Apple Watch won't be 'wildly successful'

huh what

As the clock passes Midnight and takes us into April 10, Apple Watch preorders begin. Sales start two weeks later. The buzz is big, but will actual demand be? Argus Insights, an analyst firm that is new to me, doesn't see strong sales ahead. The metrics are interesting: 7.8 million social interactions and 65K online reviews about wearables.

"Though the Apple Watch will of course be successful, we don’t see the product to be wildly successful", John Feland, Argus founder, says in a statement. I reviewed the firm's report, which data is from September 2014 to end of March 2015, and it's interesting reading. The question, and Apple Watch sales likely will answer: Is online social buzz a means for predicting a product's success?

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Before our buying polls close, please answer: Will you buy Apple Watch or Chromebook Pixel?

Cast your vote in Linus Torvalds' Linux version numbering poll

If you haven't responded to either of our most-recent buying polls—Apple Watch and Chromebook Pixel—it's not too late. Preorders for the timepiece start April 10. The laptop is available now, but with long-wait ship times. I purchased the higher-end Pixel, which review is underway. Whether or not one of our writers will test the smartwatch is uncertain.

Polls of this nature are meant to gauge what a specific audience, BetaNews readers, plan to do. Often what respondents would like to buy isn't what they do. For lots of reasons: Budget; spousal or partner objections; availability; competitive pricing; early product reviews; and more. Results better reflect your intentions as the sample size increases. So, please, take a few seconds to answer each poll, if you haven't already.

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Apple Watch will benefit traditional watch companies

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It’s been six months since Apple officially announced its Apple Watch, which is currently one of the most anticipated releases of the year.

Apple will be joining tech giants Samsung and LG in the smartwatch market, but those aren’t the only companies they will be competing with. Last week at the Baselworld 2015 jewelry trade show in Switzerland, several traditional watch companies revealed smartwatches of their own.

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Apple Watch's potential profits are scary

scar scaried spook afraid cat

Behind buying polls there are as many questions as answers, like: "How many people saying they will buy X, really will?" Oftentimes the number wanting something and actually getting it are usually much less than tallied results indicate. Considering those caveats, our Apple Watch buying poll nevertheless illuminates how the device could be hugely successful even from a small number of sales. I do mean big.

Among the more than 1,100 respondents, as I write, 19 say they will buy Apple Watch Edition, which price ranges from $10,000 to $17,000. Assuming they all purchase and do so on the cheap, the math is easy: $190,000. Another 482 people want either of the other two models (Sport and standard Apple Watch). for $216,618 calculated at base prices of $349 and $549, respectively. The closeness of these two total dollar figures, possible profit margins behind them, and differences per-customer profits are ghastly.

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What could you buy for the price of Apple Watch?

money cash burn fire

As Apple Watch hype increases and the preorder date (April 10) approaches, a question gnaws me: Why would anyone spend so much money on the device? Our BetaNews buying poll now exceeds 1,000 responses, which is large enough sample-size to get some sense of the readership's intentions. Fourteen (2 percent) of you plan to buy the Edition model, which price ranges from $10,000 to $17,000. No disrespect, but talk about money to burn! Forty-five percent of respondents plan to purchase any Apple Watch, while another 5 percent of you are undecided.

So I wonder: What could you buy instead of Apple Watch? I intentionally single out the big spenders, settling on $13,000 as mean between $10K and $17K, being it's such a lucky number and Apple looks to make lots of luck—eh, money—from the smartwatch. Before continuing, an important reminder: Functionally, there is no difference between the cheapo timepiece ($349) and its massively-expensive sibling. The price difference is all bling.

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Apple Watch is the Aston Martin of wearables

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I guarantee the Apple Watch will shake up the wearable market and, as with many of Apple's other launches, cause a change in customer behavior because the product experience, the interface and the build quality will be beautiful. Apple Watch will become the standard that all others are measured by.

Is a digital watch the innovation the mass market is looking for? I doubt it, but if Apple crack the display of information on a tiny screen and the input needed to drive it, then it takes us one step closer to world and human-computer interaction that is interface free and therefore, frictionless.

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Most consumers don't care about Apple Watch

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Is the Apple Watch not going to make the impact Apple is hoping for over in its home turf of the United States? This is the case according to a fresh poll of Americans.

The Reuters survey, carried out by Ipsos, took in the opinions of 1,250 US citizens, and found that 69 percent said they are not interested in buying Apple’s smartwatch.

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Apple Pay is the reason Apple Watch won't fail

Apple Watch launches

If you watched the Apple keynote, then you got a great view of the Apple Watch. While I’m definitely not one of the few who will buy the $10,000 version of the watch, I do believe it will be a success, largely due to one feature: Apple Pay.

Samsung, Motorola, and Pebble already have watches with similar features to the Apple Watch. In fact, I thought it was funny to listen to Apple employees talk about how they can’t live without their Apple watch because of all the notifications the watch sends to their wrist.

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OMG people, I am not wearing an Apple Watch, it's Android Wear, get a clue!

omgdroidwatch2

Something has me enraged this week and I don't think it's going to stop any time soon. I can hardly talk about it, as it makes my blood boil. Before I go into it, let me say that I have been wearing a Samsung Gear Live for months now and I love it. I'm not going to lie, I hoped that people would ask me about it when I wore it -- like a conversation starter -- but no one did. I even made sure to use it in a very ostentatious manner, wildly swiping and positioning my arm in such a way that my wrist would display the watch. Nothing. No one said anything.

Then Apple Watch happened. This past Monday, Apple had a proper keynote address for its watch, and the media lapped it up. As a result, Apple Watch was all over the mainstream media. So here is what's making my blood boil -- since that event, every asshole I encounter asks me if I am wearing the Apple Watch. Grrrr. I'm wearing the same smartwatch that I've been wearing for months, people. Get a clue!

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Why Apple Watch could be doomed

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"The most advanced timepiece ever created". This is how CEO Tim Cook described the Apple Watch at his firm’s official launch event.

However, will the device’s flashy exterior and high-tech internals be enough to ignite the wearable market? Will it even be enough to tempt consumers to pay the $349 for the basic edition, let alone the $10,000 for the 22-carat gold model? These are the questions that Apple execs will surely be pondering, even with the launch event being well-received for the most part. There are many hurdles that Apple will have to overcome if its first foray into the wearable market is a successful one and we’ve listed a few of them below.

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Developing apps for Apple Watch was like 'walking in the dark'

Developing apps for Apple Watch was like 'walking in the dark'

The Apple Watch was announced just a couple of days ago, and the focus has been very much on the hardware so far. But battery life and the amount of storage aside, this is an Apple product, and that means apps are central to its success. Just like the iPhone and iPad, the Apple Watch is a platform on which developers can work their magic.

One such developer is Christoph Burgdorfer, the man behind -- amongst other things -- WhereAreYou App (Locate a friend), a free app that does very much what it says on the tin. It started life as an iPhone and Android app, but the emergence of Apple Watch opens up another possibility. I caught up with Christoph to chat about what it was like to develop for an unreleased product, and whether Apple got it right with the Apple Watch.

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Apple Watch storage is rubbish just like the battery

Apple Watch storage is rubbish just like the battery

We've had a little time to digest the announcement about the Apple Watch. Many people will be disappointed to learn about the battery life of Apple's first smartwatch, but there's still room for a little more dissatisfaction. Turn your attention, if you will, to storage.

At the Apple Watch launch event, Apple said nothing about the device's storage. Perhaps with good reason. iPhone owners have already complained that their devices do not have enough storage space, and this is a complaint that could be levelled at the Apple Watch as well. There's just 8GB of storage. If this sounds like it makes the device somewhat inflexible, there's worse news. Apple also places restrictions on how you can use this space.

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Apple Watch battery life sucks

Apple Watch battery life sucks

At the Apple Watch event in San Francisco yesterday, Apple took the wraps off one of the most eagerly awaited wearables ever. In recent weeks, lots of rumors had crept out about the Apple Watch -- pricing, what it would be able to do, and so on -- but one thing was hotly debated: what would the battery life be like?

Yesterday we were promised that the battery would last 'all day'... but what does this actually mean? Apple has published usage scenario details that reveal owners of the device can expect to see anything from 3 to 48 hours of usage -- quite a range.

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Griffin WatchStand charges Apple Watch and transforms it into a desk clock

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Apple Watch is here. All hail mighty Apple and its wearable! After being teased by the company last year, Timothy Cook took the stage today to show off the full capability of the wrist-worn computer. Did it disappoint? Absolutely not. The Apple Watch does exactly what people predicted; it is an extension of the iPhone and reasonably priced -- well, at least the Sport model at $349.

Unfortunately, the Apple Watch isn't particularly useful when off your wrist -- or is it? Griffin thinks it can be and today announces the WatchStand. This nifty accessory is a charging dock for the watch, which prominently displays it as a clock. Even cooler? It can hold your iPhone too.

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I should want an Apple Watch -- but I don't

apple watch steel

I’m the target audience for the Apple Watch. I own an iPhone, and iPad, I’ve invested heavily in apps over the years, and I wear a watch so am used to glancing at my wrist when I want to see the time, rather than looking at my phone screen. The price doesn’t scare me off, either. Going into the Spring Forward event I was around 85 percent certain I would be buying an Apple Watch.

But now? Now I really don’t want one at all.

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