Is Apple Losing the Phone Wars?

[Siro]

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-watch-may-not-be-ticking-with-customers-2015-07-07

Relevant article...

It's a new product category. Smartphones were derided as a frivolous product and an inevitable failure in the early 2000s. By 2005, they were a niche product that has a market, but will never actually see mass adoption. When MS introduced tablets in 2001, industry analysts laughed at their supposed looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exit. Now they snicker at IoT and wearables. It doesn't matter, the Apple Watch may prove a success or a failure in the long run, but there is little doubt that computers will continue to miniaturize and diffuse into more and more areas. Apple is smart in jumping on the bandwagon, and if this product fails, they will try others.

 

[green]

So Android sells 750,000 watches in 2014.

Apple sells 1.5 million watches in a week.

And this is proof Apple is failing?

 

[moevillini]

I have a dumb phone. So I voted "other".


But pretty much I use apple for everything else. Except at work, where I have no choice.

 

[LogGrad98]

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-watch-may-not-be-ticking-with-customers-2015-07-07

Relevant article...

This is called an early adopter curve.

Edit: to add some detail, Apply is known for having a huge amount of early adopters among its customer-base. I work with one such guy here. He has purchased (and still has) every mobile active product they have ever released to market. And he received one of the first 500 Apple Watches. But after this large number of early adopters, there are a lot more people that will wait and see. That is why this curve is so steep. You saw a similar curve for Google Glasses, just not so steep. Same generally holds true for most tech really.

 

[Siro]

This is called an early adopter curve.

Edit: to add some detail, Apply is known for having a huge amount of early adopters among its customer-base. I work with one such guy here. He has purchased (and still has) every mobile active product they have ever released to market. And he received one of the first 500 Apple Watches. But after this large number of early adopters, there are a lot more people that will wait and see. That is why this curve is so steep. You saw a similar curve for Google Glasses, just not so steep. Same generally holds true for most tech really.

Google Glass was different. It was never released as a consumer product. It was offered for a high price, in limited numbers, for a short period, in order to explore use cases and get a feel for how to develop the interface. It was then pulled from the market. Google is very secretive about it, but I actually know someone who works at Google X. She claims that a second, consumer oriented version of Glass, will be announced within a year.

 

[VINYLONE]

It's a new product category. Smartphones were derided as a frivolous product and an inevitable failure in the early 2000s. By 2005, they were a niche product that has a market, but will never actually see mass adoption. When MS introduced tablets in 2001, industry analysts laughed at their supposed looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exit. Now they snicker at IoT and wearables. It doesn't matter, the Apple Watch may prove a success or a failure in the long run, but there is little doubt that computers will continue to miniaturize and diffuse into more and more areas. Apple is smart in jumping on the bandwagon, and if this product fails, they will try others.

Nah, I get it. I also understand how the adoption of new technology works and how tentative things are in the beginning. That being said, I don't see the watch catching on, especially since it's useless without the phone to accompany it...unless I am not understaning it's functionality.

This is called an early adopter curve.

Edit: to add some detail, Apply is known for having a huge amount of early adopters among its customer-base. I work with one such guy here. He has purchased (and still has) every mobile active product they have ever released to market. And he received one of the first 500 Apple Watches. But after this large number of early adopters, there are a lot more people that will wait and see. That is why this curve is so steep. You saw a similar curve for Google Glasses, just not so steep. Same generally holds true for most tech really.

Do you think the Apple watch will catch on? I'm not sure if they were or are available in Deutschland but do you see them in the wild? I don't.

 

[Siro]

Nah, I get it. I also understand how the adoption of new technology works and how tentative things are in the beginning. That being said, I don't see the watch catching on, especially since it's useless without the phone to accompany it...unless I am not understaning it's functionality.

Again, this is the view that things are as they will always be. The watch CURRENTLY requires an accompanying phone. This is done to prolong battery life and expand functionality. The addition of a cellular antenna to divorce the phone from the watch is a trivial technical matter. Apple opted to target current iPhone owners and retain as much margin as possible. If they decide that separating the two made for better market, they will do exactly that.

 

[VINYLONE]

Again, this is the view that things are as they will always be. The watch CURRENTLY requires an accompanying phone. This is done to prolong battery life and expand functionality. The addition of a cellular antenna to divorce the phone from the watch is a trivial technical matter. Apple opted to target current iPhone owners and retain as much margin as possible. If they decide that separating the two made for better market, they will do exactly that.

Good post.

I guess only time will tell whether this watch becomes ubiquitous.

 

[LogGrad98]

Nah, I get it. I also understand how the adoption of new technology works and how tentative things are in the beginning. That being said, I don't see the watch catching on, especially since it's useless without the phone to accompany it...unless I am not understaning it's functionality.



Do you think the Apple watch will catch on? I'm not sure if they were or are available in Deutschland but do you see them in the wild? I don't.

My colleague of course has one. I have seen a couple others. They are easy to spot because everyone who wears one talks about it non-stop. I was on a train staring off into space and some guy across from me said "I saw you noticed my watch..." Ugh. No I didn't. I noticed your fly was open and then I said NOTHING.

 

[♪alt13]

Yes the cult of personality is done setting trends without their chief trend setter. The next 'shiny thing' won't be coming from Apple.

 

[Harambe]

At the two month mark, this pretty much sums it up.

 

[MoTappin]

My Samsung phone (before I got an iPhone 5) drove me nuts. My iPhone is reliable and fast, nice battery life, and the interface is nice and clean. Had it over a year. One day I'll upgrade to a 6, but see no reason to now. Even people I know who are still using their iPhone 4 say they can't justify upgrading when their 4 still works fine. After 6-8 months with any Samsung I had, I was tearing my hair out.

A few years ago I bought a used 2010 MacBook. Got real tired of my Windows laptop freezing and crashing on me. I grew up using Macs but married a PC guy, and with the lower cost we used Windows for the last 15 years and went through at least 5 of them. In the 3 years I've had it, my Mac hasn't crashed on me once. The software updates are easy. It still runs fast. It starts up MUCH faster than my husband's new Windows laptop he uses for work. He had been laid off about 18 months ago, and used the kids' (another used) Mac Mini at home looking for jobs. After about a week he was converted and hasn't looked back, except the fact that he has no choice where he currently works. I'd love to go get a MacBook Air. But again, this one is still ticking and ticking well, so I can't justify it. One day when I have the cash for a new one, I'll let my 13-yr-old daughter take over this thing and she'll use it in high school. Apple knows how to build stuff, IMO.