

Why the Apple Watch is flopping - tajen
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3048375/why-the-apple-watch-is-flopping

======
chaz72
Nonsense. They're selling them as fast as they can make them. Perhaps it will
flop, but I don't think we know that yet.

Personally, I find hands-free Siri very useful, it's a nice piece of jewelry,
and I'm surprised by how much just having the time, date, calendar, weather,
messages on my wrist means I don't need to look things up on a larger screen.

It doesn't do _everything_ , it does _the most common things almost
instantly_. Not everyone will want to pay for that, but I don't think you can
call it a flop until they can keep it in stock.

~~~
chmaynard
Agreed, it's way too early to say anything intelligent about the success of
the Apple Watch. As Neil Cybart wrote recently, the iPhone's gravitational
pull is simply too strong for any new Apple product or service to reach escape
velocity right now. [http://goo.gl/CI11RO](http://goo.gl/CI11RO)

------
bsaul
Stopped using mine after 10 days, and a friend of mine did the same after the
same time. We both did for the same reason : we don't like to wear watches in
general. We've got our cellphone to know the time if we want to.

Which means we lost the reflex of putting our watch in the morning. And since
the apple watch doesn't have any major everyday use, we simply stopped using
it.

Worse, whenever i feel like using it, such as going for a run ( sports being
the only time when i feel like it's kind of useful), it's often out of
battery, because I hadn't use it for a few days and left it on the table.

Ps : comparing to the ipad, the feeling is completely different. I was very
skeptical at first, just like with the apple watch, but i left the ipad on the
couch and used it all the time. All i would tell me skeptical friends is "
you've got to use one to understand". With the apple watch, it's completely
different. It really feels like a flop.

~~~
joshstrange
Let me get this straight, you used a device for 10 days and you already had a
bias against watches so the watch must be a flop... Ok.

The watch as a smart-device is a completely new concept that will take some
time to get used to a tablet is a pretty simple (relatively) thing to use
given knowledge of a computer. Not to mention tablets were used or had been
used by a larger number of people (even if they were a bitch to work with)
before the iPad unlike the watch. While Pebble and Android Wear exist their
usage numbers (One would expect) are way under tablet usage pre-iPad. And
again Computer/Laptop -> iPad is a lot easier of a transition to make. It took
a little bit for me to really understand the best use cases for my pebble but
very quickly it became a device I would not consider leaving at home. Because
of that and having had worn a smart watch for 1yr prior to getting my Apple
Watch I feel I was able to "slide into" normal usage quite quickly. Everything
my Pebble did my Apple Watch does better. Battery has not been a problem for
me (never fallen below 40%) and charging every night is insignificant seeing
how it's on my wrist from the moment I get ready in the morning till the
moment I lay down to go to sleep.

IMHO most people who say "I tried it and it's a flop or it's no good" are
people who either didn't give a fair shot or expected a phone on their wrist
(Which I felt was made very clear that this is not that). This is an extension
of your phone, I think of it more like a mouse to a computer than a tablet is
to a computer. It's primarily a quick-display device so you don't need to fish
your phone out and a portal into what's going to happen next. There are
gimmicky things about the Apple Watch like sending taps to people with watches
but there are duds like that in every Apple product.

~~~
bsaul
Don't get your point. It's supposed to be much more than a watch, so my bias
against watches shouldn't have mattered.

Apple aims at mass markets. They didn't sell the apple watch as something
brand new that people will need a lot of time to adjust to. In fact, It would
a contradiction to their core value since the macintosh : computers should
adapt to humans, not the other way around. The fact that they don't give
selling numbers says a lot.

I did use the watch as an extension of my phone, and after 10 days of intense
use (because it's my job), it didn't provide any value to me. And i've never
missed it since i stopped using it. I don't see what for more time would be
needed for ( it's not like it provides very advanced functionnalities that
takes time to learn how to use anyway).

------
JadeNB
This seems to be the sort of "what have you done _lately_?" prediction that is
commonly made at Apple product launches:

> The watch has failed to become the status quo object in wearables. For
> Apple, that's a flop.

It seems to be more a case of "after we moved the goalposts, Apple didn't meet
them" than really of flopping. I think that people forget with what scepticism
most Apple product launches are met, and how, so far, even the most initially
disparaged ones of recent times have proven to be eventual successes.

(I know this sounds fanboi-ish, and I do own both a Mac and an iPad, but I am
no Apple loyalist, just observing what looks like a trend to me.)

------
joshstrange
I'm getting really sick of this shit. The Slice article (where BI got it's
numbers that FC then used) is NOT TRUSTWORTHY. They see only a TINY slice (no
pun intended) of data and they don't have direct sales numbers.

>Fitbit is outselling Apple in the wearables space. Apple may have already
crushed small time smartwatch companies like Pebble, but the Watch has failed
to disrupt the larger wearable marketplace.

Comparing the Apple Watch to a fitbit is laughable at best. They are not
equivalent except for they both can measure activity. They've crushed Pebble's
numbers and ALL other android wear devices. they go on to say:

> Imagine if months after the iPad release, we learned it still hadn’t outsold
> some model of Windows tablet.

WTF. In this case Pebble/Android Wear == Windows tablet. Windows tablet !=
Fitbit. What a stupid point to try and make.

> (Which, to be fair, are projections based on email receipts hoovered up by
> Slice, not from Apple itself.)

How convenient to bury the only fact in this sad excuse of journalism after
you have spewed BS everywhere.

> The Apple Watch is flopping because it’s very well executed, but not very
> well designed. In terms of utility, it’s hard to use, and not solving
> meaningful problems. In terms of fashion, it's a piece of technology that
> inherently falls short of timelessness, and yet doesn't keep up with fast
> fashion, either.

Mmk, no. It may not be what you were expecting but anyone who has worn a
Pebble or Android Wear more or less knew exactly what the Apple Watch would be
and it's delivered perfectly on that for me and a number of my friends. I
think it looks just fine on my wrist and "fashion" can go fuck off for all I
care. It puts my notifications on my wrist, gives me the ability to quickly
react to messages, I can leave my phone across the room and just look at my
watch instead of running over at every little ding/ping/buzz. Also all of this
before they release their SDK for developing apps for the thing...

What a stupid article based all on conjecture, let's wait for Apple to release
numbers before we start making all sorts of assumptions and try to be the
first ones to call it a "flop".

------
yeukhon
I am not surprise. People already have an amazing smartphone they can use for
multi-purpose with big screen (and probably continue to grow which is actually
a sad fact for me). So why spend a few hundred dollars on a watch? People talk
about the awesome stuff Watch can do with health data but honestly, I find
that argument to be weak. You should exercise regularly. You are not going to
detect a heart failure with Watch and even if you can you would be unconscious
at that time. You should go to a doctor at least twice a year for a body
check. Everything else? I want a map on my phone. If I want to message someone
I'd pull out my phone and type a long message, not doodle. If I want to
message with voice I can also do that with my phone. And the truth is a lot of
people carry their phone in their pocket already so while it takes a few
seconds to pull out that's just a prize. Wearing an expensive gadget like
Watch to just see the message is just not economically smart. A lot of things
you do still require to pair up with your phone and a data plan, so again
Watch gains nothing.

