“Despite Apple’s success with smartphones and tablets, it is facing stiff competition in the smartwatch sector, as rival developers claim their sales are unaffected by the Apple Watch,” Luke Graham reports for CNBC.
“Tech developer Pebble established the smartwatch category in 2012 when its Pebble Smartwatch first went on sale. Despite competition from the Apple Watch, which works with the iPhone and has been available since April of this year, Pebble’s CEO Eric Migicovsky says his sales figures have improved,” Graham reports. “‘Apple has brought a ton of attention to this space,’ Migicovsky told CNBC at the Dublin Web Summit on Wednesday. ‘We’ve actually seen no material impact from Apple entering the space on our sales. In fact we’re selling two (times) the amount this year than we were last year,’ he added.”
“Earlier this week, the CEO of Fitbit, James Park, said the Apple Watch has had ‘no material impact’ on sales of the wearable activity tracker,” Graham reports. “Park added during a conference call with investors that Apple and Fitbit serve ‘very different segments’ of the market, as reported by the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper. Fitbit’s revenue has grown 168 percent year-on-year, according to its third-quarter earnings report.”
MacDailyNews Take: Whistling past the graveyard never fails to entertain.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s revolutionary iPhone debuted on June 29, 2007.
Palm today reported that smartphone sell-through for the quarter was up 21 percent year over year. Smartphone revenue was up 12 percent from the year-ago period. — Palm, Inc., October 01, 2007
Research In Motion Limited today reported revenue for the quarter was up 27 percent in the previous quarter and up 108 percent versus the same quarter of last year. — Research In Motion, October 4, 2007
Nokia’s third quarter 2007 net sales increased 28 percent year over year. Nokia’s third quarter 2007 operating profit grew 69 percent YOY. Total mobile device volume increased 11 percent sequentially and 26 percent year over year. — Nokia, October 18, 2007
Pebble and Fitbit: History tends to repeat.
SEE ALSO:
Apple has already sold more than $1.7 billion worth of Apple Watches – October 29, 2015
Strategy Analytics: Apple Watch sells 4.5 million units in Q315, takes 74% global smartwatch market share – October 28, 2015
Why Apple Watch sales are primed to explode – September 19, 2015
Apple Watch users are abandoning traditional watches – September 15, 2015
Over 1 million Apple Watches already sold in China – September 3, 2015
Apple Watch already dominates smart-wearables market, says IDC – August 28, 2015
IDC estimates Apple sold 3.6 million Apple Watch units in Q2 – August 27, 2015
Best Buy CEO: Apple Watch demand is ‘so strong’ that we’re expanding sales to all 1,050 stores – August 25, 2015
Swiss watch exports decline most since 2009 – August 20, 2015
I own two $6,000 Swiss watches, but I wear my Apple Watch most of the time – August 14, 2015
Apple Watch will make up 40% of premium wristwatch sales by 2020 – report – August 14, 2015
Apple Watch takes 88% of total smartwatch revenue – August 14, 2015
Apple Watch dominates smartwatches with 75% market share – July 28, 2015
Juniper Research: Apple is world’s #1 smartwatch maker – July 23, 2015
Canalys: Apple ships 4.2 million Apple Watches in Q2 to become world’s top wearables vendor – July 21, 2015
Apple Watch satisfaction is unprecedented at 97%; beats original iPhone and iPad – July 20, 2015
Swiss watch exports hit worst slump in five years as Apple Watch debuts – June 19, 2015
Apple Watch is Apple’s most successful product debut ever – June 1, 2015
Apple Watch, the world’s first real smart watch, will be a massive hit – September 9, 2014
Pebble is a good product for what it is but it is not in the same category as Apple Watch. It is not competition.
Exactly, as long as Pebble produces highly focused devices in the $100 range (assuming they have decent profit margins) they can be successful.
But anything in the $250 – $1000 range will be roadkill.
I don’t think that’s the only issue. I think that Apple has brought more NEW customers to the wristwatch sector, instead of taking market share from other watch makers.
It makes sense that more exposure has benefitted Pebble et al.
How many times have we heard this fairytale? That’s what Swiss Watch sales were down 75% but there was no impact, yea right.
…. then why did the Swiss Watch Industry recently report that “Watch sales declined 2-3 x faster than predicted for September? … apparently the largest quarterly drop since 2009 during Q3.
Sounds like they are trying to talk up the situation prior to the Xmas push, when they will most probably be decimated because even Santa will be wearing an Watch to ensure he delivers all those Watch, TV & iPad Pro gifts (with the help of UPS)!
Interesting …. Watch company marketing staff out in force to push this comment negative?
In some ways the more fitting comparison is to the MP3 player market when the iPod was released. At that time MP3 players were a niche market that few people cared about. The iPod so dramatically expanded the market that of course the handful of existing players benefitted. I recall interviews with execs at SanDisk (or was it Creative?) who expressed gratitude to Apple for this sales boost… until the iPod went on to ruthlessly suck all the oxygen from the room :).
It is also worth comparing these reports to Blackberry.
When the original iPhone was released, Blackberry sales actually increased for a couple of years and they reported that the iPhone was not materially impacting them.
Then armageddon struck….
Very good points!
Apple only has a couple months under its belt with Apple Watch, which doesn’t tell anything about what it will be by version 3 in a couple years with advanced sensors & apps, etc.
MDN did just that. See “Research In Motion” in their Take above.
Also see: RIM/Blackberry’s net income/loss from 2009 to 2015 (in million U.S. dollars)
Haha sure sure. I’m starting to see more and more Apple Watch in public than the competition. Keep dreaming fool! lol
I would imagine with the market growing so much that there’s still so much room that there’s no noticeable overlap. Fitbit have had 168% growth, but for all we know it might have been 268% without Apple Watch.
I never see Apple Watch in Sydney and the Watch table in the Bondi Junction store is always forlornly empty even when the store is otherwise packed.
One business associate has one, and I saw one on a guy in the train some time ago.
I’d like to see figures for Aussie sales, because Android displaced iPhone for most popular device in the last 12 months, which goes against the trend elsewhere. But then the Aussie dollar has fallen quite a bit…
So what if AppleWatch hasn’t affected Pebble sales. Does that shine a negative light on AppleWatch? It shouldn’t. All that matters to Apple is whether the AppleWatch is meeting internal sales expectations. If it is then that’s a good thing. There are always these pundits and analysts thinking that if a product is really good it destroys the competition. That’s how Amazon’s AWS is seen. It’s killing the competition and Wall Street loves it. AppleWatch is being seen as a failure because it’s not severely impacting rival sales. It may have some slight effect but not enough to make rivals throw up their hands in despair.
AppleWatch isn’t in direct competition with Pebble as far as cost is concerned so why should it hurt Pebble. I doubt Apple is deliberately trying to ruin any other company. I know they could if they really wanted to. They’re simply selling a product they hope will interest and be useful for consumers. They’re not trying to undercut rivals in pricing like a lot of companies do when they want to outsell rivals.
Wall Street’s attitude is for a company to wipe out everyone so only one company reaps all the benefits. That’s a very selfish attitude and bad for the economy in general. No one with any decent morals should want to see multiple companies fail for the benefit of one. If it happens, it happens but it’s not something to wish for.