- Unsupervised Learning
- Posts
- The Apple Watch is a Fad, Just Like the iPhone Was
The Apple Watch is a Fad, Just Like the iPhone Was
Source: A year after its launch, it’s now clear that pretty much no one needs an Apple Watch – Quartz
This comes from some piece that’s currently doing well on Reddit.
I think too many people are forgetting that this is almost precisely what was being said about the iPhone at this time.
There are actually many similarities:
both already had some attempts before them, but that weren’t all that successful
both were seen as novel, with early adopters getting involved, but the masses saying it was a fad
both were also extremely early and underpowered compared to what they wanted to make
And here we are with the Apple Watch, which has been easily the most successful smartwatch ever made in terms of sales, and we know for a fact it is nothing compared to what’s coming in subsequent versions.
So to say that because their first version is Meh, we can assume that it has been, and will continue to be, a failure, well…that’s just dumb.
Expect a few things to happen:
the next versions will be increasingly attractive from an aesthetics standpoint
they will be increasingly useful
they’ll make it so that smartwatches are commonplace
This will happen in around 2-3 more versions, starting with the next one.
And other vendors will keep trying as well, but they probably won’t hit the design and marketing notes as perfectly as Apple does.
For these reasons I think the smartest bet is to expect the Apple Watch to be the iPhone of smartwatches.
So will it sell the most worldwide? No.
But will it be considered the best and most desired smartwatch in the world?
Yes.
And combined with some decent sales, that will be considered a complete success by Apple.