
Apple Watch sales up over 50% since last year - brandonb
https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/01/apple-watch-sales-up-over-50-since-last-year/
======
mortenjorck
I’ve been saying it all along: to understand the Apple Watch, look to the
iPod. The first three years of iPod sales were minuscule compared to the
following ten:
[https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_qua...](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quarter.svg)

The two products occupy a very similar space of affordable luxury; they are
not world-changing like the Mac or iPhone, but category-defining. Through
gradual iteration and segmentation, Apple slowly turned its niche product into
a cultural force.

Just wait until the iPod Classic 5G equivalent of the Watch comes out.

~~~
Steko
The jobs the watch will do aren't as clear cut as it was for the iPod.

The iPod let you listen to music and carried lots of (or all of) your music
and had software that made it easy to convert and manage your digital music
and buy more over the internet. Those were things basically everyone wanted
and it did that better than competitors.

The watch? Well yeah it tells time, but it's worse at that then most watches
and everyone already carries a device that tells time which the watch can't
replace. Yeah, it gives you slightly faster access to notifications but not
everyone needs that. Yeah, it has some good health/tracking benefits but
that's not a huge deal to most people. Imho the best use of the watch is for
(mobile OS)-Pay/mobile ID but adoption is still weak (unless you're in Tokyo)
and it can be delivered with a much smaller wearable.

~~~
dsacco
I have a few points for you in response:

1\. I'm what you'd call a "watch guy." In the time I have had the Apple Watch
Series 2, I have barely used my mechanicals (including a Lange & Sohne and a
Nomos Glashutte). The Apple Watch comes with me on all but the most
formal/elegant occasions, and I now hate changing straps on my mechanical
watches in comparison. The Apple Watch may not be as beautiful, but it is far
more versatile and useful. When I want to dress it up a bit, I throw a Hermes
leather strap on it, which works nicely in just about everything other than a
suit (which is essentially the only time I'd jump back to the Lange).

2\. You're vastly underestimating the utility of quick replies on the Apple
Watch, in particular. I have quick replies for every conceivable response I
could give to someone that is fewer than five words or so. This makes a lot of
communication much faster because I don't need to take out my phone - I can
tap, "congratulations", "cool!", "no", "yes", "I'm in a meeting", "I'm in a
movie", etc.

3\. Having notifications or synced functionality on the watch is a very
frictionless way of enhancing iPhone interaction. As other commenters have
said I can quickly glance at a multitude of things, not just the time. If I
receive a message on Slack, I don't need to take my phone out if it's not
something that requires my attention. When driving, I can have directions on
my wrist directly, instead of on my dashboard. I can even have conversations
on my wrist, hands free, while cooking. These are all ways it's directly
enhanced my life in ways I wouldn't have really thought of without trying it.

4\. I run a fair amount - at least 30 miles each week. The Apple Watch is the
single most empowering device I've ever had for quantified self tracking and
fitness enhancement. Having a pair of Airpods and an Apple Watch is a
fantastic combination - I can't even imagine bringing my phone with my on a
run anymore. I can look at my wrist to see my pace and split information, and
that's just on the native Workout app. I can track my heart rate constantly
using something like Cardiogram. I can also track my sleep. There is a massive
amount of data enablement that I can now see and monitor as much as I want in
the Health app.

~~~
mirsadm
I think in a couple more iterations the Apple Watch will be the best fitness
tracker out there. At the moment the poor battery life doesn't lend itself
well to things like sleep tracking or longer activities.

~~~
brlewis
Only if the current best fitness trackers don't also iterate.

------
Eric_WVGG
Every nerd I know (including the ones who own Apple Watches) mirrors the
comments in this thread — poor text entry, slow, half baked.

Every non-nerd I know who has one absolutely loves them. Last month, my
parents came to visit and... \- boarded their flights with the Delta app \-
paid for taxis with Apple Pay on their wrists \- laughed at how much higher
their “steps” were here than back at home \- when my mother wound up in an
accident, used Hey Siri to call us from her hospital bed when she couldn’t
reach her phone.

We’ve been watching this industry for decades, unsure why it’s so hard for
nerds to grasp that Apple doesn’t make products for “us”. But hey enjoy your
Creative Labs Nomad...

~~~
dsacco
That's such a generalization that I can't believe I'm bothering to refute it,
but:

1\. I consider myself pretty nerdy and I love the Apple Watch. You now know
me, at least through Hacker News. I made another comment in this thread
extolling the Apple Watch, and there are others. It feels like you
cherrypicked the negativity, because I actually see a lot of balanced feedback
that is both positive and negative about the watch, many of which comes from
fellow "nerds".

2\. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it _seems_ like you're using
your in-group as a signaling heuristic rather than for an empirical analysis
here. What constitutes a "nerd" if you haven't found any nerds who like it and
if you didn't notice the comments from fellow nerds who really enjoy it?

3\. I haven't personally found any of the issues you're talking about, but I
do believe you've had them if you say you have. I'd chalk that up to an
"underspecified complaint", because I don't know what the context was that
resulted in poor behavior from the device. In my daily usage I don't find
those issues emerge. However, I'd also gently suggest your expectations might
be miscalibrated here and that you could be nitpicking. The device is
absolutely not perfect, but I'm surprised if you disagree that it's not
empowering, even for your in-group. It may be that you don't want to take
advantage of those features, but if that's the case it's really not fair to
generalize to a blanket claim that Apple doesn't develop for nerds.

Again, speaking as a nerd, I feel Apple develops products that target me very
well. I use Linux on a workstation as a daily driver, but I enjoy my MacBook
Pro more than I enjoy any other machine. I had an Android phone for about a
year and switched back to the latest iPhone because it's both more secure and
has better integration. And being that I develop software, I can appreciate
that Apple has developed _very solid_ software and hardware even if it can't
meet _all_ expectations.

~~~
freehunter
I often leave comments exactly like the one you replied to, so while I'm not
the person you replied to, I might as well be.

HN loves to hate Apple and everything they do, and the Internet as a whole
loves to hate Apple. Going back to the infamous "less space than a Nomad, no
wifi, lame" comment. Now to be sure, there are tons of us who like Apple
products, but there are a lot of loudmouths who need to shout from the
rooftops that this Apple product isn't targeted at them and that's why it will
fail. Is it the majority? No, far from it. That's why Apple products are
almost always huge successes. Most of their customers actually like them.

But every thread about the iPhone you have people who feel the need to explain
why they'd never buy one because they need a headphone jack. Every thread
about the iPad you have people who need to tell you that an Android tablet is
cheaper, but people don't need tablets and the fad is wearing off. Every
thread about the Macbook someone has to say how the XPS is a better value for
the money and actually has function keys.

So when you hear someone like me or the person you responded to saying "nerds
love to hate Apple", it's hyperbole. Nerds love to love Apple just like
everyone else in the world and that's why they make a shitload of money every
quarter. Internet loudmouths love to hate Apple, and unfortunately Internet
loudmouths are the ones who get upvotes. So it gives the impression that nerds
hate Apple, which leads other people to think "hey maybe I should hate Apple
too" and makes news sites run stories about how nerds hate Apple's latest
products.

It's not true, but that's the impression you'd get if you read HN or
/r/technology.

~~~
stcredzero
_HN loves to hate Apple and everything they do,_

...not all...

 _and the Internet as a whole loves to hate Apple._

...not all...

(Yes, I mean this whole comment as a reference! However, it's also a
correction intentionally reflecting the structure of the parent and gp
comments.)

~~~
freehunter
Did you miss the part where I said "So when you hear someone like me or the
person you responded to saying "nerds love to hate Apple", it's hyperbole."? I
said that for a reason.

I restated the hyperbolic argument, then said "of course it's not _all_ of the
Internet, but that's how it seems sometimes" but the point still stands.
Actually the _reason_ the point stands is because not everyone agrees, but the
people who hate Apple are always loud enough to drown out the people who
don't. Go find any Apple product announcement and see for yourself what the
top comments are.

------
ProfessorLayton
Overall I still regret buying my Generation 1. The hardware was just not ready
(Neither was the software, but the updates have improved it quite a bit over
the 1.0 disaster). I knew I'd be an early adopter, so some rough edges are to
be expected. Even so I experience(d) the following:

\- Severe lag when triggering Siri

\- Slow mail updates, to the point where I pull my phone out of my pocket
anyway

\- "This message contains elements Apple Watch cannot display". Seen way too
often and it is frustrating.

\- The wrist band mechanism failed to lock after ~4mo. Apple sent me a
replacement Watch no questions asked which was great, but it took ~1mo to do
so.

\- The digital crown no longer rotates smoothly and instead feels like there's
stuff clogging it. Washing the watch helps for a short while.

\- Slow location updates, meaning a quick glance for at the local high/low
weather is still often cities away after I arrive somewhere. Use case: Will I
need my jacket with me later, or can I leave it in my car?

The heart rate monitor is great and my favorite feature, but not worth the
$400 I paid for it.

~~~
dangoor
As a counter point, I'm still using my first gen (not even Series 1!) Apple
Watch after 2 years and it runs well enough for my uses. I would likely use
Siri more if it was more responsive, but I use the notifications, Now Playing
view, activity tracking and more all the time and it is really nice.

~~~
ProfessorLayton
I too have a first gen, and have corrected that! I was under the impression
that S1 was a renamed G1, but perhaps not?

Its good to see that others are finding it more useful than I did, but in
retrospect I should have waited.

~~~
ClassyJacket
The Series 1 is the original Apple Watch but with the processor from the
Series 2. It's a different device because of that, and lots of us call the
original a Series 0. However, go on Gumtree and you'll see plenty of peppy
claiming they're selling a Series 1 when it's actually an Original Apple
Watch.

To make matters worse, the SoC in the original Apple Watch is called the S1,
and the chip in the Series 1 and Series 2 Apple Watches is called the S2,
making the numbering more confusing and preventing us from shortening anything
to S1/S2.

Thanks Apple!

------
vlozko
From my own experience and reading that of others, it's the device that no one
can justify until they get one. Then it becomes the device that the vast
majority love and some can't live without.

~~~
bigiain
So I've been a serial Pebble smartwatch rather than Apple Watch owner - my
original motivation was I thought it's be neat to be able to glance at my
wrist while riding the bike and see who was calling/texting so I would know if
I wanted to pull over and answer right then, or wait till I'd got to my
destination. Turns out the answer was _always_ "No." whoever it was, it could
always wait. I was either going to be at home/work in 5-10 minutes and I could
call back then, or I was on a trip and wasn't going to stop till the bike
needed more fuel in an hour or two and it could wait till then. (Or I could
ignore it completely...)

When Pebble sold out to Garmin* and refunded my pledge/order for the last
version, I spent some of that money on a second hand mechanical watch - I
really don't miss much from the "smart" features I'd gotten used to...
(Probably the only thing I miss is the "silent vibration on my wrist when I've
left my phone on my desk but am still nearby"...)

Edit: * It was FitBit not Garmin, as pointed out in replies by dugfin and
spike021. Thanks.

~~~
333c
I'm a fellow Pebble user. Currently wearing a Pebble Time. My favorite feature
of the watch is the screen, because it's always on, and, like traditional
digital watches, ambient light increases visibility of the screen (unlike the
Apple Watch, which is hindered by bright ambient light). At the moment, I plan
to wear this watch until it stops working or can't hold a charge. After this,
I don't know where I'll go. I might try the Apple Watch, but prices seem a bit
steep for me. I might just go back to a non-smart watch.

I wish Pebble had managed the business side of things better, because I
like(d) the product.

~~~
bigiain
I'm _vaguely_ considering Dremel-ing open my original Pebble to see if
replacing the battery is possible. The Googleable teardowns and xrays seem to
suggest there's not a lot of hope though...

~~~
NotQuantum
You can just unscrew the back panel. I've looked for a replacement battery for
my pebble but to no avail. It's actually a relatively serviceable device if
you don't mind soldering. (Mines a gen1 pebble by the way)

------
vermontdevil
I have the Series 2 and it's been great for me.

1) Vibrating alarm. Perfect as I hate these big vibrating discs for the deaf.
They break frequently.

2) Message/Email notification. It vibrates when I get a text message so I can
look and see if it's worth my time to reply or wait till later. Same with
email.

3) Fitness - great for running and can even leave the phone at home (Strava
especially).

~~~
seanp2k2
It's really sad to me how terrible many accessibility devices are. I get that
it's a small market, but it's almost like no one even cares enough to make a
really excellent product for people with disabilities. Because there is a
smaller selection and because people rely on this gear in ways able-bodied
persons don't need to, it's even more important to get it right and make it
affordable but high-quality. It saddens me that these people are so
underserved due to capitalistic forces.

~~~
InclinedPlane
The economy is weird right now in a lot of ways, especially due to excess
consolidation. You see a lot of big companies who make tons of money almost
too easily, which serves to drive them away from point in the effort to pursue
other corners of the market. It's like the RadioShack problem writ large. Why
bother selling electronics components when cell phone plans have such a huge
markup?

------
aetherson
I don't have a lot of use for the Apple watch myself, but it's been great for
my wife. She, like a lot of women, regularly wears clothing without pockets
that can hold her phone, and puts her phone in her purse.

Having your phone in your purse radically changes the value of the watch. She
used to often miss notifications, and sometimes calls, that she couldn't hear
or feel. And even if she did notice them, digging your phone out of your purse
is considerably less convenient than taking it out of your pocket.

~~~
Pxtl
That comes back to my core opinion on smart watches: notifications are the
core. Everything else is feature creep. Imagine shopping for Bluetooth
headsets - do you want one with biometrics and a backup radio antenna and a
microSD slot for playing music without its phone, and a one-day battery?

Or do you want a good quality mic and earphones with a solid Bluetooth
connection, and a week-long battery for light use?

I want the latter. Apple's take on smart watches is the former.

I don't want a "smart" watch. I want a Bluetooth notification watch. Very
specific purpose. That's what Pebble made. It's a shame it didn't work out.

~~~
brlewis
Bluetooth notification watch sounds like Fitbit Blaze. Pebble's strengths IMHO
were developer friendliness and always-on display.

~~~
Pxtl
Always-on display should be a given. It's a watch. Anything where I have to
think about turning on the display fails to be a watch.

------
saagarjha
Personal anecdote: I bought an Apple Watch early and didn't really know what
to do with it. It wasn't until I fell off my bike and broke it did I realize
how much more exercise I was getting with it. I bought another one soon after.

~~~
jacquesm
> It wasn't until I fell off my bike and broke it did I realize how much more
> exercise I was getting with it.

How does that relate?

~~~
saagarjha
I was getting a ton of exercise with the Watch, broke it, and stopped
exercising because I wasn't being reminded to.

~~~
Mtinie
Why is the Apple Watch the catalyst for this versus _any_ HR monitor or
fitness tracker?

~~~
rickyc091
Just going to make a few assumptions. Apple has a gamification system similar
to fitbit. You complete rings (goals) by walking, standing up and exercising.
Except you are competing against yourself and they prompt you with daily
reminders / notifications. Being that Apple Watch is more than a notification
system, it's a bit more difficult to ignore. Let's say you're on a 80 day
streak completing 100% of your goals of standing up, exercising and walking.
You'll want to keep going. At 24 hour hackathon, there was someone trying to
keep their streak up so they ended up leaving to jog around the block to
complete their daily activity.

Of course, this isn't to say that it can't be possible without the Apple
Watch. It's just that it's more difficult to ignore.

~~~
archvile
You can now do Activity Sharing so it can be more than competing with just
yourself if you have friends who use a an Apple Watch. It can be a great
motivational tool if you use it as such.

------
eco
I hope this motivates Android Wear manufacturers to make a decent watch. Right
now they are all pretty mediocre. You either get a fat sport watch with LTE or
a less fat watch with very few compelling features.

I just want NFC (for Android Pay), heart rate monitor, no-LTE (in exchange for
being thinner) in a classic, non-sport style.

~~~
threesixandnine
Huawei has some nice offerings...

~~~
eco
Huawei was expected to have some (the first edition watches were well loved
but growing old). Then the Huawei Watch 2 ended up being a thick sportwatch
with LTE. The Huawei Watch 2 Classic, which looks marginally less sporty, is
inexplicably is just as thick as the Watch 2 despite ditching all the LTE
circuitry. It's also roughly $100 more expensive (figure that one out).

------
sideproject
I'm not a watch wearer, so I don't plan to buy one. However, I thought if I
DID (or if I got one as a gift), I would probably want an Apple Watch. So
Apple has convinced me there. Do others feel similar?

~~~
Mahn
I wear a fitness tracker. If I'm gonna wear something on my wrist, it ought to
do something that my phone doesn't, otherwise it's hard to justify the cost.

~~~
criddell
I like to wear a watch, so I kind of wish I could get a fitness tracker (with
heart rate monitor) that doesn't have a clock on it. I sometimes wear a watch
and a fitbit and that just looks stupid.

~~~
theGimp
If you don't mind wearing a big fitness tracker, the Fitbit Blaze has been
great in my experience. It's a bit old now, and the new bigger fitbits are the
Surge and the Charge 2, but I still love my Blaze.

~~~
dragonwriter
> the new bigger fitbits are the Surge and the Charge 2, but I still love my
> Blaze.

The Blaze is newer than the Surge; it's basically a Surge with a color screen
and the face detachable from the band (which is much better for charging, as
well as making replacing the band practical) but without independent GPS
(which means if you want to do run tracking without carrying a phone, the
Surge still has an advantage.)

The Charge 2, IIRC, replaced the Charge about the same time as the Blaze was
introduced, it's basically the next tier down from the Surge/Blaze.

(Current Blaze and former Surge and before that Flex user.)

~~~
theGimp
I stand corrected!

------
icanhackit
I've said it a few times when the topic comes up but one of the best features
is the magnetic milanese loop. For a watch that typically needs to be taken
off once a day for charging (arguably every two days) the ease of taking off
and putting on a magnetic milanese loop makes the pain disappear. It's no more
effort than yanking your phone out of your pocket to stick it on the charger.

Other things that makes the watch great - vibration alarm wakes me without
fail while allowing my partner remain asleep, remotely turn off my phone alarm
without getting out of bed (though that does lead to more snoozing...),
remotely ping my phone when I've left it somewhere, remotely control my music
without my phone including pushing the audio to Airplay, messaging via
dictation which seems more accurate than my phone. One that I miss but can't
use any more because I switched banks - Apple Pay. You look like a bell-end
doing it but it felt like the future.

The sapphire screen seems legit because I've belted the watch face into stone
and steel surfaces without a single mark showing up. The stainless steel
casing also seems more durable than I expected - not a single permanent mark
that I can see...perhaps some micro abrasions. The heart rate monitor casing
seems to be the weak point - it has quite a few scratches.

~~~
AceJohnny2
> _I 've said it a few times when the topic comes up but one of the best
> features is the magnetic milanese loop._

I can't stand it, because I keep mistaking the tiny rubs as the band shifts
against itself for notification vibrations. I reverted to the silicon band
because of this.

~~~
icanhackit
Interesting, I don't have that problem but it certainly does like to eat the
hair on my arm. I've just gotten used to it and don't notice it as much.

I remember wearing heavy stainless Seiko watches with chain-link bands in the
late 80's and early 90's and enduring similar pain.

------
princetman
I've been using my Apple Watch for 2 years now. It has proven to be an
extremely useful for me just for the Apple Pay and Notifications alone. It
causes a strange social issue though. If you're in a middle of conversation,
glancing at your watch every now and again is a rude gesture. I have had to
explain my habit several times and forced my self not look at it for every odd
notification.

~~~
Vinnl
Funny, that's why I stopped wearing regular watches. I don't think I'll ever
be able to go for a smartwatch. But then again, it might become accepted
behaviour just like glancing at your phone during a conversation appears to
have become.

------
kpwags
I got the Series 2 in January. I love it, but can also see why it might be
more of a niche product. $400 for a watch isn't exactly cheap and I know many
people who opt for their smartphone over any kind of watch.

~~~
bluedino
It's not out of the ordinary to spend $400 on something like a Seiko or
Citizen watch - and those are just "dumb" watches

~~~
CydeWeys
Them being dumb watches is the appeal though. A good "dumb" watch will last
decades. An Apple Watch is obsolete after, what, two years?

I wear a battery-powered analog quartz dumb watch on my wrist and I love it. I
change the battery every couple years and that's it. It tells perfectly
accurate time (way more accurate than a mechanical watch costing orders of
magnitude more) and will never be obsolete.

~~~
capkutay
I think an obsolete apple watch will still be able to at least mirror the
functionality of any 'dumb' watch.

~~~
wepple
Be properly waterproof, never need a charge, and take abuse for 30 years like
a $150 automatic?

~~~
bigiain
I've got a 70 year old mechanical watch on my wrist right now. I bought it
second hand from eBay, but paid significantly under $150 for it...

~~~
CydeWeys
Quartz watches tend to have better longevity than mechanical watches, owing to
having fewer moving parts (zero in the case of a digital watch).

I don't know how much servicing that watch has had over the past 70 years, but
it's probably significant.

------
arcticbull
I had the first generation (Series 0) watch, got it when it first came out.
Overall, I found it useless and frustrating. The big conveniences for me,
though were:

(1) Tracking exercise.

(2) Telling me where and when my next meeting was: timeliness improved
dramatically.

Big downsides for me:

(1) Charging it was annoying and frustrating, and traveling with it was worse.
Turned into a giant spaghetti ball of lightning, inductive and laptop, to the
point where I just stopped bringing it with me. It can't be better with Type-C
can it? I generally use my laptop to charge the other things I have on my so
another adapter?

(2) Leaving my job for a gap year meant no meetings.

(3) I had to take my phone anyways to listen to music, so I just used
RunKeeper there, so another thing that didn't have to get sweaty. Apple's
headphones just aren't very good. There's no seal, they fall out, the audio
quality is mediocre. A $100 pair of Shure headphones is life changing and
cannot be attached to a watch.

(4) Input is awful. Siri is the only way to input text and when you use it, if
it gets a word wrong, god help you if you want to try and correct it. After a
few failed substitution attempts I would just get my phone out due to sheer
frustration.

(5) I had to take it off to type, the feel of it digging into my laptop and
propping up my wrist drove my crazy.

(6) Staring at your wrist every time it taps on you tells the person you're
with I DON'T WANT TO BE HERE. "Oh, sorry, no, my watch keeps tapping my wrist"
gets old, fast. The social cues you send off just suck.

I just didn't see the value. Used it for 4 months, threw it into a drawer for
6, then sold if for 33% of its value. Didn't even hold value like an Apple
product. This is no iPod, it's an iPad -- a category leader, maybe, but a
small category. It doesn't do anything particularly well, just a bunch of
stuff, kinda poorly.

------
donw
My big question is: what do people do with theirs? Other than notifications
and fitness tracking, I'm struggling to think of a use case for owning one.

~~~
elguyosupremo
I don't have a smart watch myself but several of my coworkers do, the killer
app for them seems to be two factor authentication codes; we've got like 10
different accounts at work that need 2fa and instead of pulling out their
phones they just use the watch.

~~~
bdcravens
I use Authy instead of Google Auth; for some reason it never loads on my watch
:-\

------
msluyter
After tiring of squinting at my Pebble, I bought the Series 2 a couple of
months ago. My expectations were fairly modest given some of the early
negative reviews of the series 1. But thus far I've been quite happy with it.
I generally keep it muted and find the vibrating notifications to be an
improvement over those on the iPhone.

The apps I find myself using more than any others are the timer/chronograph,
which I use constantly when cooking/grilling. And the ability to take voice
calls with it is occasionally quite helpful.

The Pebble's silicone wristband caused a rash on my wrist, but I've had no
problems with the Nike Apple watch wristband (perhaps that's simply due to the
holes that provide better ventilation.)

------
0xbear
It's been years and people still don't understand what Watch is. Meanwhile, it
says what it is directly in the name. It's a watch first, and everything else
distant second. By the standards of wristwatches $300 is not that much money.

~~~
konschubert
Just because wristwatches are overpriced doesn't mean that anything that takes
their name isn't.

~~~
0xbear
"Overpriced" is a subjective term. 50% growth in sales suggests very
competitive pricing. Think of it this way: Apple Watch isn't really competing
with "wearable computers" everyone else is making. It plays a completely
different ball game, and competes with wristwatches. I can't think of a better
watch in $300 price range even though I don't wear one myself (my wife does).
My main problem with it is the need to charge it daily. Once they get battery
to 3-4 days, I'll buy one. Until then, my solar powered titanium Seiko diver
will have to do.

------
gehsty
I own a series 2 watch, the one with GPS and I really like it. I bought it not
really knowing what I'd use it for but now I've got it setup for what I want I
find myself really missing it when I'm not wearing it.

My main uses are telling the time, notifications from whatsapp & being able to
see which meeting room my next meeting is in by glancing at my wrist.

I don't use any actual app on the watch itself. Its still to slow to really do
anything, even if it was quicker I'm not sure reading twitter feeds / emails
would be that great on it anyway.

------
dlevine
I've been wearing a Garmin or Polar watch for the past several years (run 30+
miles a week), and just recently got an Apple Watch.

For a serious runner, the Garmin watches are a lot better, but the truth is
that I'm not really a "serious" runner, and Apple Watch is more pleasurable to
use in a lot of ways.

I thought I would mind having to charge it every day coming from a device that
needed to be charged about every 6 days (and that's including 24-hour HR
tracking and 4-6 runs a week), but the truth is that I don't. I also thought I
would mind not having all of the metrics or customizability that the Garmin
offers, but the truth is that I'm not a competitive runner, and my V02Max
isn't anything more than a curiosity. And, sure it's nice to be able to choose
from a million different data fields to display while I'm working out, but the
default ones on the Nike Running app are pretty close to what I chose in the
first place.

In the end, a lot of the things I thought were non-negotiables ended up not
really being a big deal. Apple has really nailed the Watch user experience in
lots of little ways.

I intentionally held out when all of my friends bought the original Apple
watch (and most subsequently sold it), but I'm noticing that an increasing
number of people have adopted the watch a hardware revision and a few OS
iterations later.

------
a2tech
I've been seeing them all over. I think they're going to be a sleeper hit with
people

~~~
wepple
Same here. And haven't seen android on a wrist for many months.

~~~
praneshp
Is there even a competing top-of-the-line android watch? I was shopping around
last November and got a Samsung watch over a couple of Garmin ones.

------
acdha
Series 2 is decent - a great solution for notification polling but I think
WatchOS 4 will be the first non-beta release. There's a lot of neat ideas but
so many little “do they even have a QA department?” moments, starting with
having to wipe & reset my new one when it disabled activity tracking with no
explanation. Quick Siri access is great but it underscores just how limited
Siri is – falling into the uncanny valley of conversational UI.

------
alaskamiller
By next year the watch will be the controller for AR Kit apps on A10x devices.

------
mwexler
I'm somewhat surprised that one of the touted features of smart watches never
materialized, and doesn't seem to matter... early prognosticators proposed
lots of custom faces: ones that emulated famous watches, ones that allowed a
wide variety of placement of "complications", and ones that intermingled
various ways of displaying time.

While the big brands did release customized versions of their famous faces
(Tag Heuer) and Apple got sued for making a clock that looked like a Swiss
Railway Clock (licensed by Mondaine), the idea of downloadable faces or
themes, made by users or junior devs, never really became a thing.

I miss it; I think the apple watch face options are really lacking (though
Mickey makes me laugh even now). But I seem to be in the minority of wanting
more...

------
synicalx
I unconsciously love my Watch. The battery life has improved MASSIVELY since
Gen1, the fitness stuff is groovy, being able to control music is handy,
alarms and notifications are brilliant.

Just being able to not take my phone with me when I go for a (admittedly half-
arsed) run, is worth the price of admission.

------
calvinbhai
the Series 0 (first gen) watch was my first watch ever (never felt the need
for a watch until then)

Been using it for over 2 years and I'm super happy with it.

Watch OS 3 made a huge difference in terms of usability for the watch. The
background updates and swiping to change watch faces means I have my most used
watch Complications in the 3 watchfaces I use. Weather, podcast, music and
timer apps (from complications) are so useful! I feel if you don't make use of
multiple complications with watch faces, you are not using your watch to the
fullest :)

Haven't used it much for Siri nor have I tried testing its water resistance.
And I'll probably for in for a series 3 or series 4 based on my needs.

Watch sales up 50%: I think the Apple Watch and the AirPods are peripherals
for the iPhone that are so well priced (is Apple making any profit on these
sales?) that I doubt if they have a huge margin. Having the highest margin
phone and low margin peripherals like Watch, AirPods (probably glasses soon?)
means once you go iPhone you don't look back. In the years when an iPhone
owner chooses not to upgrade iPhone, he/she may choose to upgrade one of the
peripherals. Which means higher LTV customer for Apple!

~~~
twoodfin
FWIW Siri on the Watch (even my Series 0) has gotten at least an order of
magnitude better, both in what it understands and how quickly and reliably it
executes commands and queries.

Still a lot of room for improvement, but not the dumpster fire it was with
watchOS 1.0.

~~~
calvinbhai
True. For my use case though, I don't use Siri much except when I'm driving,
which works great with Hey Siri on the phone itself.

------
Karupan
I swore not to by a smartwatch a couple of years back, but ended up getting
the Series 2 as a gift last month. I simply love it! I need constant reminder
to exercise, meditate, etc and it seems to be a perfect companion for that.

What surprised me was the battery life. I was expecting to put it on charge
every night, but for my limited usage pattern, it lasts a good two days
easily. For me, it adds more value than a similarly priced dump watch.

------
jrs95
For what it's worth, the Apple Watch is something I haven't bought yet but
have intended to buy since it was announced. There might be a lot of people
who have been waiting a couple generations, or who just didn't think the
existing ones were compelling enough to buy them over some other thing.

------
whipoodle
The two main use cases seem to be notifications and fitness. I'm not big on
working out, and I actively try to receive as few notifications as possible,
so I don't think I'm in the target market for these. But I could see it being
compelling for anyone who is interested in either of those use cases.

------
barsonme
Love my iWatch, but it tanks my iPhone's battery to the point where i had to
buy a battery case :/

------
gallerdude
Apple Watch, or accessories in general, are something you can buy at any time
that increases the utility of your device. Compare this to something like an
OS update that gets released annually for free, but you can’t really control
when you get it.

------
inthewoods
Bought mine initially as an exercise tool, but found the GPS to be pretty
incorrect - goal was to be able to run without the phone. But despite this
(now running with phone), I still love it - surprised how much I enjoy it.

------
intrasight
I'll may get myself the next Apple Watch - assuming that it can be used
without an iPhone. My decision will depend on how good are the health features
they implement.

------
manbearpigg
I got one for my birthday. It's not a small computer, it's a great watch. If
you want a watch, not a computer, you will like it.

------
MBCook
Ben Bajarin, whose tweet is quoted in the article, put out another tweet
saying he now believes Apple has sold 30 million watches.

------
atemerev
Heavy discounts help a lot in achieving this worthy goal!

------
jiqiren
Forget my Apple Watch at home = miss most meetings at work.

My new dependency.

------
leesalminen
I've been waiting for the Series 3 ... you know what they say about 3s :)

