Horological Meandering

patrick_y
[PuristSPro Moderator]
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Apple Watch Sales Plunge 90% - What are your thoughts?

PuristSPro, an online blog and discussion website, invites its readers from around the world to comment on the social impact of the Apple Watch. 





I live in Silicon Valley, the enclave of tech worldwide based in Northern California near San Francisco.  Living here and having some appreciation for technology, I do own a few technology devices, all of which are Apple and Mac products.  I'm typing off a Macbook Pro, my third Apple laptop over the past decade I've been using Apple laptops; I take my phone calls on an Apple iPhone5, I've got an iPhone 6 sitting in its box ready to be set up; and I have the complimentary suite of Apple iPad and iPod products that I never seem to use.  Full disclosure, I'm also an Apple stockholder.  I'm kind of an Apple guy. 

All that being said, I'm also a mechanical watch lover, so I do not own an Apple watch and I might even be slightly against the watch.  My wrist is almost entirely exclusively bonded to some Swiss or German mechanical timepiece.  But walking around Silicon Valley and trendsetting San Francisco, one cannot help but notice that a large percentage of the population have an Apple watch on their wrist. 

Yesterday's Silicon Valley Headline: Online watch sales of the Apple Watch in the United States, its largest market, has fallen by about 90% since its initial launch in April. 

Now, let's look deeper into the statistic, as we all know, statistics can be worded for high impact.  The statistic comes from a market research company called Slice Intelligence that tracks the Apple Watch sales through electronic receipts.  It states that in the first week of sales, it estimated 1.4 million were sold within the first week of online sales (online sales started on April 10th).  It now states that sales are less than 140,000 units per week.  But are these readings accurate?  Remember, the measurement is based off of electronic receipts.  And even at around 100,000 units a week, that still equates to over 5 million units a year.  The average Apple watch is over $400, that still means roughly $2 billion in revenue per year. 

Despite this, I am seeing the prevalence of the Apple Watch grow, especially in San Francisco and New York City.  At a BBQ party in Silicon Valley last week, I noted nearly 10% of the guests were wearing Apple Watches.  And among my friends, I know many of them whom wear the watch or at least own the Apple Watch.  And the Apple watch is definitely a disruptor, outselling any other watch on the market. 

Despite the many benefits and features an Apple Watch can deliver, the most common complaints are:
1.  The map function doesn't work well in downtown San Francisco nor in Manhattan. 
2.  Battery life is short. 
3.  Not tremendously useful. 
4.  Some have complained that the software appears to have glitches.
5.  Exercise tracker (especially heart-rate sensor) may have inaccuracies.  These inaccuracies seem to be reduced if the watch is worn extremely tightly, to the point of discomfort. 

What are your thoughts about the Apple watch?  How do you think the Apple Watch helps society?  Genuine tool watch or nerdy gadget toy?