Apple Watch... Yea or Nay?

[theag]

I'd never buy one, but I think it will do well.

I prefer classic high-end watches, which I cant afford yet

 

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[csalvato]

I think its dumb. But I also thought the iPad was stupid and no one would buy it. I was wrong about that and even purchased a few myself... :\

 

[biophase]

https://web.archive.org/web/2007011...get.com/2007/01/09/the-apple-iphone/#comments

Comments to original iPhone release

LOL

"Apparently none of you guys realize how bad of an idea a touch-screen is on a phone. I foresee some pretty obvious and pretty major problems here."

"Touch screen buttons? BAD idea. This thing will never work."

 

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[Polarbeans]

Here is what I think
​

In January I actually did a little bit of research on the topic of smart watch. The reason was no particularly, I just like tech and I like Apple's products because of their iOS.

In January there were about 85,142 results on smart watch.
And as I'm writing this the result is 126,760.

I think the Smart Watch industry is just a small fish in a large pond of wearable tech, which is predicted to be very sought after in the future.

Besides, wearables has been around for some time now but as Apple releases its Apple Watch it will probably get more traction as an industry.

People want to be more connected, but only a few dares to take the first step.

As already pointed out, the battery life is probably a huge hurdle for many to purchase this product. Next is to see the real value of having one.

But as it get more integrated into our lives I think it will blow up. Maybe not as revolutionary as iPhone. When NOKIA and Ericsson made revolutionary cell phones, nobody wanted them at first.

"Bah, nobody needs that crap"

"hey, that is quite interesting"

"WHY didn't I discover this product before?"

Accordingly to PWC's studies on wearable tech 70% of consumers say they would wear employer provided wearables streaming anonymous data to a pool in exchange for a break on their insurance premiums.

Price is the leading factor prohibiting purchase of wearable technology.

Data shows that roughly one in five American adults already owns some type of wearable device—on par with tablets in 2012, when the adoption rate sat at 20% after just two years in the market. Today, more than 40% of Americans own a tablet.

According to Tim Cook, The Apple Watch is “the most personal device we’ve ever made, allowing users to do things they never imagined.”
--- Well, I think this is an unreliable source as no CEO would do anything else that sprinkle fairy dust over his product.

However, it is predicted that the wearable future is just around the corner and more immediate than we think. But then nobody (fully) predicted the collapse of Enron, the suicide of Kruger, or the Melt Down of 2008.

PWC also states in its report that fitness bands, smart watches and other wearable gadgets already established in the market, have under-delivered on expectations.

Statistics:

• 20% of Americans in 2012 owned a tablet after just two years on the market
• 40% of Americans own a tablet today
• 21% of American adults already own a wearable device
• 76% of consumers say they would NOT need their wearable device to replace an existing piece of technology in order to justify its purchase.
• 46% of respondents say their company should fund the purchase of wearable tech
• 52% of adults agree that automated facial recognition will replace the need to remember names

Sources:
http://www.pwc.com/en_US/us/technology/publications/assets/pwc-wearable-tech-design-oct-8th.pdf

 

[Michał Kóska]

Not 1st gen, it is not ideal, poor battery life.

Apple Watch 2 will be on my list

 

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[rkmalo1]

@rwiman ..awesome post!

Apple seems to get new products "right". No company does consumer products better than Apple. They literally take over the market with their revolutionary products and then other companies make variations of those products (ie: iphone, ipod, ipad)...each one of the products had been tried before Apple produced them (Microsoft had a tablet, the trio/blackberry, and various mp3 players) and nothing was on par to what Apple did to them and then other companies copied.

Apple has 34 different combinations of the watch. This is the right move. Some them are actually pretty stylish and wearable without looking ridiculous. http://mashable.com/2014/09/09/apple-watch-colors-models-wristbands/

I rarely wear watches but if I wanted to buy one I would have to at least look at the Apple Watch. I'm basically the perfect customer for Apple, I don't care to buy a $6,000+ fancy watch but would def spend the $550 to get the extra features it provides.

 

[Johnny boy]

Got a fitbit for christmas, realized it was very useful and upgraded to an apple watch a week later.

Love it.

If I've got my hands full and get a call, I can see who's calling with just looking at my wrist.

If I'm skiing or golfing, I can talk to someone hands free (like calling someone who's on a different ski run saying to meetup at the bottom in a few minutes) without having to have any headset.

I can control the music playing in my house without carrying around my phone.

Tracks my workouts and heart rate. I can see an estimate of how many calories I've burned in a day so it's been amazing for that too.

I like working out and listening to music without carrying my phone around. I leave my phone in the car or even at home for most stuff now. I think that I actually am in front of a screen less because of it. The phone can sit on a table in another room now and if anyone needs to reach me they still can.

+ it tells time as well

 

[Even Steven]

I think it'll become the #1 seller in the smartwatch category, but I doubt it'll really become a blockbuster like the iPhone. The smartwatch market is pretty small, and it'll grow a little bit, but not much.

That's what I think.

 

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[jmusic]

I just got this one though. CLASSIC. LMFAO...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AWZDA4/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

If you really want the iWatch experience, you should get this one instead...

 

[niftyg]

https://web.archive.org/web/2007011...get.com/2007/01/09/the-apple-iphone/#comments

Comments to original iPhone release

 

[OscarDeuce]

No to Apple (never bought an Apple product and never will)
No to "smart watches" (WTF?)
Damn, that's an ugly thing!!!
Seems to me like a solution in search of a problem...

Heck, since I have to carry a cell phone around with a clock built in, I hardly ever even wear a watch at all these days. Never really liked the having something strapped to my arm.

But yea, the Apple fanatics will buy 'em.

Cheers,
O2

 

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[Winning]

"A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them"
-The Great Steve Jobs

The Apple Watch will end up doing great imo for many reasons. Like many mentioned, there are many Apple fans that'll hype up the product and go out buying it like crazy. Developers will create unimaginable apps. The Apple Watch will get thinner, have better battery life and more functionality in the coming iterations. I think that in general health related tracking will become HUGE.

The first iPhone lacked function(no App Store for crying out loud), was pretty ugly, etc-- but look how far its come!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

What do you think now @MJ DeMarco ? Has your opinion changed at all?

I own a FitBit, not an Apple watch. And I only use the watch to monitor my sleep and heart-rate, don't get much use from it. Sometimes the watch is off for days on end.

Personally, my view hasn't changed but my opinion doesn't make the market. Clearly like market likes its tech gadgetry.

 

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[ChrisV]

So i just bought another Apple Watch in the last few weeks and I love this thing.

I got the SE a couple weeks back (because I didn't want to spend much after my last experience) but after playing with the SE a bit I was so impressed I returned it and got the more expensive one with cellular and all the bells and whistles.

As I stated in my last post, I had the original and I wasn't impressed. But they have come a long way.

Also when I first got it I got the Stainless Steel version with milanese loop which was super uncomfortable for daily wear, and I kept taking it off. In retrospect I realize that's a big reason why it was so useless.

I mean I agree with pretty much all this:

Love it.

If I've got my hands full and get a call, I can see who's calling with just looking at my wrist.

If I'm skiing or golfing, I can talk to someone hands free (like calling someone who's on a different ski run saying to meetup at the bottom in a few minutes) without having to have any headset.

I can control the music playing in my house without carrying around my phone.

Tracks my workouts and heart rate. I can see an estimate of how many calories I've burned in a day so it's been amazing for that too.

I like working out and listening to music without carrying my phone around. I leave my phone in the car or even at home for most stuff now. I think that I actually am in front of a screen less because of it. The phone can sit on a table in another room now and if anyone needs to reach me they still can.

+ it tells time as well

You don't realize how much time you spend pulling out your phone. Email ding? pull it out. Text message? Pull it out. Text message was something stupid? Oh well.. you have no way of knowing that until it's too late. All that stuff really adds up. A major benefit of the Apple Watch is filtering what's important and what isn't. It also has features that are just plain cool. Like I can find the lowest price for gas on my freaking wrist.



I can trigger Home automations from anywhere.

You can use the Siri Shortcuts app to change the watch face based on what you're doing (different watchfaces are useful for different tasks.)

You can have a watchface that tracks your heartrate while you're at the gym, then have a minimal, classy watchface for when you're out to dinner. And again, you can automate it so it changes automatically.

I have mine set to change to a certain watch face when I leave home, one that tracks my time when I'm working, one that shows my reminders.

Oh yea.. and I get so much more shit done now too. Having your little reminders in the corner of your watch is priceless.

It has a little inhale/exhale meditation app that's amazing for stress

And it also tracks meditation

The Apple Watch does a better job of treating stress and anxiety than anything else I've tried

The Apple Watch is a great de-stressing tool.

www.businessinsider.com

It's got this cool little nightstand mode that gradually turns up the brightness to simulate the sun rising.

When you're washing your hands it knows it via Artificial Intelligence and automatically puts on a timer for 20 seconds.

The first one I got I wasn't impressed, but these things have come a long way. Definitely think it's a must have.

I dunno... Apple just makes great products and this is no exception.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Personally, I think it's going to bomb. Can't see myself buying one... EVER.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out because as you know, my opinion doesn't matter, the market's opinion as a whole does.

What say you?

 

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[Charmander]

Basically their genius team discovered that there is actually another product that they could copycat (/steal - like almost everything our "genius" Steve did)

And obviously the most heavily marketed product from them - just look at their stores - it is covered in posters of them, because these watches of course have the biggest margins (profits) for them, really- when the high end models cost 10k +, they want to sell the sh** out of them - because when they sell 1 watch, they basically get the same amount of profit that they would get for selling an iPhone (and MUCH more for the 10k model - it´s like 10 iPhone sold in terms of profit..)
No wonder they say they will give the people who bought it some non stop 24/7 customer service.

And of course people will buy it- but only because (as Steve Jobs said) the brand here is everything.
(especially when they are able to charge 79$ for a cable that costs about a buck or 2 to make, lol...)
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MJ1K2AM/A/usb-c-digital-av-multiport-adapter?fnode=51
I also remember buying a case from them, that now costs 30x less, than it did back then...
________________________________________________________
More importantly, it is interesting to observe how a business like this seems to be aiming JUST for higher and higher margins. Not to mention you allready have to own a phone from them, in order to make the watch work (the market is smaller allready, then it could be, but they should know better)

For example - a few product generations ago - the iPhone was built with much more quality materials than now. And as I heard one analytist say : the company was still not satisfied with their margins (again) some years ago. So what do they do? They replace quality materials (glass) on their phones, with some plastic (5c), and other stuff like that which even bends...

Apple’s software quality taken ‘a nosedive’ lately
https://bgr.com/2015/01/05/marco-arment-mac-ios-software-quality/
___________________
And really- the millions of the Chinese watches, have basically the same green bracelet... Wonder how much the entire thing really costs to make...
Though big companies like Samsung / Apple, rarely want to go for less than 50% profit from the total price of the product. - eg. when iPhone costs 600-700$ , it really costs about 250-300$ to make, simillary, a samsung phone for 200$ costs about 100$ at most

 

[jmusic]

More importantly, it is interesting to observe how a business like this seems to be aiming JUST for higher and higher margins.

That's a really good point. I would also look at the new 12" MacBook in that light. It's basically an Intel NUC with battery, keyboard, and upsized iPad screen. Unit cost is probably ~$500, MAYYYYBEE $600, so with a selling price of $1299 that would result in a profit margin >50%.

 

[biophase]

I think it will do well. I don't really like Apple, but I do have an iphone now. The only thing on the watch that would appeal to me is for fitness and real time stuff, like HR monitors, mapmyride, gps directions, maps, a text notification, who is calling. Anything where it is a pain to take out your phone to look at it because your hands aren't free.

 

[blackhat]

I think its dumb. But I also thought the iPad was stupid and no one would buy it. I was wrong about that and even purchased a few myself... :\

I was the same way. Who would ever need or buy a large iPhone with no phone service, I said. A couple years later it was me buying one. Apple seems to be good at filling needs that are not well seen yet.

 

[biophase]

Here is Australia I've met 2 girls wearing casio digital watches. These were the old school type with shiny silver bands and two buttons on the side. I think people like that old watch look.

I only noticed them because I had the same watch in grammar school!

 

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[lifejak]

People will still probably buy it, demand won't be high now.. But the way i see it, when stark improvements are made to the apple watch over the next two updates to the model. Things will start to get better and the consumer group for it will increase.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[aa610]

Here is Australia I've met 2 girls wearing casio digital watches. These were the old school type with shiny silver bands and two buttons on the side. I think people like that old watch look.

I only noticed them because I had the same watch in grammar school!

It's a pretty cool retro look actually.

 

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[Bila]

@MJ DeMarco ...I attended a business event this week and the CEO of CIBC said i quote :" we are preparing our technology department to be ready because we think, believe it or not, the smart watch will replace the phones in the next 5-10 years "

 

[RazorCut]

Well they have already taken more preorders in one day than Google sold in one year.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/android-wear-apple-watch-google-advantage-developers-2015-4

 

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[kmaster268]

Na...What it does is just shows notifications on wrist and some fitness information. It has an awful battery life(less than 20hours) just like moto 360 initial sale would be good but later it will fade away. By the way moto 360 looks much more elegant than apples watch. Product has more than 50% profit margin...no wonder they are going all ga ga and marketing the bitch out of it.

totally agree, moto 360 looks much more elegant than apples watch...

 

[ClaytonAlbright]

Just another product that will end up in the bin with the XBOX Kinect. ALA not really a demand, watches, really? A game that makes you run around, literally, really?

Apple is going the way of Microsoft, meaning telling us what we need, not fulfilling a need like easy to use awesome MP3 players.

 

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[ChrisV]

This is a funny thread looking back.

I bought one when they first came out. I spend $750 on the damn thing because I wanted the higher-end one and it definitely wasn't worth the $750 I spent. (Note: there was a $300 version available - I just wanted stainless steel)

I feel really bad for someone who bought one of those $15,000 Edition Versions. Now things are much better. The Hermès Apple Watch is beautiful and reasonable priced ($1,300 isn't bad for a designer watch)



But regarding the normal Apple Watch Now that they cost like $250-400 I definitely think they're worth it. They do much more than a fitbit and aren't that much more expensive. I love that they track everything (including sleep, blood oxygen, ECG) and you can have nice spreadsheets of your whole life. I think I'm going to get an Apple Watch SE.

 

[Clenrock]

Pebble FTW

 

[jazb]

Apple has too many fanboys, it will do well

 

[jmusic]

I think it'll become the #1 seller in the smartwatch category, but I doubt it'll really become a blockbuster like the iPhone. The smartwatch market is pretty small, and it'll grow a little bit, but not much.

The $10K one will sell well to rich Chinese kids...