“Last year at this time, the tech world was holding its breath waiting for the Apple Watch to be released,” Fredric Paul writes for Network World. “With industry-leading functionality and Apple’s reputation for ease of use—not to mention marketing oomph—we were all hoping it would be the killer device that legitimized the entire category of wearable computing. Of course, that’s not how it turned out.”
” I’m not saying the Apple Watch is a terrible product — though it didn’t do the trick for me,” Paul writes. “It sold millions of units and many of those buyers seem very happy with their fancy new wristwear.”
MacDailyNews Take: Off-the-charts happy, in fact:
Apple Watch satisfaction is unprecedented at 97%; beats original iPhone and iPad – July 20, 2015
“I’m saying that the Apple Watch hasn’t been the kind of revolutionary product many people were hoping it would be,” Paul writes. “There have been lots of questions about the initial version’s usability and the limited number of viable use cases. And it hasn’t led to spikes in sales for other wearable devices.”
MacDailyNews Take: Factually incorrect. According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, total shipment volume for the Q315 totaled 21.0 million units, up 197.6% from the 7.1 million units shipped in 3Q14.
“Many people — including me, actually — are now looking forward to version two of the Apple Watch, widely expected to be announced and released later in 2016. We’re all hoping it will be enough improved to do what the version one couldn’t, as well as make wearing a smartwatch seem cool and indispensable,” Paul writes. “I still firmly believe that someone… will eventually come up with a device that does that. Maybe we’ll see that device at CES. Maybe not.”
MacDailyNews Take: Definitely not, since Apple doesn’t attend CES.
“Either way, I’m still convinced that wearables will one day be seen as essential components of how people live, work, and communicate,” Paul writes. “But the sad truth is that hasn’t happened yet, and it’s still not clear exactly what smartwatches need to do in order to achieve that goal. And it’s equally sad but true that the original Apple Watch has to be a huge disappointment to users, vendors and market watchers who felt sure we’d be well past this point by now.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, what’s the answer to the headline under which Network World published your piece, “Why the Apple Watch is the most disappointing tech product of 2015,” Fredric?
Hello?
This is an empty, garbage article that is bereft of, or in direct opposition to, actual facts.
SEE ALSO:
It’s official: The Apple Watch is destroying the so-called competition – November 20, 2015
As Apple Watch sales ramp, Swiss watch makers suffer biggest slump in six years – November 19, 2015
Apple Watch models take top four spots on 10 most-wanted smartwatches list – November 18, 2015
Apple Watch is 2016’s hottest holiday gift – November 18, 2015
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
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
Apple Watch takes 88% of total smartwatch revenue – August 14, 2015
Apple Watch kills a entire industry in three months – August 12, 2015
U.S. wristwatch sales post biggest drop in seven years after Apple Watch debut – August 7, 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
Non-techies love their Apple Watches even more than tech users – July 20, 2015
Apple Watch is Apple’s most successful product debut ever – June 1, 2015
“Or something”. has never been used better than it is here. Click bait crap.
I haven’t been disappointed by my Apple Watch. It doesn’t feel frivolous to me at all. If you don’t like the product, that’s fine, but trashing Tim Cook over your dislike of the Apple Watch is just tacky. Grow up.
I love mine and that’s all that counts.
I love mine too. I run it in Airplane mode most of the time for much longer battery life because I use apps that run alone on the WATCH and don’t need communication with my iPhone 90% of the time. The author of this article is reporting falsehoods.
Author of this article is NUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Simple, design.
Love my too, make my own opinions…
I couldn’t be happier with mine. I wear it every day.
These analysts wouldn’t be satisfied if Apple started producing Mr Fusion devices and gave them away for free.
It’s time these liars are called exactly what they are. Liars. Not analysts, not tech reporters, not objective reporters. Liars.
Another person singling out AppleWatch despite all the other smartwatches on the market that didn’t fare any better or did worse. I doubt the whole world was holding their breath for AppleWatch because there were plenty of people who didn’t know anything about AppleWatch, at all. People with normal lives that don’t revolve around tech gadgets. AppleWatch hasn’t even been around a full year so these people don’t even really give a product a chance to prove it may have some usefulness.
This is simply another trite Apple-bashing article that could apply to any other company’s smartwatch or fitness band made over the last few years. I wonder if most consumers are simply waiting around for some tech gadget to change their lives. I know I’m not. If it’s helpful, all well and good but it’s really up to me to change my life or lifestyle.
I’m glad that many people love their Apple Watches. The fact remains however, that many observers expected the Apple Watch to propel smartwatches and wearables deep into the mainstream. That hasn’t happened yet.
As to specific points raised.
1. Sure, wearable shipments continued to grow in 2015, but did they go mainstream?
2. Of course Apple doesn’t attend CES. But the story specifically states that “someone” may introduce a game changer there, not necessarily Apple.
Maybe this topic too will drift away like iBeacons.. Having their use but not so much in the mainstream consciousness anymore..
Gee, I didn’t know that I should be disappointed with my Apple Watch. I thought it was a great device until I learned that it was a tech failure. Boy, I was sure fooled. Now I have to be unhappy about my Watch. Who knew?
My wife gave me an Apple watch for Christmas. I love it so much I’m getting her one for her birthday.
I’m saying that the Apple Watch hasn’t been the kind of revolutionary product many people were hoping it would be
And WHO exactly wants Apple to pump out a ‘revolutionary product’ every year? Coked up WallNut Street AnalCysts who are hit whoring on the Internet. It’s time for the clinic.
IOW: The headline expresses the feelings of “some people” who were disappointed at the performance of the Watch as a spur to market sentiment, not as a prized consumer device. Those “people” have wanted a game changer, a market disruptor like the 2007 iPhone, every time Apple releases anything at all. They want to see industries quiver, so they can take advantage of uncertainty and clean up monetarily. That’s who these “people” are and why they are disappointed.
But they aren’t thinking too clearly. For example, the iPhone proved to be a disruptor eventually, but it actually took these same “people” several years to realise it! When they did, they suddenly valued Apple but only as a producer of magic tricks to shake up the trading landscape. It can’t always happen the same way, though. Pocket phones were a mature industry with steep barriers to entry, but the iPhone’s new paradigm dazzled and slovenly incumbents came crashing down. But wearables is a nascent, still largely untested area. Any disruption to markets adjacent to wearables is likely to happen differently. The stupid, however, expect repitition of past patterns and never see the future coming.
Sorry, only the fist clause should have italics. I’ve a bear of a head cold, that’s my flimsy excuse. 💊💊😵
All of this fits nicely into the category of:
Technology Ignorance
Ignorance isn’t necessarily a bad thing, seeing as all of us are ignorant all the time about the deep details of just about everything in existence. Where ignorance becomes a problem is when someone, say some ego over-compensating AnalCyst, pretends to know what they’re talking about with regards to a subject, but end up covering perhaps one angle view while missing the full landscape.
In this case, skipping over my usual point about WallNut Street being addicted to amphetamines, these ‘people’ are acting as little children waiting for the next edition of a Batman comic. It had better have a super kewl bad guy in it and lots of ‘Oof! Pow! Zonk!’ or said little kiddie won’t buy it and will be sure to spew his dire despair and foot-stamping tantrum to all his little kid friends. Meanwhile, we here in the adult world wonder whether these children have parents and why they don’t bother imposing discipline and good sense into their lives.
‘No Johnny. Technology is not about making toys for your personal amusement. How about we sign you up for Computing 101.’
As of 18:21 CST the MDN poll reported that 68% of people neither bought nor received an Apple iWatch. Ha, ha.
Apple Watch satisfaction is unprecedented at 97%; beats original iPhone and iPad – July 20, 2015
…but apparently a minority of people actually bought or received an Apple Watch.
“We few, we happy few, we band of fanboys…” (apologies to Shakespeare)
Here lies the fuel for the brainless idiots and trolls we see on here so regularly to express their garbage as fact. There is total ignorance (usually wanton over simple ignorance) of even the most basic facts of the matter they comment upon. Because they simply seek an audience truth and facts are really inadequate for their argument and Apple is pretty much the only company that has the sparkle, glamour and appeal they need to feed off to gain their 15 minutes of fame. Those we see on here are simply using these leaches in turn as imaginary evidence to give them, as junior partners, their own 5 minutes of mindless wannabe fame. Chinese Whispers have more credibility.