Leak: Almost a Third of Samsung Galaxy Gear Smartwatches Are Being Returned

llebeel writes "Almost a third of Samsung's Galaxy Gear Smartwatches sold are being returned, a leaked document has revealed, which shows that over 30 percent are being returned after sale at Best Buy locations in the US. The higher than expected return rate could be due to that realisation, with customers impulse buying and then realising that the smartwatch isn't everything it's cracked up to be." I'd like to hear from more people with smart watches who are happy with them, to better understand the appeal.

Comments

Maybe

[ralf1]

One out of three people decided they looked like a dork with that awful thing on their wrist.

Re:Maybe

[Austrian Anarchy]

One out of three people decided they looked like a dork with that awful thing on their wrist.

All the makings of a future collector's item! Anybody who has one and is thinking of returning it, place it back in the original box and stow it away. A whole new generation of nostalgia geeks is being born right now who will beat a path to your door about the time you need retirement money.

Re:Maybe

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Remember, these are leaked return figures from Best Buy: given how hellish the experience of returning a product there can be, another third may have just shoved the thing in a sock drawer and eaten the loss.

A "smart watch"...

[Anonymous Coward]

...which interacts only with your smartphone, requiring you to always the smartphone with you. This whole idea is so fundamentally flawed, and almost unfathomably stupid - as stupid as buying a mini remote control for your main remote control. Why on earth would anyone bother with a "smart" watch if they can just as easily use the phone with a much better experience?

Re:A "smart watch"...

[Sockatume]

Notification triage. A lot of people who apparently haven't figured out the Notification settings on their phones get a beep or a buzz every time there's an email or a Facebook message or an app update or whatever the fuck, and for those people being able to see what it was and dismiss it without pulling their phone out their pocket would be convenient.

Personally, I simply turned off notifications windows, sounds, and vibration for everything that doesn't require my immediate attention (SMS and phone calls). I look at my Notification list the next time I unlock my phone and deal with the trivial stuff then.

Re:A "smart watch"...

[johnlcallaway]

Because I don't have to take it out of my pocket to see why it buzzes?? Or just to check the time or weather??? Lot's of apps don't need a lot of screen real estate .. weather, calculator, phone, calendar, checking if emails are worth reading, text messages. Having an easy-to-reach display serves a real function even if it has reduced functionality. How about incorporating a small, wide angle camera that one could operate with voice commands?? It doesn't have to be the highest resolution, just enough for quick, uncomposed snaps. I take a lot of blind shots with my camera phone now so people don't know I'm taking them, you get really good at it after awhile. But I have to take it out of my pocket and set it to camera mode, which takes awhile.

Just because someone isn't clever enough to think of any use doesn't mean there aren't any.

I haven't worn a watch in over 10 years because I don't like something on my wrist with only one function. When I did, I bought the slimmest watch I could find. At one point, I had a nice Seiko multi-function watch that was very slim and had a stop watch and alarm in addition to being just a watch. Still have it in my nightstand. I might reconsider once these become a bit less nerdish and slimmer. I'll never have google glass because it's too big and labels someone immediately to other people, often in non-complimentary ways. Incorporate something into my existing eye glasses that disappears and I'd reconsider.

Re:A "smart watch"...

[MightyYar]

Same reason people started wearing wrist watches instead of pocket watches - it is faster and more convenient to look at your wrist. Yes, the analogy lacks a bit since you still carry around the phone - but consider the use case of receiving an email:
You are working on something, perhaps debugging a piece of equipment, mowing the lawn, maybe painting - pick an activity. Your phone buzzes with the familiar tone of an incoming email or sms. You can either: (a) look at your wrist to see if it is worth a damn or, (b) stop what you are doing, dig into your pockets for your phone, turn on the screen, maybe swipe it to unlock, and then pull down the notifications. Even if you don't have your phone buttoned up like Ft. Knox and your SMS and emails are set to show up on your lock screen, it is still less convenient than getting it on your wrist.

Also consider that some people still wear a watch... a plain old ordinary watch. Having a more functional watch is not exactly a revolutionary way of thinking for these people.

I'm not going to buy a smartwatch, but a particularly geeky guy (but in a cool way) at work has one of those Pebble watches and he made the above points to me when I teased him about it.

Worst smart watch

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe because Galaxy Gear is the worst smartwatch on the market. Go read the reviews.

Re:Really? Did we ever really want smart watches?

[swillden]

Responding to your subject line, I want a smart watch. I want one that's done right, which means the right functionality, integrated in the right way with my other personal electronics.

I ultimately want to have Google Glass (or similar), a smart watch and a smart phone with a large screen (6" is about right). I think the three devices could work very well together.

The phone, of course, is the brain, the connectivity, and the user interface for "heavy" work. Anything involving data entry or interacting with large amounts of data. Glass is an audio/video output device, to provide no-hands, no-interference content when I need it. Heads-up navigation, audio playback, video messages, etc. But it's not something I'd want to wear all of the time, both because I don't think the battery will stand up to constantly being on and because it's awkward in some social situations. A smartwatch is an ideal form factor for lightweight I/O. It can provide unobtrusive notifications and quick, easy access to small but important pieces of information. It can also be an input device for controlling Glass, one that's a lot more convenient than the frame-mounted touchpad (in fact, I hope a future version of Glass does away with the frame-mounted touchpad using smartwatch integration instead) and provides a lot more control than head gestures.

Galaxy Gear isn't yet the smartwatch that I want, though.

My Pebble does what I want out of a smartwatch.

[marbike]

I detest ringtones in the office, so my phone is always set to silent. My Pebble allows me to see my wife calling/texting me. This alone justifies the price. The Gear is overpriced for what it offers, and requires their phone to work. My Pebble works with android and iOS. (disclaimer, I only use mine with android) I can set the watch face to whatever I like, including the very useful Beer O'Clock face that a friend made.
I prefer to check the time with a watch. Till I got my Pebble, I usually wore one of several Invicta chronographs that I own. I don't like digging a phone out of my pocket to verify the time, especially when in meetings. A quick glance is sufficient to tell when I am going to be late getting home, without the rudeness of pulling my phone out and conspicuously checking time.

Re:Really? Did we ever really want smart watches?

[Gothmolly]

Why not just sit down and use a laptop rather than trying to be Star Trek? You might actually get work done, and save a ton of money in the process.

Re:Really? Did we ever really want smart watches?

[Just Some Guy]

Perhaps, but people said almost the exact same thing about phones when the iPhone came out. "This is huge. Who wants a phone that big? It's so much bigger than my Razr. I think right now, people would be happy with a phone which simply vibrates makes calls and doesn't try to fit a computer in your pocket." And a few years later, here we are.