“Time seems to have stopped ticking in the wearable world,” Andy Boxall writes for Digital Trends. “At CES in January, we saw a handful of new products, but aside from the unusual Casio WSD-F10, these were mostly bland fitness trackers with very few surprises. Things only got worse at Mobile World Congress in February. The show brought no new Android Wear watches at all, and just a few fitness bands from Garmin that were notable. Fitbit, for instance, didn’t even bother to attend.”
“What happened? The tech brands don’t know how to design attractive products; the Swiss watch makers don’t have the tech chops to jump in with two feet; and the smaller brands don’t have the R&D budgets to make super high-tech hardware,” Boxall writes. “And all of them seem to quivering in the shadow of an even bigger threat: the Apple Watch 2.”
“Smartwatches are selling … but mostly Apple’s. After only eight months on sale in 2015, the Apple Watch stole two-thirds of the total amount of smartwatches sold over the entire year. That’s despite it being one of the most expensive models you can buy, only one of several watches compatible with the iPhone, and being technically more complex to operate than watches from Pebble or other non-Android Wear brands,” Boxall writes. “Every tech company has hit pause while they decide what to do next, and all of them are secretly hoping Apple will give some direction to follow.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: On our wrists, the Apple Watches just keep on ticking, saving us precious time and, as we explore new Apple Watch apps, becoming ever more useful every day.
If Apple were to release a range of “Apple Smartbands” for the existing Apple Watch, starting with the “Apple Smartband GPS,” they would sell millions more Apple Watch units with this move alone.
SEE ALSO:
Apple Watch 2 likely won’t launch until September – and that makes perfect sense – February 19, 2016
Thanks to Apple Watch, smartwatches are now more popular than Swiss watches – February 19, 2016
Canalys: Apple shipped over 12 million Apple Watches in 2015, two-thirds of all smartwatches shipped in 2015 – February 5, 2016
Apple Watch kickstarted interest in wearable devices; sales of fitness trackers and VR headsets are set for rapid growth – February 2, 2016
Apple Watch beats Rolex in luxury brands ranking – January 29, 2016
Apple Watch revenues expected to be $8.4 billion for first year – January 26, 2016
Juniper: Apple Watch has already cornered the smartwatch market – January 12, 2016
Apple COO: ‘Apple Watch marks the end of single-function wrist devices’ – January 7, 2016
Fitbit either doesn’t understand Apple Watch or hopes consumers won’t; neither is good for the company – January 6, 2016
Fitbit exec calls Apple Watch a ‘toy,’ Fitbit shares crater more than 13% after unveiling Apple Watch Sport knockoff – January 5, 2016
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
What’s really cool is that once the AppleWatch 2.0 comes out. People can get their AppleWatch 1.0 watch and have it encased in a plastic cube. Makes a great door stop.
I’ve been disappointed with my Apple Watch 1.0. The battery life is atrocious and it is painfully slow to load apps. Also I’m not sure there is really a killer app for me yet on the watch. I thought using it for cycling workouts would be great but often the battery dies before workout is completed. At this point it’s a cool gadget and I find myself leaving it on charger for weeks and using other old school watches instead.
Just makes no sense to have a watch that needs charged nightly or even more often. Many days I wake up and forget to put it back on. Plus traveling out of town means I need to buy another specialized charger.
Austin, I have had no issues with battery life whatsoever because I DO charge it every night. It’s become habit to take it off and plug it in, and it becomes my bedside alarm clock at that point. I already have to do that with my phone, it’s just one more thing to plug in and charge. There isn’t just one killer app, it’s all of what it does combined that makes life easier, and what it does is different for everyone with the different apps they load and use. Main uses for me are fitness tracking, calendar/watch, and messaging (wife has one so we can remote touch each other :D)
Yeah I keep trying to give it “one more shot”….maybe I’m getting too old and just having a hard time finding my personal value in it 😉
I religiously use my iPhone and iPad but just am not getting much bang for buck from the watch.
I’ll bet I’m the oldest of the bunch in this thread. I wear my Apple Watch every day. As with the MDN take, it saves me lots of time and quiets inconvenient interruptions in my workflow very unobtrusively. I can run for an hour on a treadmill and still have plenty of battery left to finish out the day. And it counts my treadmill steps just fine, even if I’m handing onto the bar for most of the workout. I can also get very useful cardio data. Don’t know if I’ll buy an Apple Watch 2 but I’ll bet I buy version 3.
Feel sorry for the poor sods who spent all that money on version 1! Ha ha!
Please don’t feel sorry for ALL of us, since some of us saw the writing on the wall and jumped on board to experience the future, and are happy to have done so
I for one had the first iPhone, and tho it is NOTHING like the present iPhone, it was prescient and i would not trade that moment of insight into the future for ANYTHING, even the today iPhone as it is, since now it is just as it is, whereas before it was cutting through territory never before explored
Thank you Apple for offering this view into the future, and also thank you myopic posters for allowing me to see beyond what is now and appreciate what is now, since you cannot see either obviously
bought AAPL before the iPhone, (2005) and now have enough to buy APPLE
2.0 watch is first on my list
Well, I think they knew about the daily charging, and the price tag wasn’t a big deal: most of them got the Sport model, which isn’t expensive.
Maybe I’ll pick up a v2. I still get tons of value from a $100 Fitbit Flex I bought 2 years ago. Still works and still tracks tons of data. Until the SW/apps on AppleWatch grow up, I don’t need one.
Still having absolutely no regrets about ditching my Apple Watch and swapping to a Pebble Time Round. It looks SO much nicer and does everything I need, and I suspect everything most people would need from a smartwatch. In some cases, better – even something as simple as having a ‘dismiss all’ for notifications is a massive help, and Timeline is a logical evolution of what a watch is rather than having a smartwatch trying to be a tiny phone. And I have a Pagare NFC payment smart strap coming, so even the ‘killer app’ of Apple Pay is will shortly no longer be an issue.
The Apple Watch as is is probably great for very high-powered users, but if they want Apple Watch 2 to gain traction it needs 4 things:
1. to look better. Doesn’t have to be round, but that bulbous shape is just horrible. Going back to a watch-shaped watch totally underlines this. The UI itself underlines this too and undermines the chosen form factor – you have round icons, round watchfaces, round progress rings etc. Everything screams ’round’ EXCEPT the physical casing. It’s jarring.
2. to have a genuine, unique ‘killer app’ and have it *work*.
3. To be tougher – my Sport model had chips in the anodizing after just 6 months with very careful wear. That’s simply not good enough. Sure, I could buy the stainless steel model but the Sport is still in no way cheap and it SHOULD last.
4. to be simpler. The Apple Watch UI is learnable, sure, but it’s just too fiddly for something that by design should be all about short, quick interactions. Having more buttons isn’t a failure if it makes things easy and intuitive to do.
Well, I am sad to say that on Saturday past, I sold my Apple Watch Sport 42mm with White Sports Band, despite loving the experience. Received it on launch day (I was a lucky one) and used it daily, but sadly, no more. I only opted for a Sport as it was the least expensive option, as I wasn’t sure how it would fit into my day to day life. Battery would last me no problem throughout the day, but I popped it on my charger stand every night any way (who wears a watch to bed?).
However, I did buy a 42mm Watch with Milanese Loop to replace my Sport edition. Why? It’s just a much better product in materials, feel on the wrist. It is a beautiful watch and one I think which will become a modern classic (Milanese Loop hasn’t caught any arm hairs in the days I’ve been wearing it and it allows the skin to breath underneath, unlike the link bracelet).
I don’t find it slow to launch Apps, if the apps have been set up properly in the first place. Custom complications are excellent for what I use. I use Hey Siri a lot to interact and it works most of the time, with the odd hiccup, but I find voice interaction with my Watch, the best way to interact with it. Maybe this is where people aren’t using it’s full capabilities. I ask Siri to remind me about loads of things throughout the day and she does without fail, appointments, meetings, shopping lists etc. And the killer is paying for stuff with your Watch. People just look on amazed.
I know that Watch 2 is coming at some point, but this is just a beautiful device. I love my Watch. It’s awesome and that’s all that counts 🙂