Why The Apple Watch Is Flopping

FastCompany ^ | July 9, 2015 | by Mark Wilson

[Swordmaker]

WHEN APPLE FAILS AT UX DESIGN AND FASHION DESIGN, DO WE STILL CALL IT GOOD DESIGN?

The Apple Watch, despite years of hype before it was even announced, appears to be flopping after all.

It wasn’t a good sign when Apple announced shortly before the Watch release that they weren’t going to be breaking out sales numbers. Now, a new report from third-party analysts Slice Intelligence not only show that Apple Watch sales are down 90% since launch—a big deal, since it implies early adopters aren't regaling more cautious buyers with glowing word-of-mouth—but also that 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.

Imagine if months after the iPad release, we learned it still hadn’t outsold some model of Windows tablet. A couple of million units sold sounds okay, but hardly the sort of smash hit we've come to expect from Apple. A precipitous decline in sales after just a couple of months? Not a good sign.

[Swordmaker]

A very negative article based on Slice Intelligence Bogus FUD claims that the Apple Watch is "flopping" despite, on the same day, The Motley Foo "The Apple Watch Hysteria Is Out of Control"l, and other analysts coming to the conclusions that even using Slice's own figures the Apple Watch has out sold the original Apple iPhone in its initial release YEAR and the best selling initial product of all time the Apple iPad's FIRST THREE MONTHS. . . and the Apple Watch did it in the first 24 hours! The Fool pointed out that Slice used only USA data, ignoring that Apple got only 38% of it's Watch revenue from the USA. . . and they ignored the rest of the world.

The Motley Fool and other analysts calculated that Apple sold as many as 5.5 million Apple Watches between April 10 and June 26 when Apple opened sales of the Apple Watch to ten additional countries and also finally had caught up with demand for deliveries (they still had 37% yet to deliver) to start offering the Watch for sale and delivery in their retail stores. That is NOT the sign of a product that is tanking by 90%. . . but rather a product that is moving from mail-order only to one that is now going to be available for store pickup. In light of these developments, several analysts RAISED their Apple Watch sales estimates with one jumping her estimate from 30 million to 36 million for the rest of the year. Again, not the sign of a "flopping" product.

[Swordmaker]

More nonsense based on the very flawed Slice Intelligence report that the Apple Watch is "flopping". . . except that Slice does not have access to Apple's email receipts, uses only those people who have agreed to use their App (read self-selected participants), and is limited to only the US market which represents only 38% of the Apple Watch revenue, if they even have any usable data. Other much more qualified analysts have debunked Slice data and in fact have shown that it does not show what they are claiming at all, but that doesn't stop the FUD spreaders from using it. . . like this article in the FAST Company to claim failure.

Incidentally, in less than three weeks, Apple will be announcing the results of the 2nd Quarter "Apple's 3rd Fiscal Qtr" Financial results. That means it is Apple FUD Season. . . the Three Week time period before Apple events or announcements when all the negative articles about Apple are pulled out and published. This is one. — PING!

Apple Watch FUD
Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[DesertRhino]

By any chance,,, did you live in Baghdad around 2003?

[lee martell]

Just yesterday I saw two articles saying the ‘Flopping’ theory is untrue, that in reality, Apple is cleaning up financially and attracting lots of young customers who will be brand loyal for a long, long time. Not that I have a dog (or watch) in this fight anyway.

[867V309]

By any chance,,, did you live in Baghdad around 2003?

Dump AAPL it's the gay thing to do.

[Swordmaker]

By any chance,,, did you live in Baghdad around 2003?

I posted links to my evidence. Baghdad Bob had no evidence. . . Here's more evidence:

Apple Watch 'collapsing sales' report actually shows Apple is crushing smartwatch sector

Any more snarky questions?

[House Atreides]

Why the gratuitous insult to someone making a perfectly reasonable post? Why try to create discord instead of contributing relevant information to inform others or, failing that, simply move on to a thread where you don’t feel the urge to needlessly insult a fellow FReeper?

[Swordmaker]

Hey, Charles, here’s one of those very negative (and very wrong) Apple Watch articles you were asking about. Take a look. The reader comments on the FashCompany page are interesting.

[Nifster]

Indeed. The flopping product that has out sold all the rest of the smart watch market

[NoLibZone]

I enjoy my Dick Tracy like flop!

[fireman15]

You may remember from our previous sometimes heated discussions here that I am not much of a fan of the Apple corporation. But I do appreciate greatly your knowledge of all things Apple. I look for the articles you post; I often just lurk because I find them interesting but often have nothing worthwhile to contribute. But I wanted to thank you for your contributions here and I hope you keep it up.

[Swordmaker]

You may remember from our previous sometimes heated discussions here that I am not much of a fan of the Apple corporation. But I do appreciate greatly your knowledge of all things Apple. I look for the articles you post; I often just lurk because I find them interesting but often have nothing worthwhile to contribute. But I wanted to thank you for your contributions here and I hope you keep it up.

Thanks fireman, even though we often disagreed, you handled yourself well and were always a gentleman. You were curious and genuinely interested in learning, not disrupting. I appreciate you. Thanks for your appreciation back.

[Swordmaker]

I quit read it, now I quit reading you.

Furthermore, I am not an "it". You are being deliberately inflammatory attempting to start a forbidden flame war. Cut it out.

[House Atreides]

Well, well, well....you sure don’t disappoint. Yet another post with NO factual support. You’re an empty suit...you can be more than that if you want.