Global Smartwatch Sales Fall For First Time (bbc.com) 30
Global sales of smartwatches have fallen for the first time, new figures indicate, in large part due to a sharp decline in the popularity of market leader, Apple. From a report: Market research firm Counterpoint says 7% fewer of the devices were shipped in 2024 compared to the year before. Shipments of Apple Watches fell by 19% in that period, Counterpoint says. It blames the slump on a lack of new features in Apple's latest devices, and the fact a rumoured high-end Ultra 3 model never materialised.
More than a toy for some (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
One other benefit is automatically setting itself by asking to get the time from the device it's synced to. On the years where Apple doesn't mess up the alarms during time-changes this is amazing. I also like being able to see what my phone's buzzing about without needing to pull my phone from my pocket or off its charger. YMMV of course, but I've gotten important weather notifications while walking my daughter to school.
I have more nice things to say about smartwatches but I do need to air a grievance
Re: (Score:2)
I have a Mi Band 6 which isn't a full smart watch, just a fitness band. It shows the time, has alarms, can show phone notifications, tracks basic stats like steps and heart rate. Battery lasts two weeks. Best of all it cost about 20 Euro on sale.
I can't see the point of a smart watch myself. None of the features they have above the Mi Band and similar devices seem worth paying 10-20x as much for, and having to charge once a day.
Re: (Score:2)
*1 https://www.epill.com/vibralit... [epill.com]
You think? (Score:2)
It's too expensive for most people in terms of cost/benefit. I own a smartwatch but wear it only when I go to conferences b because all its use cases are more relevant in bustling situations there rather than anywhere else where I can use my phone.
I tried one. Didn't like it. (Score:3)
I tried the Wyze watch. Got them for the family. None of us wore them for long. Same with the fitbit. The closest thing that gets any use is an arm heartrate monitor my daughter uses when running. Not smart. Just a monitor.
I think these wearables will have to get a lot smaller and more comfortable to stick around.
Re: (Score:2)
I tried the Wyze watch. Got them for the family. None of us wore them for long. Same with the fitbit. The closest thing that gets any use is an arm heartrate monitor my daughter uses when running. Not smart. Just a monitor.
I think these wearables will have to get a lot smaller and more comfortable to stick around.
And much more useful: they do a lot of stuff that is of marginal use, and very little that is really useful - and when they do so, they are not particularly reliable at it.
No upgraditis, smaller market (Score:2)
I can't see a use for a smartwatch (Score:3)
Tiny screens are useless to me without extreme corrective lenses
I suspect that some bought them as fashion accessories in order to look cool and modern
I suspect that some bought them believing they would be useful, and were disappointed
I also suspect that some actually find them useful, but I suspect that these are in the minority
On a related subject, far too many products are labelled with tiny, thin fonts, almost exactly the same color as the background
Young, hip designers with perfect vision probably think this looks "fresh" and "modern"
I have a better word...unreadable
Smartwatches changed my life + distraction/ADHD (Score:4, Insightful)
Tiny screens are useless to me without extreme corrective lenses I suspect that some bought them as fashion accessories in order to look cool and modern I suspect that some bought them believing they would be useful, and were disappointed I also suspect that some actually find them useful, but I suspect that these are in the minority On a related subject, far too many products are labelled with tiny, thin fonts, almost exactly the same color as the background Young, hip designers with perfect vision probably think this looks "fresh" and "modern" I have a better word...unreadable
I had the opposite experience, same for my friends. Watches were life changing for me: 1. reminders, 2. notifications 3. sleep tracking 4. fitness tracking. First use case...helping my attention span. I am BUSY AF with 2 small kids and a demanding job, puppy, house, etc. I think of something, I usually get called into another room within 1 min and forget it. Take a non-urgent task: refill almost empty soap bottle in kitchen, replace son's shoes, put away winter clothes...with so many demands on my time and attention, I can simply squeeze my watch and set a reminder to handle those non-urgent tasks when it makes sense. Reminders + Siri + watch was life changing.
2. Notifications, as others pointed out. Now I don't miss alarms or notifications. My eyesight isn't great either, so I am not surfing the web on my watch or even reading the messages in depth. It's more a reminder to check my phone.
3. Sleep tracking. My life sucks. I am the busiest I've been in my life. Sleep tracking gives me data to correct problems from missing sleep. For example, if I got 8h last night, I know my tiredness is stress and not sleep. If I got 6h, I know I am unsafe to do anything risky without a lot of coffee first. Sometimes, on weekends, I wake up and check my sleep count to see if I can get out of bed or need to sleep longer.
4. Fitness tracking...This is less directly useful, but I like to know my heart rate when I am working out....am I making a difference or just going through the motions? Is my heart rate too high?...then maybe I should slow down. Someday, I hope to get more use out of this for planning, but for now, it's only useful for tracking trends.
So I guess everyone I know is in the minority then? If you make good use of a phone, a watch is a natural extension. I need to be connected 24/7 due to my job and family and responsibilities. Perhaps your life is cushy and nice enough that you don't have to respond to e-mails, take kids all over creation, remember a dozen appts that week, remember a dozen tasks around your house, and have a million loud noises and distractions making it impossible to complete a thought, but that's my life as a parent of young children with a good job. I don't know what I would have done in the days before smart phones and watches.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know what I would have done in the days before smart phones and watches.
Post-it notes everywhere.
i rather have a fake phone bluetooth (Score:2)
Solution looking for a problem (Score:3)
Before cell phones, a lot of people wore watches - me included. Once people started getting cell phones, we all just got accustomed to pulling our phone out of our pocket to check the time, and ditched our watches. Now the thought process is that we'd be thrilled to pay a few hundred dollars to go back to wearing watches? It wasn't until I tossed my watch that I realized just how much more comfortable it was to not wear one.
There's no "killer app" for smart watches either. Nothing that really blows your mind and makes you really and truly want one - not counting the status symbol-types. The blood pressure monitor, and other health/medical sensors are nice, but they're not going to be a primary selling point for many. For seniors? A bit of a different story. The health/medical sensors alone are likely quite valuable. Not to mention being able to call and/or text from the watch in case they fall and don't have their phone with them. The rest of us? It's just a second monitor for our phones - a very small one, at that.
Possible killer app: Payments (Score:2)
> There's no "killer app" for smart watches either.
A lot of people with smartwatches use them to pay with. It is a bit more convenient to put your wrist against the reader than when having to dig into a pocket to find the credit card or cell phone.
I've seen several DIY/open source smartwatch projects having got feature requests for "NFC". ... but don't always realise that getting payments on
But the people asking don't just want any NFC functionality. They want specifically to use the watch for payments,
Re: (Score:2)
As far as a smartwatch, I'm not sharing my bio data with anyone. Today a company may claim it won't share or sell your data. Just wait till it gets into financial distress and see how fast it changes the ELU and sells you out.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree, I used to wear a watch as well. A watch is a 1 purpose tool. With the advent of the cellphone, smart or otherwise, watches became superfluous - outside of a fashion statement, and I don't play those games.
Solely as a timepice, a watch does have one advantage over a phone in being much more easily accessible. Even if you wear your phone on a belt holster, looking at a watch on your wrist is much faster. And most people don't use belt holsters, so the access time and convenience are far worse in reality. This will matter for some people and not for others.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The killer app is setting the time. My regular watch has a knob that pulls out to two levels, two buttons, and eight modes. I have to keep downloading the user manual. A smartwatch will have an app with labels for the controls.
Where to go after tech enthusiasts adopt? (Score:2)
This is problem in market segmentation. For the vast majority of users, smartwatches don't do anything that a phone doesn't do better. People in this group who have bought smartwatches are tech enthusiasts who are apt to buy something to to *find out* what it can do. Once they do find out, they may or may not keep buying.
There are few things that smartwatches do better than phones, like delivering brief notifications. I've noticed that nurses who work in high pressure positions almost all seem to wear App
Yet another Slashvertisment .. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
As advertisements go, it's not particularly a hard sell: "lack of new features", "model never materialised", "sharp decline".
I wonder if part of the downturn is just people holding on to their watches for longer before replacing them. I've bought Garmin running watches in 2016, 2020, and 2024. I'd imagine that if people hold on to their Apple watches for four years or more, then that would tend to reduce their sales.
Market Saturation Strikes Again (Score:2)
Most technology markets have a saturation point where sales taper off and find a stable point far below the highest point. It happened in PCs. It's happening in smart phones. And smart watches, being an even more niche subset of smart phones, were bound to hit that point sooner than some segments for the simple fact that even wearing a watch is bit of a niche. The crossover between "wears a watch" and "wants to constantly be pestered by the watch they wear" can't be nearly as large as the overall smart phon
No longer a "fashion" item (Score:2)
There has not been any "must have" features on phones/watches for many years
My iPhone is an 11, it does everything I need it to do, my watch is an 8, again does everything I need it to do.
I have ZERO social media on them, and never will. I do not spend all my day "checking" my phone.
I do not see me updating in the foreseeable future.
AND there is significant economic uncertainty, so lot of people will be holdin
Health Features (Score:2)
Do this count cheap smartwatches from China? (Score:1)
There are surprisingly capable smartwatches under US$50 on AliExpress and many are certainly worth over basic watches for many/most people.
OTOH Galaxy Watch 5 Pro has been one of my biggest purchase regret ever.
Market saturation (Score:2)
That's all, really.
Forget smart watches, get a Garmin (Score:2)
Smart watches for non-sports people are absolutely useless. Tiny screens, limited functionality, nothing that can't be done better and faster on your phone.
Where watches truly excel is for fitness-oriented people. I've got a Garmin Fenix 6 Pro and can't live without it, wear it 24/7. It made me run my first ultra marathon last week.
In other words, smart watches are useless gimmicks when it comes for everyday stuff but they rule in the fitness domain.
No need to upgrade.... (Score:1)
Battery life is smart (Score:2)
I wear a Casio. It has ten years of battery life. That's smart for me. I don't have to worry about charging it every night.
However, I have pre-ordered a SensorWatch [crowdsupply.com] circuit board to put in it. It reduces the battery life to three years, but it is run by a programmable microcontroller, so that I can hack it and add custom features. Here in Sweden we use "week numbers", which I plan to add.
I also have a habit to have my watch show the time five minutes ahead. AFAIK, that is something that an Apple watch or We