The Apple Watch Outsold Every Other Wearable Last Quarter (engadget.com)

According to Strategy Analytics, Apple has shipped 3.5 million wearables in the first quarter of 2017, which is 59 percent higher than the 2.2 million devices it did in the same period last year. Engadget reports: Cupertino captured 16 percent of the global marketshare and stole the wearables crown from Fitbit, which had a much less stellar quarter. Fitbit only shipped 2.9 million devices in Q1, 36 percent less than the 4.5 million units it moved in the first quarter of 2016. Even Xiaomi sold more devices, putting the beleaguered wearables-maker in third place. Those results are consistent with Apple's latest earnings report. The company said its Watch and TV sales jumped up 31 percent year-over-year, and head honcho Tim Cook said Watch sales have nearly doubled since last year. Neil Mawston, Strategy Analytics executive director, said Apple's Watch Series 2 has been selling well "due to enhanced styling, intensive marketing and a good retail presence." Were you one of the 3.5 million customers who purchased an Apple Watch in the first quarter of 2017? If so, how do you like Apple's approach to wearables?

Comments

I'll answer the question.

[NotQuiteReal]

No.

And with billions of people in the world, almost nobody did.

So, fitbit falling down?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently they managed to turn themselves toxic by swallowing, then discontinuing, pebble.

Something something nokia, who invented and even owned the smartphone market, then managing to kill themselves over it, by inviting themselves to be taken over by that other toxic maker of smartphones.

Status symbol?

[Gravis Zero]

It seems like Apple products have been moving from useful products more toward just being status symbols. Seriously, the Apple Watches provide you with near zero useful functionality and have really shitty battery-life.

Re: Status symbol?

[CapS]

I've had the Apple Watch for quite awhile, and it has some convenient features. Using it for payments is faster than credit card chips, heart rate monitor is excellent, it can unlock my computer, reading quick texts/notifications is nice, I like looking quickly to see my next meeting location, outside temperature at a glance is a help, and GPS directions at a glance with taps is often better than looking at the phone (when I'm driving a car that doesn't have a phone mount). I used to take my phone out of my pocket probably 100-200 times a day. Now it's more like once or twice an hour.

The battery has never run out on me. If I've forgotten to charge it overnight I put it on the charger for about 20 minutes while I'm getting ready in the morning and that's enough for the day.

As far as a status symbol, I don't think that's the case. The people I know who have one wear it for the features, not the status. In fact I'd rather not have the that kind of attention.

Who buys this crap?

[Ritz_Just_Ritz]

Seriously....a watch that goes toes up if you don't charge it daily? I know you've got the contingent of folks that buy stuff because "it's cool," but a watch that can't go a couple of days without charging it?

Pass.

Re:Who buys this crap?

[Yaztromo]

I inherited a watch from my grandfather after her passed away. He wore it for decades. I'm pretty sure the band isn't original -- it seems much newer than the watch itself.

But get this -- to use it you have to wind it up -- every day! Can you imagine such a thing? This man, and many others like him for decades started their day having to wind their watch, because you couldn't go a couple of days without winding it.

And somehow, perhaps miraculously, his generation won WWII. He himself served in the Canadian Forces, attaining the rank of Sergeant. And yet every day he had to wind his watch.

Yaz

Re:Sheep!

[jcr]

Apple is falling behind

Apple is the most valuable private company in the world. You're delusional.

-jcr

You are partly right, but mostly wrong

[SuperKendall]

Garmin is an arbitrary computational device. Read up on ConnectIQ sometime.

Have to admit I did not know that existed, and I did read up on it.

But how does that matter any more than the PebbleAPI? Which was also quite good and expansive.

Charging the device nightly means you're not getting sleep and resting heart rate analysis on a consistent basis.

If you read everything you'd see I also said you can charge while it's in the shower.

Garmin watch will last 10+ days on a charge if you don't do any workouts. If you do workouts it lasts 6-7.

So it's still off of your person sometime. That is not that huge a leap from the Series 2, and what happens next year when Apple is within a day of Garmin's figure?

Quite frankly you'd have to be some epic level of moron to purchase an Apple Watch of either generation considering just how far behind Garmin they are in just about every category that matters, including price.

See posts below about people purchasing the Apple Watch for Swimming, because it was 1/2 the price of the Garmin that could do the same thing...

Furthermore while I'll admit the app support is more impressive than I thought, in what world do you really think Garmin is ahead of Apple on this? If *you* read the AppleWatch API you'd find it's quite a lot more capable than the Garmin API, and there are a ton more Apple Watch apps now than there are Garmin apps.

So how are you not some kind of Epic Moron to claim Garmin is ahead in any way that matters - including price?

Bought a 2nd hand one

[seoras]

I've been wearing an automatic Swiss watch for years now. It's needing a service though, when I take it off before bed it's dead in the morning.
I write Apps and I thought I'd buy a 2nd hand Apple Watch to try it out and see if I could do anything with my own Apps on it.
Wasn't convinced when it first came out but now that you can pick up a series 1 for 1/4 of it's price new it's not too risky to try, i could punt it on again.
So I got a stainless steel 42mm S1 for under $200
The battery on this used watch lasts a whole day easily, I take it off and put it on the charger when I go to bed. Better than the Swiss watch.
The health monitoring is neat, I like that it reminds you stand up, take a breath and move my ass if I've been sitting coding too long.
I feel like I can leave the phone and I don't carry it around as much. Phone calls aren't missed, I like that I can answer them on my wrist.
It's the little things about it that I've come to appreciate that my very nice Swiss automatic doesn't do.
Cooking dinner, I set a timer so I can leave the kitchen and that tap on the wrist when I need to return is really handy.
Logging into PayPal, which I do a lot for work, I have 2 step verification and the Symantec VIP app on the watch is so much quicker than using the phone.
The smart watch isn't a smart phone and never will be.
It's probably not for everyone but anyone who hasn't tried it probably shouldn't critique it until they've tried it.
It's one of those things that until you've tried it and had one for at least a month you probably won't get the point of it.
I just can't see myself going back to the Swiss automatic.