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It's Time To Admit Apple Watch Is a Success (imore.com)
At company's quarterly earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the holiday period was the company's "best quarter ever" for Apple Watch -- both units and revenues -- "with holiday demand so strong that we couldn't make enough." He added: Apple Watch is the best-selling smartwatch in the world, and also the most-loved, with the highest customer satisfaction in its category by a wide margin. Apple Watch is the ultimate device for a healthy life, and it's the gold standard for smartwatches. We couldn't be more excited about Apple Watch. Long time Apple commentator Rene Ritchie writes: There's a strange narrative in the tech community concerning Apple Watch being a flop, a failure, or in some way, shape, or form, a disappointment. It's particularly bizarre given Apple Watch, as part of the wearable market, is doing record numbers. It could be that there is no real "Smartwatch market", just an Apple Watch market. Much like there's no real "tablet market", just an iPad market. Since it's such a new product category and most of the existing products are still bound to phones, it could also simply be too soon to tell.John Gruber adds: I think we should stop talking about "smartwatches" and just consider Apple Watch a "watch", period. In September, Apple claimed watch revenues second only to Rolex. How can it not be considered a hit at this point?
Is there one or a few "killer apps" that are driving people ot them or is it a big mix?
Apple fans will buy anything with an apple logo on it, news at 11.
That's the only reason why this fad has any value. The smart phone on the other hand is a valid innovation as a new widespread form of computer that will likely outlive Apple in some form.
So how many sold? how many shipped? These would be good numbers to know.
I feel like it's just a matter of perspective. The watch market as whole has never really been as significant as the phone or PC market, thus comparing the apples watch compared to iPhone or Mac sales makes it look like a failure, but within it's sector it is a strong competitor. It certainly hasn't take then world by storm the way that the iPad and iPhone have been able to, but at least hast been a strong contender for watches. So I'd say the watch has been a viable product, but no great success.
It doesn't matter if it's a hit, because Apple Watch will never work adequately with non-Apple devices. I have more confidence that an Android Wear or even Tizen based watch will not have as much lock-in.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
If you actually read what Apple reported rationally you find this:
1. The iPhone is successful.
2. The Mac segment is stagnating and frankly it's probably a healthy dose of RDF + iPhone tie-in as to why it's not in freefall considering how poorly Apple has treated it.
3. The iPads are actually in freefall and the RDF ain't working.
4. iWatch? There's a word for that: rounding error. And not a hugely profitable one.
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
My smartwatch was $35 including shipping. It has SD and SIMM card slots, and is a fully functional smart phone complete with camera.
My only complaint, no health sensors beyond accelerometer apps.
Why is the Apple Watch (and the rest of its competitors) so expensive? Are red and green LEDs that much more expensive?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
I've seen more Rolexes than Apple Watches. Microsoft also did this with Windows Phone when they talked about 'revenue' rather than any hard sales figures. The reality everyone else knew finally dawned.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I know ~5 people who bought an Apple Watch when they first came out. Every single one of them has quietly stopped wearing them.
Not making enough can mean many things and given how CEO statements can have an impact on the stock market, call me suspicious but the statement is ambiguous. Were they unable to make enough because they were running three shifts at a factory designed to run two shifts? Or have they been scaling back production to meet lukewarm demands?
I have only met one person – not know —met one person who has an iWatch. I'm just a bit suspicious of these statements.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
is because nerds have a pretty narrow worldview. If it doesn't exist in their parent's basement, it's not a "thing". Or if they don't want/need one, then that means nobody wants/needs one. Also, since it's hard to tell at a glance if a watch is a "smart" watch or a regular watch, you don't really get a sense of how many there actually are out there. The numbers don't lie, though. They sell millions of these things.
They made the Apple Watch because they wanted a watch. There is no problem that the watch solves. So, it's a solution looking for a problem.
Who the fuck do they think this article is fooling. Ipad's share is less than 20% of the tablet market. Take the rest of their claims with a grain of salt accordingly.
The funny thing about people claiming the AppleWatch was not succeeding, was they always ignored sales and customer satisfaction.
There have been other products that people really liked that got axed as well, but not that sold in the volume the AppleWatch did. If any other company but Apple had been selling the AppleWatch, it would have been considered a breakaway hit...
Especially after the WatchOS 3 update, the Apple Watch has been really useful, and apparently the newer models (series 2) have multi-day battery life and charge fast enough you can wear them while you sleep and just charge them while you are in the shower to get a full charge. Apple is doing what it does best, just slowly grind away at improvements while the market fails to notice a change, until they realize that somehow Apple is in front again...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
> Much like there's no real "tablet market", just an iPad market.
Nonsense, Android sold more units. Just like the phone market is really an Android market.
Is it really a success? I know one person who has one, but literally everyone I know has a smartphone (Android or Apple), and a PC/Mac. By contrast, just a tiny fraction have an Apple watch...
Nobody I know voted for Trump, yet he won with almost 50% of the vote. What's your point?
Outside your comfort bubble, people do different things. Intelligent people acknowledge this instead of screaming like a madman.
I have an iPhone, iPad, iMac, Macbook Air, Apple TV, Apple Airport Extreme, iPod Nano(for the car) etc etc. and yet, when I have been in the mood for new gadgets, I simply haven't been able to come up with an excuse that could convince myself why I would want the Apple watch.
But I guess it helps if you are a part of the social media users? Maybe in my younger days, I thought it would have been cool to get ICQ or messenger notifications on my wrist. These days I will read messages to me when I feel like it not having it disturb me.
I know, I know, get off my lawn. :/
...that Slashdot admitted they're just fucking Apple shills. The money is too great for such a BUSINESS NO LONGER RUN BY AN INDIVIDUAL.
Prove otherwise, Whipslash.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Totally absurd.
Apple has sold millions of watches. They don't release numbers, but estimates were 12 million in the first year. So there are like at least 20 million watches, probably. Apple sells like 50-80 million iPhones a year, so by that standard, they are a failure. And as you say, you probably know plenty of people with an iPhone, and only a few (or even none) with an Apple Watch.
The thing is, the Apple Watch NEVER had to match or even approach the iPhone in order to be a success. The iPhone is a such a success story it is a goddamned joke. The iPhone is close to half of Apple in most years, and this is for a company that nominally will sell you a server or monitor, actually will sell you a notebook, a laptop, a tablet, a goofy gameboy desktop, a variety of mice, the aforementioned watch, a bunch of almost entirely profit accessories (now with more dongles!), a music subscription service, and takes a cut off of everything they have a hand in selling, and not a small cut either.
The 8 bit Nintendo sold like 60 million units total. You probably knew someone with one of those, but for different reasons. There are entire companies with less units shipped than Apple Watch, and that will remain the case indefinitely. If your standard for success is "everyone in the civilized world will either own one of these or feel its absence day by day", then the Apple Watch is a failure. But if it is anything sane, it is not. It is clear that the Apple Watch, as a project, is quite profitable for Apple. Each Watch costs Apple much less to make than it sells for, and they sell millions.
No, you and your friends won't feel obligated to own and operate an Apple Watch. That doesn't make it a failure, any more than an Xbone or PS4 is a failure just because most people own neither.
Relax, dude. I know lots of people with Apple Watches, or Sony or Pebble. Just because you don't want one doesn't mean nobody wants one. They are pretty useful if you keep your phone in your pocket or purse.
But hey, a 51.6% year over year drop can't be meaningful. https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS41875116
Outside your comfort bubble, people do different things. Intelligent people acknowledge this instead of screaming like a madman.
I think that is helpful for understanding things, particularly when reading /.
This is an extremely niche group of people who are not typical consumers.
This is also a group of people with rooting interests for and against certain companies/products which are so strong that they'd back the average european soccer fan blush for the partiality.
We should acknowledge the role that price drops and other promotional considerations have had, but really... Apple owns this entire market. Nobody has a credible competitor that's carved out a slice. It's another case of them, for all their faults, still eating people's lunches and leaving /.ers hand-wringing.
Maybe companies like Samsung and LG and Alphabet should ask themselves why they keep being late to parties and taking cues from Apple and improving their products instead of fragmenting their own platform?
"We couldn't be more excited about Apple Watch" is marketing speak for "we don't want to admit that we're quite disappointed".
An iWatch - 5 years from now, it will be removed from the drawer where it's been gathering dust and given to some infant as a chew toy because it no longer works with the latest phones, and it no longer gets updates anyway.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
The point of the Apple watch is so that you can read a text with no effort while ignoring the real person across the table from you. That's the killer app.
Voting for trump kind of like farting in an elevator. Someone must have done it but nobody will admit it.
If it's a success, nobody is required to admit, we'll see it everywhere and in the press, like iPods (in the past) or iPhones today.
Anyone selling watches is a fashion company. If the computer revolution had happened before President Kennedy, everyone would have smart hats. It's a profitable division of Apple that gets to reuse aspects of their tech side, and interface with their role as a technology company. But it is absolutely a fashion accessory, because that is what watches are. If you need a functional watch, you can get one for a few dollars, or probably just get a used one for free or almost free.
The Apple Watch is only a "flop" in the sense that people don't need them the same way they need a smartphone. Compared to any other wearable, it's a runaway success, but people don't think about it in those terms, because it is an Apple product.
Personally, I love my Apple Watch, but I'm old enough to be part of a generation that wore watches. I'll still put on my Rolex for dress-up occasions, but my Apple Watch is my go-to daily wearable.
For people who didn't grow up wearing watches, the Apple Watch may elicit nothing but "meh" from them. So be it ... it is not a device for everyone, but it is an excellent device for people who want to wear a watch that does more than tell the time.
Apple is not a tech company?
Only on /. :)
So then, every $50+ non-waterproof windable watches on the market are not "watches" by your definition.
Most of the kids I work with have an Apple Watch to go along with their iPhones. I have an iPhone and love it but I can't bring myself to replace my current watch, which is a 28 year old Rolex, with an ugly Apple Watch. I bought my Rolex in the 80s and made payments on it for a couple of years. I wear it nearly every day so from a value standpoint, if I did an ROI on it and tried to compare it's value to tech that will probably only last a couple of years, I am sure the Apple watch is not a good investment. Call me a snob but maybe if they can figure out how to put the Apple Watch guts in an Oyster case, I may be more interested.
What does it do, prick you if you don't exercise?
Apple fans will buy anything with an apple logo on it, news at 11.
My job was offshored and I having a horrible time getting another one.
Luxury goods like this are not in the budget nor will they ever be. See, I've lost quite a bit and it's going to take the rest of my working life for me to recover.
And when you're over 50 years old like I am, it gets REALLY hard.
I come here for news, not for people wanking over completely insignificant statics.
And that's what they are, the Apple watch is by far the best and most popular of a product category that the overwhelming majority of people couldn't care less about. I think I've seen like 2 of these things, both of them worn by people who work in IT.
The fact that they sold more than they could make is positive marketing speak for "even we thought it wouldn't sell".
IIRC, I saw an article a week or two ago that said "It's time to admit Apple Watch is a Failure." Seriously.
Their Services division is larger than Facebook now, by revenue.
Does that make them a services company?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
I like my gear watch just fine. Very, very useful. Phone can stay in pocket. a lot more.
iWatch... done buying Apple stuff, pretty much, after watching them intentionally obsolete perfectly good hardware time and time again. Although if they'd push out a nice tower Mac Pro again I'd probably bite. My late 2009 12/24 core tells me they can make good hardware when they want to. The trashcan tells me they don't want to.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Angry much?
I have a Samsung gear fit 2 and it is awesome. It does not try to do too much, but it does steps (GPS enabled), stairs, and heart rate. It interfaces with my phone via Bluetooth and send texts and notifications to my screen. It controls my music player as well. There is a 3rd party app store for it. It's smaller and sleaker than the apple watch but still has a great color touchscreen. The battery lasts for 3 days. Also, only costs $150ish. If you by one, immediately replace the terrible strap that comes with it, otherwise you will loose it.
"Nobody I know voted for Trump, yet he won with almost 50% of the vote."
Trump got less than 46%, while Hillary got 48%
Wow, this is like a textbook post on entitled nerd rage. Guy doesn't need downvotes, they'll be using this comment in classrooms for decades. Mod up!
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
"Apple claimed watch revenues second only to Rolex. How can it not be considered a hit at this point?"
How you ask?
When you have to game the revenue statistics so hard that you are forced to compare a single product from a tech company against an entire brand that pretty much manufactures one fucking thing that only 0.1% of humans can afford, it tends to bring into question any other claims related to "success".
In short, you're reaching here. A lot. Let's also see how well this fad pans out in the coming years, as I doubt even the iLemmings are going to be able to help Apple hold that revenue claim.
I know a few people who have Apple Watches. They like them all right, but at least one says that it's seriously overpriced for what you get. And at least the Series I can be painfully slow. I have no interest in owning a smart watch of any kind, but if I did, I would do what I did with Android phones. I would start off with the cheapest one I could buy that would do what I want it to do, then slowly work my way up to something more expensive that's a really good fit for me. You can't do that with Apple stuff. At any given time there's basically one of everything they sell. That has it's good points (potential at least for better quality control, and some people just don't want to spend the time figuring out what to buy). I imagine the Apple Watch will end up a niche item, which I think the iPod has been for some time.
I face the public at work every day and I can count on one hand how many people that have had one on.
That's a pretty amazing feat given that in fall and winter most people have long sleeve shirts or jackets. To they mind much when you pat down their arms?
Remember also that for the Apple Watch to have ben a pretty big success, it doesn't mean EVERYONE is wearing one. Just a few million or so, spread across the U.S. - if there are that many you would not see them that often.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A Rolex should last a lifetime, smartwatches don't
if I were to spend 10k on a Rolex tomorrow, it'll be left to my son and he'll wear it for years too. If I buy a smart watch tomorrow, I could potentially be buying one every two years for the rest of my days, overall costing more than my Rolex. I'll stick with the Swiss engineering thanks.
If this was a genuine success then they would not be trumpeting 'revenue'. Microsoft did exactly this with Windows Phone, along with the usual 'supply problems' and 'we can't make enough' crap, and the reality that everyone knew anyway gradually dawned.
There is one use-case for these things and that's fitness. That's it. There's absolutely bugger-all here that tells us the Apple Watch, or any other 'smart' watch that anyone else makes, is the runaway success they are claiming. However, Apple has become a self-fulfilling prophecy from a financial point-of-view. It simply has to continue to be a rampant success because so many have ploughed money into it.
The whole thing is sustained on a bubble of nothing. At least Jobs had something to back up the hyperbole and worked out why people would use the product he was trumpeting.
I find it weird that there's all these rules requiring public companies to disclose all sorts of things, but basic information about how much of product X was sold for Y is a corporate secret.
Can you play Pokemon Go on the watch if your phone is in your pocket/purse?
It was a little awkward when he licking my sweaty balls but it didn't get strange until he stuck his finger up my puckered asshole. Eventually the manager came over and told us that Shake Shack didn't allow that sort of behavior at their tables and suggested we use the bathroom over at 5 Guys instead.
Last month I just read an article that Apple Watch is considered a universal failure. This month it's a must to declare it a success.
"Long time Apple commentator Rene Ritchie writes: ...Much like there's no real "tablet market"
I'll have to be blunt, but I'm guessing the reality distortion field didn't quite die with it's creator. The fact that Apple has more revenue than competition, as it happens with the iPhone, doesn't mean there is a market or that the market is profitable (it might for the iPhone, and probably also for the iPad, but definitely not for any smartwatch, including the iWatch). In the case of the iPhone, it's factual they sell less units, and it's not exactly sure it makes more total profit than the top Android maker.
There is no smartphone market. Not a significant one. There isn't one for VR either, there wasn't one for 3D TV. There wasn't a market for the Wii U. Companies try to "make the market" by shipping less units and throw around empty, inflating assertions such as "demand so strong that we couldn't make enough". That's what Nintendo did. It didn't save the Wii U, but like Apple, Nintendo has other ways to make money they can throw in the R+D bin on stuff like niche watches.
Trying to call the Apple Watch a failure is wishful thinking for those who hate it.
I see quite a few Apple watches as I walk around my city going to/from work. I'm seeing more Apple Watches, in fact, than any other single brand of watch. It's reached the point where I'm seeing more Apple Watches than other fitness trackers (though that's due more to a decline in fitness tracker use than Apple's success).
I don't know any of those owner's use case for the Apple Watch, and they sure as hell have no obligation to justify their consumer choice to me or anyone else.
So at the end of the day, I have to go with the reality I see, instead of falling back to "alternative facts" that support the narrative I like. I'm seeing a decent number of Apple Watches, and it's effectively the only smartwatch I see.
There's certainly nothing approaching the kind of penetration we see with smartphones, but as far as I can see, the Apple Watch is effectively the only smartwatch people buy.
Let's face it, this article is effectively /. clickbait - it'll generate a lot of comments (of which I'm guilty). There's a sizable portion of the /. readership who will instantly start frothing at the mouth at the merest hint of any Apple story.
Given the cancellation of a few anticipated Android cousins, we become all the more rabid should the Apple Watch be mentioned.
A story about the Apple Watch being successful? Just post it and watch the clicks roll in.
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
This great quarter Is just because Samsung Note6 was such a big flop.
I didn't hear about smartwaches sales in a long time. Is dead and buried. Only true fans still believe that SaintWatch is the next revolutionary product born from Apple's rib.
Strangely, I know no-one with an Apple watch but I know many people with Garmin watches and I'm personally eagerly awaiting the launch of the new Garmin Fenix 5. Of course, my friends are not representative of the world's population. My experience doesn't mean that no-one buys Apple watches or that Garmin is about to take over the world, but it does suggest that there is a strong market for non-Apple devices in certain niches and the claim that there is no Smartwatch segment, just an Apple Watch segment, is silly.
Garmin users won't switch to Apple any time soon: they want a specialist device that targets their lifestyle in the same way that no serious cyclist would ever use an iPhone as a bike computer. Sometimes the compromises associated with a general-purpose device are just too great.
Nobody I know voted for Trump
You don't know me, but I voted for Trump. The alternative was a lying harpy, so what choice did I have?
As for the apple watch thing, I only know one person with one, and he's an apple fanatic and would have bought the Apple Turd if they released such a product.
get all the useful functions I'd want on my watch--time, date, a stop watch (the last I virtually never use), and a light--with ZERO worry about charging/losing it/breaking it.
I want to thank you for giving me a reason to point out why the AppleWatch is more useful than a normal watch.
None of the things you list were enough reason for me to continue using a watch decades ago, when I stopped wearing watches. The Apple Watch finally lured me back into wearing a watch. Things like the time are OK but I could just use my phone for that almost as easily... the things I find the Apple Watch useful for are:
Workout data. This is obviously the #1 use and right off the bat collects data only fairly expensive watches can collect, not to mention that data is always piped to my phone which not as many fitness watches do automatically. The phone can collect some workout data but not things like heart rate.
Unlocks my computer. The fancy new MacBook Pros with a toucher are nice because you can unlock with a fingerprint, but honestly I find the watch unlock more convenient.
Weather. Nice to see weather at a glance without pulling out the phone.
Phone silencing. Oddly this is actually the mot useful feature. If I get a call when I don't want to take one (theater, meeting) without looking I just cover the watch with my hand and the call is sent to voice mail.
Untethering from phone. I leave my phone around the house and usually don't carry it with me at home. With the watch I can answer a call and not have to run for the phone.
Apps. These were of limited use before WatchOS3 as they would take too long to load, but after that update the apps have good refresh rates, so it's practical to use a watch app for something like Runkeeper or Pokenmon Go. Also consistently useful even before that update are single action apps like Uber and Chipotle...
The reason the Apple Watch is so useful is not any one thing, it's a combination of all the little things... I can understand how that would be hard to comprehend unless you have used one, but the reason they are selling so well is that many people have found them useful and are telling others.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A rolex doesn't need to be cleaned and serviced every few years. That's the point of a Rolex instead of just a cute watch. I mean, I'm not wearing it when I clean and butcher a deer, but I bought it to wear, not worship, and I keep wearing it pretty much every day. If something happens, then I guess I'll get it serviced, but I haven't had any issues for 20 years.
LOL. If I knew you I would deny it.
I know lots of people with a fitbit. I know several people with an Apple watch.
The difference is the people with the Apple watch work for Apple.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Everybody I know voted for Trump, so shut the fuck up, fagget.
OTOH, nobody I know is going to wear this retarded crapple watch, a cock band.
Totally absurd.
Apple sells like 50-80 million iPhones a year, so by that standard, they are a failure.
They just sold 80 million iPhones LAST QUARTER.
"Outside your comfort bubble"
I have none, if you even knew who I was (most here do.)
I get in your face, whether I like it or not. That alone disproves your entire supposition.
No it does not. It proves you don't understand the concept being discussed and are sort of a belligerent douche.
The whole point is that your life does not revolve around charging the watch. You just do so when convenient. Even with the older watch I sometimes don't put it on a charger when I go to sleep, I just charge it for fifteen minutes or so and it's good for the rest of the day.
With the newer watch you can just charge it whenever, and go for a few days without.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Apple is not a tech company?
Only on /. :)
No it's not. There's just as much if not more technology in a typical TV, Blue-Ray/DVD player, car, jumbo jet, etc ... than there is in an Apple product.
But I have yet to see someone call GM or Boeing a tech company.
My Pillow is the #1 pillow recommended by the National Sleep Foundation.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Posts Anonymous Coward, how is that admitting anything?
Apple is a design firm. They don't make anything, they don't even assemble anything...China does.
It was ambiguous, but "this" in the GP post probably referred to Slashdot denizens. Which is an extremely niche group of people who are not typical consumers.
Or, at least, it used to be.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
With all due respect (i.e. none) it doesn't matter how long a useless watch maintains power.
Come back when you can match the ACTUAL capability for things people would use a watch for. The market certainly knows what things those are, even if you do not.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A friend of mine has a Moto 360 which pairs with an iphone just fine. Perhaps you should make yourself more aware of what Android Wear is compatible with. If you want a smartwatch, you don't need an idevice simply because you have an iphone.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Apple is a success (although not nearly as much so as Microsoft, or IBM, or Linux, or . . .). The Success of the Apple Watch is apparently subject to debate, as the headline itself implies. I, for one, have barely even heard of the Apple Watch and have never seen one. Fitbits, Pebbles and various Android smart-watches? Yes, I've seen them. I haven't seen the usefulness of them, but I've seen them.
The article itself smacks of binspam to me. I'm sure there are any number of Apple users who own Apple Watches and wouldn't trade them for anything - I suspect, however, that they are a very small fraction of the world consumer market.
Its true, just thinking about the watch makes my heart rate go up which has caused me to get rid of my elliptical and I no longer go hiking or trail running. Just thinking about the Apple watch give me all the cardio I need.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Watches and watch devices for "health" info are dying.
You're confusing exposure to the Asian market, where jewelry for men and women is limited, but things like Apple Watch are permissable, with market growth in the core sectors.
It is a fad.
And it is dying.
Anyone with a decent marketing degree in business could tell you that.
(Capilano U, N Vancouver, grad)
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Apple owns this entire market. Nobody has a credible competitor that's carved out a slice. It's another case of them, for all their faults, still eating people's lunches and leaving /.ers hand-wringing.
It's not a massive market. It's nothing like the original iPhone or iPod markets.
The reason people call the Apple Watch a failure is NOT because Apple is doing poorly in the market. The reason they are calling it a failure is because the Apple Watch has failed to make smart watches something everyone wants.
Personal theory: Most people, consciously or subconsciously, want to be LESS connected to their phones, not more connected.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
Nobody I know has an Apple Watch.
When a salesman says "record quarter" he might mean he sold three instead of two.
No sig today...
Apple has sold millions of watches. They don't release numbers, but estimates were 12 million in the first year. So there are like at least 20 million watches, probably. Apple sells like 50-80 million iPhones a year, so by that standard, they are a failure. And as you say, you probably know plenty of people with an iPhone, and only a few (or even none) with an Apple Watch.
"Be more successful than the single most successful tech product of all time" is a pretty high bar for success. By that measure absolutely every tech product ever except for the iPhone was a flop.
It is clear that the Apple Watch, as a project, is quite profitable for Apple. Each Watch costs Apple much less to make than it sells for, and they sell millions.
Actually the metric would be more along the lines of:
Total costs
Investment costs of designing/creating the watch
Cost of software adaptation
Ongoing costs in both categories
Cost of manufacturing
taxes, and other varied expenses.
versus
Total revenues
Sales
App sales
Supplemental ad-ons (bands, etc. etc.)
Whether it's "quite profitable" is a fun topic to explore, but let's treat it as a real topic and not assume "it costs less to make the 50,000th watch than it sold for" is in any way a valid metric of "profitable".
Warning: Teh poster of this messaeg is lysdexic
I'm not one to throw stones, but you might consider getting some help with that anger of yours. This topic is not worth the amount of emotion and vitriol you are investing it with.
Cheers.
Warning: Teh poster of this messaeg is lysdexic
The Pet Rock, Nickleback, Windows, and Michael Bay were also all successful, yet all still suck (Windows has gotten mildly better).
I wish that were true. I suspect most people know at least one person who voted for Trump. I personally have three members of my extended family who did, and no, they show no signs of being remorseful.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Pairs with, sure. But it's no where on the same level as what you get when paired with an Android phone.
It's crazy, I know, but I was too lazy to look up the exact %, even though I knew I'd get a "huunngghh, 46% is not almost 50% uunnnghh" reply.
About whether the Apple Watch is a success or not.
Oddly enough, most of the people I know who wear smartwatches (I haven't actually asked them what they're wearing) are in IT, with Marketing execs being 100% of the remainder. So /. (the IT, not marketing, obviously) actually should have a lot of smartwatch owners if my anecdotal evidence is anything to go by.
Going around my office, of a medium sized company of which the IT team is less than ten people in size, I don't really see anyone wearing the things.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Whether it's "quite profitable" is a fun topic to explore, but let's treat it as a real topic and not assume "it costs less to make the 50,000th watch than it sold for" is in any way a valid metric of "profitable".
THIS. You have a great breakdown of possible costs and revenue, which is generally necessary to determine profitability, which in turn is generally a metric for "success."
I pointed this out above, but there are many Hollywood films these days that make $100 million at the box office, but they are "flops" because the studio spent $150 million or whatever on production and marketing, etc. Comparing a $100 million blockbuster revenue with an indy film that makes $10 million makes little sense, but if the indy film had a budget of $2 million, it might be a great success compared to the blockbuster flop.
Since Apple won't give us detailed numbers on how much it spent on R&D, marketing, etc. on the Apple Watch (let alone SALES FIGURES -- note TFA doesn't even give numbers of units sold... if it were really a major increase, they'd be trumpeting that from the hilltops), we have no way of knowing how "profitable" it may or may not be.
It runs ONE app, called e-pants.
A simple app that beeps to remind you that you are outdoors and you are not wearing any pants
Most of the time, the cold breezy weather should be a good indicator. For the other times, the smart watch will do just fine.
Other times, flashing lights of red and blue, accompanied by speeding black-and-whites and lots of finger-pointing, are good fallback indicators, but these are noisy and can ruin one's day.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Posting anonymously as I've squandered mod points already on this thread.
I have an Apple Watch, first generation but, tbh, only have one because it was gifted to me from work. I would never have gone out and bought one, and prior to this hadn't worn a watch in probably 20 years. The *only* reason I wear it now is really for the fitness aspect, calorie counting, etc. If the gift had been a FitBit or something similar, I'd have been just as happy.
Totally absurd.
Apple has sold millions of watches. They don't release numbers, but estimates were 12 million in the first year. So there are like at least 20 million watches, probably. Apple sells like 50-80 million iPhones a year, so by that standard, they are a failure. And as you say, you probably know plenty of people with an iPhone, and only a few (or even none) with an Apple Watch.
The thing is, the Apple Watch NEVER had to match or even approach the iPhone in order to be a success. The iPhone is a such a success story it is a goddamned joke. The iPhone is close to half of Apple in most years, and this is for a company that nominally will sell you a server or monitor, actually will sell you a notebook, a laptop, a tablet, a goofy gameboy desktop, a variety of mice, the aforementioned watch, a bunch of almost entirely profit accessories (now with more dongles!), a music subscription service, and takes a cut off of everything they have a hand in selling, and not a small cut either.
The 8 bit Nintendo sold like 60 million units total. You probably knew someone with one of those, but for different reasons. There are entire companies with less units shipped than Apple Watch, and that will remain the case indefinitely. If your standard for success is "everyone in the civilized world will either own one of these or feel its absence day by day", then the Apple Watch is a failure. But if it is anything sane, it is not. It is clear that the Apple Watch, as a project, is quite profitable for Apple. Each Watch costs Apple much less to make than it sells for, and they sell millions.
No, you and your friends won't feel obligated to own and operate an Apple Watch. That doesn't make it a failure, any more than an Xbone or PS4 is a failure just because most people own neither.
I think that where the dichotomy lies is that most people conflate success with "popular". While the Apple watch may be a financial success and a success in a relatively limited market, it certainly isn't popular when compared to almost all other Apple products. As for the statement that Apple couldn't produce enough of them, we all know the games that manufacturers play just to be able to say that their product "sold out".
Yes, a niche product can be a success in it's own right. I see the Apple Watch as a niche product. I guess in that respect you could call it a success.
You mean the 'normal' kind?
Totally absurd.
Apple has sold millions of watches. They don't release numbers...
Let's just stop there. Apple likes to brag. The ALWAYS release numbers if the numbers are good. These numbers aren't released, which while not strict evidence, either suggest Apple has become humble, or the numbers are terrible.
Oddly enough, most of the people I know who wear smartwatches (I haven't actually asked them what they're wearing) are in IT, ...
That's my experience as well. I have an Apple Watch; a coworker also has one; another has a Samsung; another has one of those now-discontinued Microsoft Bands - but I haven't noticed anyone outside of our IT group wearing one (a few people have fitness bands of various sorts).
I occasionally see Apple Watches on the train, but it's rare.
It's true, actually. I know many are confounded due to the lack of actually seeing anyone where them, but they aren't looking in the right place. See, it is more effective if the range from the watch to the phone is reduced, so instead of putting it on your arm, you strap it your penis for maximum efficiency. As an added bonus, it makes you look bigger, thus being the most optimum purchase for people who buy things based on their insecurities. Goes great with an over sized pickup truck that you never use to haul anything.
They're a tech-bling company the same way Rolex is a watch-bling company and Rolls-Royce a car-bling company. The reason they're "not a tech company" to nerds is that we measure function but nobody cares about how accurately a Rolex can tell time or the MPG of a Rolls-Royce. Sure the Rolex needs to tell time and the Rolls-Royce doesn't do much good hanging from a tow truck, but tech specs aren't the most important. You also don't use sheer lace from Victoria's Secret as a sports bra or test what stilettos make the best running shoes. That said, I don't think anyone would say Rolex is a fashion company, not a watch company. Apple is just not the kind of tech company that wants to compete on most bang for the buck.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Still never seen one on anyone's arms, and I know a lot of geeky people with iPhones. Nobody has one of these watches or if they have, nobody talks about it or ever wears it. Anecdotal sure. But so far this success has been remarkably invisible.
Sig for hire.
I wonder how long it'll be before Trump issues an Executive Order mandating all Americans get tracking implants, you know, to combat terrorism, and of course to 'make America great again', LOL
No, not just on /. Lots of Mac computer users have been complaining about Apple's transformation into a fashion/design firm over the past several years on many Mac user sites. Apple had better up their tech/computer game in 2017 or a lot of people who jumped on OS X from Linux in the early 2000s are going to be headed back to Linux or (shudder) to Windows.
I absolutely know google fanboys.
Also, the reality distortion field has been dead since October 2011.
For a lot of people they aren't usable watches no. Just like a dipping fountain pen is by definition a pen, but most people would consider one completely unsuitable to use in their modern life and less useful than a 25 cent Bic pen.
In other news, China is a country and not a firm.
Keep telling yourself that. My TCO is way lower on my mac laptop and iPhone while my productivity is higher then on my android phone and windows computer because it doesn't die in flames regularly.
Usually involving Kirk and Spock. Or maybe Naruto and Sasuke of you're a millennial...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Congratulations! Apple has conquered a dead market!
Consider the source iMore, 'nough said.
Next then you'll tell me is CNN says Hillary Clinton will be the next POTUS.
Unicorns don't wear watches.
Who's fault is that?
iWatch is a beautiful lump of coal. Whoever talks about "success" is smoking or drinking some serious shit. If it is a serious whiskey, send it over, please.
I'll consider that POS a "watch" when it can go months between battery charges, costs less than $50, can be used when I'm in whitewater, and has tactile buttons I can find in the dark. (In other words, when it can replace a simple Timex Ironman.)
It goes 2 full days on a charge, works in water, and has tactile buttons. So I guess it just needs a bigger battery :-)
I have an Apple Watch. I like it a lot. Is it worth the money--fuck no. I use it for exactly 3 things:
(1) Telling the time (and checking weather, etc.);
(2) "Hey Siri" integration for controlling HomeKit (outlets, thermostat, locks, lights, etc.); and
(3) Texting / receiving phone notifications.
It's awesome for those 3 things. Can't remember the last time I used an app. The exercise mode is useless as a general activity tacker or heart rate monitor (heart rate monitor is AWFUL). All the gimmick shit is...gimmick shit. As a small extension to my smartphone--awesome.
Thanks for at least admitting you are starry eyed. Good job.
Nobody buys smartwatches because the battery life sucks.
I absolutely know google fanboys.
You know the only two Google fanboys?
Also, the reality distortion field has been dead since October 2011.
This statement is obviously false, given this article and the numerous insufferable Apple posts in this thread.
At least you acknowledge the reality distortion field -- that is the first step toward a cure!
"If this was a genuine success then they would not be trumpeting 'revenue'."
Yes, if it hadn't been so successful it would have been successful?
$6B in revenue first year is probably more than any watch in history, but it's not a success?
I use mine for fitness and for notifications. Both are very important. Of course I don't need the watch. Nor do I need an iPhone, could get by with a feature phone, so both are sustained on a bubble of just being extremely useful, but not necessary.
Keep up with the Straw Horses.
It's a failure because nobody wants one. Smart watches were a dumb idea. We had them in the 1990s. Calculator watches were popular among a small group. The fad died then.
Right, they spend more than $6B a year on the Apple Watch, so it's a flop. LOL. It's the best selling watch by revenue in history. Pretty sure they are squeezing out a profit.
Apple Watch is neither a "smart" watch nor just a watch. It is an iBeacon device for Apple's other devices. I think the faux-journo collective that John Gruber is referring to as "we" should stop trying to portray these technocratic control switches into being accepted as genuine consumer products.
When first year sales were $6B, record quarters mean something.
It's called competitive advantage. Because Apple watch is "only" a $6B+ business, it's not in the top 4 business segments for Apple. So it's not required to be provided in detail in public filings, and there are no reasons for them to give Android Wear makers a blueprint for market success.
Those that actually paid attention knew this, it was the brain dead that kept parroting otherwise. hell we had real sales numbers from best buy and other retailers, but they chose to ignore them.
Apple Watch, then Pebble, Then all the android watches combined pulling in last place.
With pebble going away, sadly the only real competition to the apple Watch will disappear.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Farting in an elevator never got people assaulting you, spitting on you, vandalizing your car and your property.
I've seen far more Apple Watches than Rolexes. I guess I don't hang out in those rarefied circles that you do.
Let's not forget what a monster success it was before this quarter. It sold double the units of the original iPhone in it's first year, and did $6B in revenue. That likely made it the best selling watch in history by revenue.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a...
And in it's second year sales are increasing.
Here's another one - please, downmod away. If this is trolling, I suppose I must admit I enjoy it.
Seriously... I've never seen anyone wearing an apple watch. I've probably seen a dozen fitbits.
So I wonder where and to whom they are selling so many watches?
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Marketing or whatever, I bought and Apple Watch and I like it. I even upgraded it for Christmas. It's a nice device and I enjoy using it. It's OK that you don't like it. That's why there are so many companies selling different things for different people! But understand that I'm as happy with my purchase as you are with your non-purchase. That doesn't make either of us stupid.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
$6B in revenue with $8B in expenses would not be a success, it would be a $2B disaster. Without the associated expense, revenue numbers are useless. Revenue numbers by themselves typically announced by a company when they're losing money on a product. If they won't release the expense number associated with the revenue, or they don't skip those and use profit instead, then a company is usually shoveling bullshit.
Now..if only the poor folks that did not vote Trump and lost the election could learn and abide by such wise words
The liberal "madman" rants and fits are getting a bit old.
You sure didn't see this when the folks against Obama lost...twice. And I'll guarantee you most of them were as much against Obama and his agenda then, as the anti-Trumpers are today.
But, for the most part, they acted like adults, sucked it up....and went along for the ride, planing for the next election cycle.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Based on what? You're intricate knowledge of the exact product development costs, from concept and design to manufacturing, marketing, packaging and sales, or from a sincere wish on your part that they are making a profit on this watch?
I'm guessing it's the latter.
Why should they be remorseful?
He's doing exactly what he said he would do during the election...especially the supreme court nomination.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
TVs, Blue Ray players, cars and jets may have interesting embedded devices that use some amount of Linux in operating, but that hardly makes them contain more technology than in Apple products
Apple products of today have some combination of an XNU kernel w/ various implementations of Quartz on the top, and an ecosystem that's gone out of its way to be extremely intuitive. So it uses a combination of mature technology (I'm not using 'mature' to mean EOLed here) and UI research to come up w/ outstanding products, whose only shortcomings are perhaps in their hardware combinations, where they may use less memory or a less powerful CPU than less expensive products in the market.
So yeah, there are some areas where they should improve, like allowing for SD cards in their products, but by no means does that make them cease to be a tech company. No matter how well they brand themselves as a quasi-fashion company along the lines of Prada, Gucci, Porsche, Ray Bans et al
You must have a strange way of calculating TCO, because my 5 year old Android phone and 6 year old Windows laptop have never died in flames, I've had maybe 6 forced reboots of the laptop in all that time (gross overestimate of total time spent on those: 15 minutes), and the two combined were cheaper than the typical iPhone during that time.
Because none of them are fascists. One is a straight-up racist, so there's that, but the other two voted for him because they hadn't done any research, wouldn't believe us when we explained his platform to them, and made it clear they were voting for him because they didn't like Clinton.
The wouldn't believe us when we explained his platform to them bit is key. He's doing exactly what we told them he'd do. They're still in denial.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Different people are different. It's something that most humans learn by early-adulthood, but the /. crowd is stuck in perpetual adolescence.
You are describing Apple fanboys. There are no Samsung fanboys, no Sony fanboys, no Google fanboys, no LG fanboys, etc. -- just Apple fanboys.
Well, there at least used to be fanboys for all those segments at various points.
There were certainly Samsung fanboys during the earlier Galaxy S models. My phone was Samsung, my TV was a Samsung LED, even my new stove is made by Samsung (I was very surprised at the quality and the reviews. Samsung? Really? Kitchen appliances? Yet, somehow it's truel...) Maybe not as much since Samsung seemed hell-bent on copying every Apple idea, including the extremely stupid ones.
There absolutely were Sony fanboys, I was one during Sony's quality run in the 90s when their A/V equipment was great quality and the Sony Playstation and Playstation 2 were the top gaming platforms. Then, one move at a time, Sony started pissing away customer loyalty.
Back when Google was Google Search and Gmail, and they seemed to actually believe the "Don't Be Evil" slogan, there were a lot of Google fanboys. Slashdot was awash with them. But now that Google is publicly of the opinion that evil is a-ok, they're certainly harder to "believe" in.
You may be right about there never having been LG fanboys. :-)
Apple watch ? Shove it up your faggot ass, Tim Cook. And don't forget to set the vibrate mode and have all your faggot buddies call you.
What an unpleasant person you are. Are you a closeted gay person? They're the ones that most often obsess about openly-gay peoples' sexuality and bring it up all the time for no reason, usually with.. colorful expressions of gay sex acts that you claim to find disgusting.
You don't know me, but I voted for Trump. The alternative was a lying harpy, so what choice did I have?
Anyone? Anyone else? That write-in field exists for a reason.
You can get a new motorcycle or a used car for $3k--both of which will get you from point A to point B. So anything beyond that is a purely indulgent fashion accessory. Any company selling these cars is a fashion company.
How much did your car cost?
I'm on my second android. The first one was a moto G, it lasted 2 years. It was dropping calls like mad / not receiving incoming calls and texts (at some point it basically always went straight to VM) so I upgraded to a newer OS. It stopped dropping calls and started working well for texts. But, it was so slow it was basically like not having a smart phone. The current phone (a 5X) has been better but is not slughis and crashes out of nowhere. I never install apps from anywhere but the play store, so if it is an app causing this then I think blaming google makes a lot of sense. I'm on the same iPhone I've been on for four years and it is as snappy as the day I got it.
My windows machines require a reinstall of the OS about every 18 months and die all of the time. And I'm on my third in 5 years because the physically break when I drop them--though this last one simply because unresponsive. I have dropped my 8 year old mac many more times from much higher places / onto harder landing spots and it barely shows a scratch. I've only reinstalled the Mac OS once since switching to OS X, and that is across several machines--the Mac OS lets you move all your files and OS install when you move Macs.
Yeah, TCO has been way lower for me on the Apple products.
I mean, sure, if we're talking about numbers and comparisons between brands only.
But if we use the same metrics, MacOS is a failure, Macbooks are laughing stock in numbers when compared to windows laptops, and Android still holds 86% of the smartphone marketshare vs iOS' 13%.
You see how all these grand statements are comparisons to things we cannot measure? Best quarter ever is great, provided that the device was ever a good seller in the first place, which it wasn't. We couldn't make enough to attend demand can mean anything from there were too many buyers, to we just didn't make much of them. Record numbers on a market that has big brands closing production means nothing. And second only to Rolex in this day and age, you have to be joking to spout such nonsense.
One can pull narratives out of one's asses, but here's the thing: smartwatches in general are not selling as much as industry leaders thought they would, they are not a mainstream thing or "the next big thing", several brands are leaving the market, and most importantly: they don't have much room for evolution. Arguably, they never had much reason to exist. It's a convoluted accessory that, sure, some will find good use for them, but most people don't care for.
The thing Apple managed to get right was market. Because there sure is a whole shitload of Apple fans willing to pay whatever sum to show others they have the latest Apple gadget. Other than that, I don't see anything an Apple Watch does that is inherently superior to models from the competition. Personally, I don't see anything useful there for me. It has a sleek interface, it connects to your iPhone to take message and calls, it can provide some tracking data, and it looks good. That's it. Of all things, it's generic chinese smartwatches that are providing the most functions for smartwatches out of all the models in the market currently.
Is it a viable product for Apple as is? Sure, of course. Apple could make shit on a stick viable with their fanbase. On the other hand, they could be doing a whole lot better with Macbook Pros that take professionals needs in consideration, they didn't need to remove headphone jacks from their iPhone 7 line to force their own proprietary wireless or port solutions, and they could use the smartwatch money somewhere else instead. You see, there is no basis for comparison.
Also, I hate to say it, but it doesn't help collecting comments from Tim Cook and some other famous Apple loyalists to make a point. Looking at the opinion of people using rose colored glasses is not a good way to measure the market.
Then again, I don't really care. Apple could think of the product as a huge absurd best of all time success and keep selling it, keep investing money, research and development time, and all that. Invest shitloads of money on it. Chances are, at least fans will keep buying it. And if Apple fans are satisfied with the direction Apple has been taking in recent years, fine by me. Just don't ask me to join the cult.
I'm glad we both made smart purchases and brought products appropriate to our individual needs and desires! Right on, Internet friend! high five
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Reporting requirements specific to public companies are to protect the interests of investors.
With a public company anything disclosed to investors and potential investors is unavoidablly also disclosed to suppliers, customers and competitors.
So there is a balance to be struck between disclosing sufficient information that investors can make rational investment descisions and not disclosing so much information that public companies are put at a disadvantage to private companies.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Also, nobody ever started marches in dozens of cities because someone farted in an elevator.
Apple is not transparent enough to objectively make that call. By these standards the Apple Newton was "a success."
Funny how Apple has a reputation of killing off their "successes."
What is it a success at? Decorating wrists like any other watch?
So, I don't believe most Trump supporters are facists or racists....and so far, I don't see any of Trumps policies following either of those ideologies yet.
Just because people on the far progressive left start throwing those terms around, doesn't make them so you know.
While I really hate to be a single issue voter, the Supreme Court fill for Scalia was pretty much the main concern I had about the election, and I'm quite happy so far with what I know about the new justice that Trump nominated. And there's about a 99.999% chance this nominee will be the next justice on the court.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Success and failure is hard to measure in some things (like, say, love)--but it's not at all hard to measure in business. A product is successful if it is profitable. The Apple watch is profitable, therefore it is successful. The Apple watch is more profitable than any other smartwatch, therefore it is the most successful smartwatch.
Sure, it's less profitable than the iPhone--but so is pretty much every other product in the world.
No. There were never any fanboys like Apple fanboys.
You say so, because you are likely an Apple fanboy and that is how you see the world -- by your precious brand.
Normal people do not idolize brands.
But, for the most part, they acted like adults, sucked it up....and went along for the ride, planing for the next election cycle.
I'm not American, but that's clearly bullshit.
Fanatically anti-fanatical
Turn-by-turn directions while driving are really pleasant--just a tap on your wrist before each turn and the prompt on your watch.
Quick checking of text messages or emails while in a meeting or walking (and thus not wanting to pull the phone out of my pocket). Also includes quick (one word or emoticon) responses to text messages from the wife.
Music: viewing current song, previous/next song, controlling volume
Apple Pay: quick & convenient from the watch
Quick glance at my work calendar, prompts before meetings.
---
Agreed, there's no one thing, just lots of little things you get used to.
The history of Apple features multiple products that were hugely successful because they were game-changers.
The first Mac was a breakthrough in GUI, with easy-to-use and consistent apps. Expensive as it was, it was the first mass-market GUI solution and gained first-mover advantage.
The iPhone was the first non-sucky smartphone, and gained first-mover advantage. It just dominated its market segment for a long time, and it took a free OS (Android) to beat it in market share.
The iPad repeated the iPhone success story: first non-sucky product in its market, first-mover advantage, took a free competitor to beat it.
Each of the above made staggering sums of money for Apple because they were game-changers.
Apple likes making lots of money, so Apple is looking for another game-changer. And it's pretty clear that the iWatch is not another game-changer. It's a "nice to have" product, which will sell well to people who are already on board the iOS platform, but it won't significantly attract new customers.
And unlike the game-changers listed above, when it first shipped it was already facing competition. The iPhone was so much better than other smartphones that it basically didn't have competition when it shipped, but the Android watches already available when the iWatch shipped were roughly as good. (Apple is very good at fit and finish, so the iWatch was arguably better aesthetically, but it had no huge edge in features.)
We can argue over whether the iWatch was a "success" or a "failure" but it hasn't been a huge roaring game-changing success like some previous Apple products.
I'm not sure if there are any game-changing products left that Apple even could invent. Everything I can think of, there is already some sort of product on the market, and those existing products don't suck, so I don't see how Apple can once again just show everyone how it's done and grab a whole bunch of market share. And recent products from Apple don't give me confidence that Apple as an organization is still innovating at that level.
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
They're early tech adopters, and this was certainly tech and not a steampunk, wind-up sort of watch.
It was and remains a niche market, indicative of that delightful 1-3% with the money and need for matching accessories.
It is not practical, it is not useful to most, and it appeals not to US and Canadians but to foreign nationals as a sign of ostensible geek chic.
The product is rife for damage (see eBay if you have any questions) and for most, isn't practical, especially given 1) battery life 2) costs 3) impinging on motion in all but social and "office" environments, and 4) lack of real and useful features.
These aren't typical consumers, you're right. And the practical slashdot reader stays far from such trivialities.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
>> every $50+ non-waterproof windable watches on the market are not "watches"
If they aren't primarily functional, they're "jewelry". I have a pretty watches too but I really only wear them when I'm in business casual or better attire.
Humans are on average not very intelligent - this much is true. Even the smartest guys behave often like normal plain dumbass. You allegation about humans being stupid because they buys stuff based on marketing BS is just silly however. There is no point of resisting the ads and using the imprinted brands to buy stuff if there is no much difference between brands - it is cheaper this way because there is no difficult and tiring decision making etc. This changes as soon as buying of imprinted brands became religion which 'justifies' huge expense etc. This is similar in a sense to this observation that when the choice one has to make is difficult because of small differences and huge range a (pseudo-)random choice is cheapest effort.
I don't know anyone personally who owns one.
"They're early tech adopters, and this was certainly tech and not a steampunk, wind-up sort of watch."
The steampunk watches appeal to the watch hipster market. They are vinyl records for your arm.
Apple Watch is currently a terminal for your iPhone, bringing out one selected compact set of data the wearer feels the need to view all the time. It could be fitness data, stock quotes, or GPS information. The killer app for it will be capture of medical data once the new administration makes it possible for Apple to compete with the healthcare monopoly in implementing such devices.
In September, Apple claimed watch revenues second only to Rolex. How can it not be considered a hit at this point?
In 30 years people will still be buying Rolex watches.
They probably won't be buying Swatch, as fun as they were in the 1980's. Only the CEO of Swatch feels threatened by Apple's watch.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
The problem is you, not the phone or the laptop. I don't know what you're doing that would require a reinstall of the OS every 18 months, but you're doing it wrong. I've not had to reinstall or upgrade the OS on my phone, and I have installed apps not in the Play Store.
Also, if you keep dropping laptops, maybe you should learn from that instead of blaming the machine for breaking when you do it.
So TCO is a bit lower on the iPhone/Mac if you're the type of person who can't or won't learn from your own mistakes, and a lot lower for the Android/Windows if you don't routinely drop laptops and don't bodge settings which you have no idea what they do.
Although, oddly enough, you can buy 3 Windows laptops for less than the cheapest Macbook, and several Android phones (4 Galaxy S4's or 2 Galaxy S5's for example) for the cost of the cheapest iPhone. So I'm not really sure that even your TCO is lower.
By that metric, Les Paul is a failure because not everybody wants a guitar.
My Moto 360 (first gen) pairs with an iPhone, yes. But unless I go through ridiculous hoops to downgrade the Android Wear app to v 1.3 or lower, it basically functions as a heater for 20 mins then dies until charged again. FFS Google!
1998 called, it wants it's "insight" back.
Just because you don't see a use for it doesn't mean others don't.
You know what a "sustained bubble of nothing" is?
It's the vehement prediction of the imminent failure of the most profitable company in recorded history,
just after a conference call where they announce the most profitable quarter in their own history,
and citing as evidence the fact that they have been so ridiculously successful that they can't possibly go anywhere but down,
and therefore they will drop into a chasm and declare bankruptcy any second now.
Find another hobby, please!
I have the Courage to say, that the Apple Watch is a wanker toy. It's for gadget lovers only who love the idea of having some technology on their wrist, while ignoring the fact that real watches are already a technological miracle and the entire watch category is a mature marketplace. The iWatch adds nothing of value to anyone's day.
Rene Ritchie is high on the Reality Distortion Field to ever say that "there's no tablet market, just an iPad market." I'm sure that's news to owners of Android tablets.
Hey Rene, come back to Earth! Your weed smokin' ways cry out for an intervention!
you can get a good pair of sneakers for 30 bucks, and those will get you from point A to point B.
Therefore ALL cars are a fashion accessory.
Personally, I like saving time, so I spent a few hundred more than that and I ride a bicycle.
If I got tired of hauling my phone out of my pocket every ten minutes for 12 hours a day every day, I'd probably buy a smartwatch.
Everybody's on their own scale, aye?
That's not a bad thing.
If your Apple Watch battery goes dead and you don't replace it out of frustration, Apple still has the money you spent on that first watch, even if it didn't last 20 years like the Rolex might. Apple doesn't have a "problem" there. What they have, is a second chance to sell you a watch.
Nobody ever got detained in an airport because someone farted in an elevator.
Nope. There are a subsection of obsessive compulsive, geriatric, and perhaps actual medical possibilities. But not on the Apple Watch. It has only so much real estate on it, and the processing power of a pigeon.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
What functionality do you believe it's missing? You may have missed the recent changes to Android Wear that improve the experience for ios users.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
If the Toyota Previa is the best selling mid-engined minivan of all time, does that make it a success?
No. Toyota now sells the Sienna, a front-engined minivan. *It* could (arguably) be called a success. As far as I know, there are no mid-engines minivans in the US market right now.
apple designed and manufactures the processor in-house. the casings are machined in-house. presumably they are buying the screens and the batteries from somebody. But that's about it.
I have never seen an apple watch in the wild, perhaps they felt its gimmicky or just ashamed wear them.
Yes, they do. Have you seen the market for expensive handbags lately? Or cars? Or makeup?
Well, there absolutely were Sony fanboys, but if you want to talk about -degree- of fanboyism, it's true that Apple fanboys certainly have them beat.
I don't "bodge settings", or, if I am, windows is pretty worthless--I basically use it and all my gear vanilla. I've also never had issues with OS X (well, there was the one reinstall, but that really was a stupid Apple problem) or linux machines (neither of which I use anything close to vanilla). I'm a developer, so my Windows laptops cost about $1500, plus the dock and memory if it isn't compatible with the previous machine. But they keep changing models so I need to get two new docks with my three new machines.
As for breaking machines, yeah, I'd rather not. I actually seriously baby the Windows machines and they still break. Ideally the fact that I baby them would be included in a TCO calculation. I use the Apple to hammer nails and stuff while the Windows machines are treated all dainty like--it's pathetic.
No. All that work is jobbed out. And remember -- Apple didn't invent anything.
Once the new administration is done having a watch to monitor your health won't really matter, because you won't be able to afford / get health care. Certainly not if you're a woman.
Wow you are so smart, I'm sure you've convinced all the apple watch buyers to dump theirs in the nearest landfill.
i own an apple watch and while enjoy a couple of features its mainly just a expensive digital watch.
i do a lot of competitive sport training and have used various watches for training since the mid 90s and the apple watch is the worst sport watch I have owned.
if you cant stop / start / take splits accuratly its worthless for training.
once your fingers are sweaty controlling the POS is hit and miss.
Makes me a bit sad because I'm a big believer in analog wristwatches, and instead, all the young adults and college kids are walking around with Apple Watches strapped on. Not a fan of the aesthetics, and didn't have a good smart watch experience myself (though this was before Apple Watch, with a Sony) but nonetheless, I can name at least 20 people that have one in my circle, and some of them are blue collar folks so it's not all luxury buyers either.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
He won because nobody you know admitted to you or the polls they were voting for him.
I kind of agree here. Also, don't forget Apple's HUGE push for that limited yse "watch". They even had it as the ONLY BLACK FRIDAY PRODUCT in the entire Apple lineup. I am a bit embarrased that Apple has no more clue of what need next than the average person -just like before Steve signed back as CEO.
unfinished: (adj.)
Why would people "hate" it? It's largely irrelevant, puts electromagnetism in your wrist 24/7, requires one more thing to charge, looks "funny" to me, and I have never desired it, even if FREE. However, I reslly like my iPhone (an Android would be ok too, but I like iOS better). It is extremely suspicious to see the maker of iWatch to be having to point out hiw it's a worldwide success: it's not at all. A good product? Maybe. No maker is losing sleep over it. They may fear Apple TV and iPod and iPad only. But the problem is not the iWatch, but the fact that Apple has not done anything or even tried to do anything with anough balls to question a bugget market. The last time I though Wow, was with the ipad 2 release. Since then, we have a billion form factors for iPhone and "lock in" ..."ecosystem" prodcuts that want to draw a fee circles around their "captive market".
I am ready to leave Apple any moment another company pushes forward like Jobs did, bringing something that makes me reconsider how I achieve things.
Even simple thing like "Echo" are more innovative. Amazon serms to be innovating in many fronts even if they don't create huge new ideas, they try innovative things every month. Apple is just extrapolation of Jobs vision like a linear regression. When the market takes a turn, Apple will not be ready, and they certainly ain't leading it anymore.
unfinished: (adj.)
You don't see the Muslim ban as racist in any way? Wow.
The reason people call the Apple Watch a failure is NOT because Apple is doing poorly in the market. The reason they are calling it a failure is because the Apple Watch has failed to make smart watches something everyone wants.
Agree. The idea of a smart watch is just dumb. So when it came out and was dumb, the only people that bought them were dumb. So the impact was zero, we still think they are just as dumb as before they were invented, which is why they are a failure.
Just like Bieber, they guy is a zillionaire, but it doesn't make him any less of a dick.
You mean, because Tom Cruise is still making movies??
You are probably representative for many over there. You understand very little and you are very ignorant. Please don't travel abroad. The world doesn't want you.
Muslim is a religion, not a race.
They didn't invent anything but they design lots of stuff. Inventors can live off licensing their inventions and designers (industrial and non) can live off making people want to buy something and manufacturers live off making the actual stuff. Each have a role and not everyone have to be everything for everyone to win in this relationship.
Apple is not a tech company?
Yes, Apple is a marketing company. Someone else makes everything Apple sells, Apple only produces the logo.
I will admit, they are so good at being a marketing company they have people like you utterly convinced they are something else.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
If you're not an American, and weren't here, then you'll know it was not bullshit.
There were no riots in the streets then, no broken store windows, no fires set in the street, no Obama fans got physically assaulted.
No, until now, the response has been civil, not like these radical assholes out now in the streets, trying to suppress speech that deviates from their overly liberal, progressive mantra.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
lol. Another dufus who hasn't used a real computer since Windows 95 -- either that, or built one himself with his substandard skills and shitty hardware and then blamed Microsoft for his own incompetence.
> The ALWAYS release numbers if the numbers are good
They actually don't always. They release spin points when they are favorably ("one billion iPhones sold to date!"), but most of their product sales are estimates done by analysts, based in part on financials. The numbers I referenced at are just those folks doing that guesswork for Apple Watch. I'm saying, those numbers are by no means a failure, just because they don't approach iPhone numbers.
puts electromagnetism in your wrist 24/7
Don't say stuff like that in public. We all know you're joking and not really advocating some batshit luny hypothesis that RF waves give you the cancer, but some people will think there's a remote possibility that you meant it and they'll immediately lump you in with other dipshits like antivaxxers and crystal healers.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Anything with "It's time to" is not a real article but marketing. The "It's time to *" is authoritative marketing speak. It should be black listed as spam along with: *One simple trick *" "* will shock you." "* incredible *" And so on...
LOL, there is no chance Apple is losing money on the Watch. It's one of the best selling consumer electronic products in history. It outsold the iPhone and iPod in their first years. Its yearly revenues are close to the revenues of all flat panel TVs sold in the US.
Apple isn't going to break out their margins on the product because they don't have to on minor segments and aren't giving Android Wear makers a blueprint for their success.
The only billion dollar sales electronic product that I've ever heard has ever lost money was the Xbox, and that was when revenues were $1B a year. $6B a year products don't lose money.
More specifically Apple doesn't price it's products to lose money. It's actually estimated costs for making the watches is about half their sales prices, so it's got about $3B a year left over for product development/marketing and sales costs. That's a slam dunk profitable business.
They only release numbers if required by public company rules. They don't have to release numbers for minor segments, which due to the enormous sizes of iPhone, iPad, Macs and Services, puts the watch in a minor segment. They have no reason to give Android Wear makers a blueprint for their success.
They may be early tech adopters, but they are also highly discriminatory about brand and platform, famously calling products that may change the whole industry as "lame"; displaying amazing arrogance and incomplete understanding of the market forces at work.
Can't imagine why companies don't target this extremely small and incredibly hard to please demographic...
Ah, so based on your sincerest wish that they are making a profit, and not on any facts you have. Thanks for playing!
You're doing something if you require a reinstall of Windows every 18 months. The hundreds of millions of us who never reinstall it would agree.
So with your "stupid Apple problem" reinstall, that doesn't count for some reason?
If you're dropping laptops and consider that babying them, please stay away from any actual babies.
Personal theory: Most people, consciously or subconsciously, want to be LESS connected to their phones, not more connected.
Also another theory :
it boils down to specs.
And actually to too many of them.
To the point that "trying to get 4G" functional, became detrimental to the core functionality of a watch (tells you the time, without you needing to constantly charge it).
Some people might be interested into "a regular watch, that can also give you alerts". But not as many are interested into "we managed to cram a whole smartphone around your wrist !"
Pebble, the kickstarter campaign that got a bat shit insane success raising tremendously more money than initially hoped for, to the point that they got noticed by other manufacturer (like Apple, LG, Samsung, etc.) who realised that smartwatch are "a thing" (again) and thus kickstarted the (current) era of smartwatched :
They went for minimalistic specs. Putting as little processing power in the watch itself, counting on the linked smartphone to do any actually heavy computing, counting on e-Ink to even further lower the power consumption.
Their point: making a watch, that basically behaves like a watch (you don't need to charge your dumb wrist watch every single night), but has some interesting status display.
Basically, they just went for the next logical small-step evolution after the various Citizen's bluetooth-connected watches.
(And their result: tremendous success, given the kickstarter result, at time when smartwatch weren't yet considered "a thing" (again))
The other manufacturer saw the success, realised that smartwatch were popular (again),
and decided to give another try at it.
And attacked it through the same angle they have taken the habit with their smartphone :
Pump up the specs to try to beat the competition with a product that looks better on the paper.
More CPU power, better animated OLED colourful and luminous displays, extra health sensors (well those could actually be useful) touch screen instead of button, more connectivity, including Wifi or even Cellular (WTF ?!? You already have such a device in your pocket !), able to answer SMS and Tweets directly from the smartwatch itself (?!), etc.
All this to the expense of useful things like : actual battery life.
On the paper, these watches managed to look cool and attractive (so they got relative success) but in practice they are a little bit underwhelming (so after buying them, people didn't go batshit crazy).
So you end up with a small early player that got crushed by everyone else (Pebble).
And a bunch of smartphone makers that try to replicate a whole smartphone, sized down to fit around your wrist.
A few of them managed to get the lead in the market (Apple, probably because someone in their R&D lab was already musing with the idea back at the time of iPod Nano 6gen) but ended up with product that, although they tick every box on the feature check list, don't compare positively with regular watch (show the time, without needing a battery replacement for at least a couple of months).
And, whereas the Apple iPhone 1 managed to convince people that it's suddenly okay to have a cell phone that can go through the day without needing a charge, they didn't manage to pull the same trick with watches that need nightly recharge instead of holding months between battery replacement.
Thus, not everyone wanted to have an Apple Watch.
Because every other manufacturer (beside Pebble) jumped to big specs, but that ended-up being detrimental to the key feature that attracts most people to watch (able to always show time, needing a fresh battery only once every few months).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
You're doing something if you require a reinstall of Windows every 18 months.
using the wrong OS?
The hundreds of millions of us who never reinstall it would agree.
you surveyed them?
My stupid apple problem absolutely annoys me. But I consider 1 reinstall over 10 years to be much better than once every 18 months.
Look, I'm a user, I have these problems, it's not like you can somehow say it's not real.
Apple Watch is the ultimate device for a healthy life, and it's the gold standard for smartwatches.
Apple could release the iBrick bullion bar (comprised of 16% gold, 84% a proprietary tungstein-lead mixture) and it would be hailed as the next gold standard for gold.
You're a self-admitted klutz, you blame the objects you drop for breaking them, and think modern Windows computers all need to be reinstalled every 18 months for unspecified reasons despite the fact that is not the case for the majority of users, hasn't been true for even a significant minority for more than a decade, and is a super rare except in edge cases now. I don't think you're not real, but it seems your TCO argument is simply your personal justification for your own ill-advised actions, rationalizing your own mistakes as being not your fault, and is not based on facts applicable to all but a minuscule number of users.
Why does this upset you so? It's a crap OS. MS made a fine OS in Windows 2k and XP. Other than that they have made garbage.