Just like with the ipod, some will be slow to adopt yet first in line to say the product sux or blows. I think if the 1st ipod sold at the exact pace as the watch is today, the market would have said SMASH success about ipod. It is purposeful FUD that slows down people buying. So many lies are being spread about a product by people who don’t own or ever intend to own said product. I take their opinion with a BOLDER SIZED grain of salt. If you don’t own the watch or have at least bought it and returned it, then your opinion means as much to me as a politicians view of science. I appreciate comments about the watch from people who have owned the watch. If you don’t want one or think it is overpriced, GREAT!! I really could care less and guess most others feel the same. I own the watch (3) in family so far. I am so pleased that the beta 3 on WatchOS2 is progressing. Had watch on 8 hours today and still have 82% left of battery. I am enjoying the watch immensely as do my wife and son. We are getting value and enjoying Apple’s new so called toy. A toy with more transistors aboard than the first Apollo space module is what it is. Call it what you wish. I think the first watch effort by Apple exceeds prior efforts to technify the carpel chronomater by Motorola, Asus and Pebble, in my opinion. I have tried them all. I subjected myself to Android to do it except Pebble. I can just say I am happy that Apple made a watch. I would like a better price, but feel that the difference vs the competition is worth it. That is the ultimate price decider. It is worth what customers are willing to pay. So far value on purchased Apple products exceeds cost to me significantly. Windows and its whole world are another area of hurt I have subjected myself to. I don’t like it. But I tried it.
Polished steel case, steel link bracelet, version 1 product for $1,000 … pass
Don’t buy a car as there will be a newer one out in September. Don’t buy that grapefruit as there will be a newer, better one out soon.
Haven’t the pundits seen Apple at work enough times yet ? How do they think Apple manages to get he lion’s share of profits in a market ? They first go for the early adopters with money to spend. A higher initial price also keeps demand under control long enough to streamline the production/supply chains. It also gives them the feedback they need to design a higher volume model without wasting resources on shelve dust collectors. Once that initial phase is complete, then, and only then, they lower prices but just enough to get the next slice of money spending people in the market. Look back on iPods, iPhones, iPads and you’ll see the pattern. It works really well even if the cheap skates will whine and cry over unit sales (ignoring the profit generation).
Why are some people saying “It’s not a watch” If it isn’t a watch, then why did Apple name it “Apple Watch”?