The worldwide smartwatch market experienced a round of growing pains in the third quarter of 2016 (3Q16), resulting in a year-over-year decline in shipment volumes. According to data from the International Data Corporation, (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, total smartwatch volumes reached 2.7 million units shipped in 3Q16, a decrease of 51.6% from the 5.6 million units shipped in 3Q15. Although the decline is significant, it is worth noting that 3Q15 was the first time Apple’s Watch had widespread retail availability after a limited online launch. Meanwhile, the second generation Apple Watch was only available in the last two weeks of 3Q16.
Only 2.7 million units worldwide? That’s a rounding error. Apple experienced a 72% year-over-year decline in sales, to just 1.1 million Apple Watches in Q3 2016. No wonder Apple is refusing to release sales figures for the Apple Watch. Meanwhile, there’s no new Android Wear devices coming out this year, and the next big Wear update has been postponed to next year, so Wear is effectively dead. Samsung, Pebble, and the others barely even register.
Of course, IDC, etc. etc., but even if these figures are off by, say, 10%, the smartwatch market is still looking like a flop.
Possibly the “Basic Wearables” like the FitBit are enough.
I’m “connected” enough these days, so having yet another “smart” device trying to interrupt me is really of no interest.
If anything they’re an expensive & annoying distraction.
Or an expensive and distracting annoyance.
I might have been interested if so many of these damned things didn’t require a smartphone to provide basic functionality.
Edited 2016-10-24 22:57 UTC
100% agree… Apple Watch without the need of an iPhone could be a great solution to people who hate carrying a phone in their pockets (like me)… but adding just another gadget to carry and charge and update and sync is incredibly annoying and stupid!!
Apple Watch is one of the worst Apple products I’ve ever used, it’s a shame without any vision, objective or clear purpose… launched to satisfy marketing department, just a “check” in the product offering in the best (worst) Microsoft tradition: “hey, every competitor is launching an smartwatch… we have to release one! no matter if it’s late or sucks let’s launch something!”. Shame on you Tim Cook.
Had it hit the market at $199 (totally doable) and had they avoided the retarded compulsion to try and sell “gold” versions for $10k it might have gained some traction, even with the requirement to pair it with an iPhone… At the current price point though, I totally agree, if it doesn’t replace my phone I don’t see the point in it.
It doesn’t matter though – I completely lost interest in the product after the “edition” bullshit. Apple can’t unring that bell for me.
I second that. However, I suspect battery technology has a bit of a way to go before we can squeeze enough juice into that small of a space to power all the radios, considering that the darned thing can barely get a day just being a glorified notification LED.
My Gear S2 4G gets pretty much a full 24 hours (a bit less or more depending on which watch face I use, in fact I think the most I’ve gotten was close to 3 days on a charge) yet it can handle full phone calls, gps, etc. It is as close to being a standalone right now I think that you can get.
It isn’t so much the battery technology that stinks, it’s the operating system and apps that suck that power. If I use the stock watch face, I really get excellent battery life.
Tizen seems a bit lighter than either Android Wear or WatchOS (whatever that thing is called).
So you’re saying your Gear can take a SIM card and has a cellular radio?
The ironic thing in your story is that everyone else was hurrying to release a smartwatch because of all the rumors about Apple releasing one. So they were both chasing after each other’s hype! LOL
http://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-watch-with-sizable-sales-cant-sha…
I don’t know that a USD 6 billion a year in revenue ( and roughly 4 billion in profit ) is a rounding error.
That said ( taking Apple alone ) is we extrapolate from this latest quarter, at 5 million units a year or so the volume would drop to only USD 2 billion, putting iWatch in the ‘hobby’ category.
Personally I do own an iWatch ( first generation ) but I saw no reason to upgrade to the latest one because although I do find it useful I can’t see processing speed making a huge difference. I would certainly buy one if it was thinner and did more health related stuff.
Yet another POS that will run out of battery before the end of a busy day if you use its “smart” features the way you are supposed to, and you will have to worry about its security when it stops receiving updates. There is the most accurate description of the Apple Watch and Android Wear devices.
Worrying about your smartphone’s battery is bad enough. I already have to carry two phones (a Nexus 5X and a backup Nexus 4) when I have to be out for the day because one phone is not enough if you want to use it as a “smart” device (aka run apps like Uber and Maps and browse the web throughout the day). Some people carry a “powerbrick case” around, which makes the phone heavier and bigger than the heaviest and biggest Symbian OS brick ever made. Never mind batteries are so lame (and non-replaceable) because phones are supposed to be all thin and light. There are Chinese 10.000mah phones sure, but they do not receive security updates….
And some marketers want to convince us this mess should be transferred to our wrist too (should I wear two smartwatches so I can use the second when the first runs out of battery?).
As other people have said, “basic” wearables like FitBit or Pebble are good enough. The Pebble kickstarted the whole wearable market anyway, before the ambulance chasers -aka Google and Apple- tried to shoehorn their resource hog OSes in the form factor and (partially) ruined the concept of wearables.
Edited 2016-10-24 23:20 UTC
I agree that bad battery life trumps all of the (very slight) advantages of wearing a smart watch.
As for lugging the two phones, wouldn’t you consider an external power bank? They are cheap and small and far more convenient than powerbacks or (I’m pretty sure) than carrying two phones around and keeping them charged, configured, updated, synced and then swapping SIMs and turning them on and off.
I have an original Pebble SmartWatch which is all the functionality I need in a wearable. With a week of battery life, it is handy and unobtrusive. I never have a tone or vibrate on my smartphone because the Pebble will notify me. A quick glance at my wrist tells me if I need to bother with the phone right away, without having to push any buttons.
Pebble is in a category by itself. Its a practical device offered at a reasonable price. Its value is what it does today, not how future devices like it might work.
From their watches people want to know time and date. Thus they’ll either buy a very cheap one, or they want luxury on their wrists, in which case they’ll buy a Rolex
The “smartwatch” has always been a lame idea so news of its failure should come as no surprise to anyone. The product is simply fulfilling its’ destiny.
There is less reason to upgrade a smartwatch than a phone or a tablet. If a phone lasts 2-3 years a smartwatch should last 5 years at least.
On the other hand, the market it attacked from the bottom, there are some really cheap “smartwatches”, with prices close to 20€. Those are awful devices, but so cheap you can but them with no regrets. I doubt those things are counted in the total we are talking about here.
I love my Apple Watch, it’s a first gen one but i find it really useful.
I run the fitness stuff through it and the workouts app and all the data integrates with Apple health which in turn syncs with My Fitness Pal App and Fitbit Scales.
I love the haptic feedback so when i get a message/email/phone call or navigation it’s all there, along with apps like dark sky which alerts me to the weather on the watch face.
The battery lasts about 1 1/2 days and thats with two workouts running on it, i have a dock which charges my phone and the watch so it’s not that inconvenient.
Having the notifications is especially useful to me as it’s a gentle tap, so i know when im in a meeting or driving that something needs my attention, which is especially useful when youre on call (i work in a datacenter).
Being able to use Apple Pay on the watch is also especially handy, i live in the UK and contactless is pretty much everywhere now including transport. I dont have to mess with a wallet or phone in my bag or pockets i simply just tap my watch, it’s fast and provides instant feedback on how much ive just spent and where i spent it.
The watch itself is especially well designed as i dont treat it with kid gloves it gets knock and bashed about in my line of work quite a bit and still looks great.
I can appreciate that some people wont find a use for it but i wanted to provide an opinion on someone who loves their watch as well as the people who dont like it so much.
I have a pebble time 2 on order. Why did I go for this watch instead of an apple one? 10 day battery.
We have a running joke in the office where we tease the Apple watch owners on if the watch even needs a calendar, as it hasn’t lasted long enough for anyone to see it change
It’s in jest, but with a grain of truth.
Adding features like sleep tracking and heart monitoring are great, but only if you can wear it overnight and not have to leave it on the sideboard to charge.
Apple (and Wear) both assumed that people were happy/willing to put up with the same compromises as on a smartphone. That has turned out to be wrong. Couple that with the reason I don’t wear a traditional watch (I have the time on my phone) and many people just aren’t seeing them as compelling and useful in the real world..
I just don’t see much use for them outside of fitness/sports, but I’d argue they’re not even ready for that yet.
I’m a (somewhat newbie) runner so I got myself some time ago a dedicated running watch over a smartwatch for a few reasons: battery life, dedicated hardware buttons, and price. Even a budget GPS watch is going to be better and much cheaper than something like the Apple Watch for this kind of purpose.
In fact, I can see myself in the near future choosing a higher-end running watch with just a few smartwatch features I would care about (essentially message/calls notifications) rather than going the other route.
The question is – do we really need smartwatches? Seriously. It’s more marketing than usefulness.
Take the market for a good where a single product is leading by a wide margin. Now take the fact, that said product has a foreseeable update cycle, that updates are imminent and that it is a “luxury” product i. e. the consumer is easily able to wait for the update.
Now go and look at the sales number before the expected product update: Sales number are down in the cellar.
Surprise? No!
A sign of a market that is in decline? You don’t know.
Only people that are prejudiced come to a clear conclusion (but for them it’s ok – they do not want to think – they just stick to whatever fits their world view).
Edited 2016-10-26 17:54 UTC