A couple weeks ago I took the plunge and went for an Apple Watch…now my last watch purchase was possibly 2 decades ago, my cousin and I both had purchased the same watch, fancy thing, slick lines and highly polished…it was fantastic…it told time! Cost over $200 if I remember right and that was with 1980’s dollars.
No need for a watch now with the iPhone, the watch was a relic of the past, similar to the 8 track…..until now. Already within a couple weeks I don’t want to be without it….strange as it seems it’s so handy to have all this technology on the wrist. Text comes in, shows up on the watch, hit the reply and “dictate” the reply. Very accurate, more so than the iPhone I believe, and then hit “send” as a text or choose the voice choice where your words are sent as a verbal response. Want to send a text? Bring the watch up and say “Hey Siri”, the face gets blurry, then say “Send A Text To ?????” and then dictate the text…one caveat, don’t delay, say it all at once. Then it’s ready to go. Want to read your emails, very easy to do on the watch, other than those that have graphics, but the text is included. One of the coolest things is the maps. On our way back from a small trip, used the GPS in the Jeep for the drive but as we approached Lexington, KY we wanted to eat at a Panera Bread so I ask Siri on the iPhone to find the nearest restaurant. She did so, then I hit the maps and the phone began the turn by turn…what is all this vibration on my wrist??? The Watch was now giving me the directions…two vibrations to turn left, more than two to turn right. Hold the watch up and the directions are on the screen, hit the map icon and now it shows the route you are driving in real time….are you kidding me!! When you arrive it does a little dance and seems to get very excited. I finally set up the exercise/health portion and now I am challenged all day to meet the goals it sets (which I can adjust). It also has me on a leash. Driving my grandson to school in Borden, on my way back it vibrates and tells me I need to get up and move..I am in the car but so wanted to obey. Found a Marathon station and got out and walked….I don’t want to be truant as a new student. All day I will be told when to get up and move and as a person that is glued to a computer this is a great thing….now I have to begin an exercise program as that is one area I am not completing and I don’t like my test scores. At the end of the week I get a summary of what my week has been like, I have got to get with it. Apple Pay, the real reason I wanted the watch. I have been waiting for my bank to get on board, I have been waiting for State Farm to get on board, both are dragging their feet so I am going to open an account with Chase as they helped Apple develop Apple Pay and they are very Apple savvy. I read where the Apple Pay is being used by Watch owners something over 90% of the time while the iPhone is in the 70% category…why, convenience , it’s another way to process your day with as little effort as possible…hit the button twice, choose which card and lean the watch face to the machine and your done….no information of yours at all left with the vendor, no possibly way a hacker can get into their system and steal your credit card info, your email, your phone number, etc. etc…it’s not there. So, the watch has had a bit of a rebirth, and when Apple brings out it’s next version of the software in Sept. it’s going to drastically improve, many of the Apps will be native from oh so many companies and it’s my understanding the Watch will be untethered from the iPhone… One last note, my wife, who never likes technology will not part with her iPad BUT she said she would never want the watch, didn’t have the least interest of having something on here wrist…now she says she wants one, now she says she has to have one…oh my… The numbers are in: Apple is No. 2 in wearables And the worldwide wearables market grew 223.2% in the second quarter of 2015, according to a new study. The term “wearables”—as in wearable technology, the next evolution of mobile electronics—has been on the lips of technologists for some time. It’s supposed to be the future—an $80 billion market <http://fortune.com/2015/02/24/invisible-wearables-market/>, some estimate. The potential of this nascent market has been rather hard to quantify. (So has the definition. Smart watches? Sure. Glasses? Perhaps. “Hearables <http://fortune.com/2014/05/14/a-beats-acquisition-could-be-big-for-apple-hearables/>“? Sure. Clothing? Well…) But a new IDC report <http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25872215> shows that a trend line is emerging. According to the market researcher, the worldwide wearables market grew 223.2% in the second quarter of 2015, as measured by total shipment volume across all vendors. (That figure: 18.1 million units, up from 5.6 million unit in Q2 2014.) Bigger news: Apple AAPL 1.57% <http://fortune.com/company/aapl/>is now the number-two vendor behind Fitbit. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company shipped 3.6 million units in the second quarter of 2015, “just 0.8 million units behind Fitbit’s 4.4 million units.” Apple has been mum on its Apple Watch sales, so this is rather interesting. To give you a sense of Apple’s impact on the category, consider that two of every three “smart wearables,” in IDC parlance, shipped this quarter were Apple Watches. That’s both affirming for Apple, which has a lot riding on its latest major device, and Fitbit FIT 1.51% <http://fortune.com/company/fit/>, which has managed to beat back Cupertino’s competition despite only selling wearable devices with more basic functionality. IDC believes Apple will eventually be the wearables market leader. That’s not a surprise, though the dark horse in all this is Samsung, which has demonstrated in smartphones that a quick follow can be just as competitive as a category-defining product. (Even though, it should be noted, Samsung has been selling such devices for far longer than Apple. Lenovo-owned Motorola, too.) The breakdown: 1.) Fitbit. 4.4 million units shipped in 2Q15. 24.3% global market share. Up 159% from the same quarter a year ago. 2.) Apple. 3.6 million units shipped in 2Q15. 19.9% global market share. No YoY growth figures available because it wasn’t selling wearables a year ago. 3.) Xiaomi. 3.1 million units shipped in 2Q15. 17.1% global market share. No YoY growth figures available because it wasn’t selling wearables a year ago. 4.) Garmin. 700,000 units shipped in 2Q15. 3.9% global market share. Up 40% from the same quarter a year ago. 5.) Samsung. 600,000 units shipped in 2Q15. 3.3% global market share. Up 119% from the same quarter a year ago. The Apple Watch is already crushing the competition, according to new study The Apple Watch officially went on sale less than six months ago, and it's already the second most popular wearable device on the market. Apple Poised to Lead Wearables as FitBit Wanes, Says IDC Research firm IDC this morning declares <http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25872215> FitBit (FIT <http://online.barrons.com/public/quotes/main.html?symbol=FIT>) the leader in wearable technology in Q2 of this year, shipping 4.4 million units of its fitness trackers, just ahead of Apple’s (AAPL <http://online.barrons.com/public/quotes/main.html?symbol=AAPL>) 3.6 million units of its Apple Watch. That’s out of a total of 18.1 million units of wearable gadgets sold by all companies in the market. However, the firm predicts ultimate victory for Apple. IDC credits Apple with two thirds of all shipments of “smart wearables,” with analyst Jitesh Ubrani declaring “Apple has clearly garnered an impressive lead in this space and its dominance is expected to continue.” What’s more, Ubrani concludes, “Although Fitbit outshipped Apple, it’s worth noting that Fitbit only sells basic wearables – a category that is expected to lose share over the next few years, leaving Apple poised to become the next market leader for all wearables.” Best Buy deepens links to Apple, says watch has been a smash hit by Phil Wahba <http://fortune.com/author/phil-wahba/>@philwahba <https://twitter.com/philwahba> AUGUST 25, 2015, 10:14 AM EDT Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly said Apple Watch is off to a strong start and announced steps to deepen the tech giant’s presence in the retailer’s stores. Best Buy BBY 3.26% <http://fortune.com/company/bby/>continued its remarkable turnaround last quarter, with a big assist from Apple AAPL 2.03% <http://fortune.com/company/aapl/>. The largest U.S. electronics retailer reported a rise in domestic comparable sales of 3.8% for the second quarter <http://investors.bestbuy.com/investor-relations/news-and-events/financial-releases/news-details/2015/Best-Buy-Reports-Second-Quarter-Results/default.aspx>, it has also been getting a lot of help from Apple and its roster of red-hot products. “Demand for Apple Watch has been so strong in the stores and online,” Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly told Wall Street analysts on a conference call. The retailer expects to be selling the device, which hit the market in June, at all of its 1,050 big-box stores by the end of September, he added. Initially, Best Buy had planned to have <http://fortune.com/2015/07/27/apple-watch-best-buy-stores/> watches in 300 stores by the holiday season. (It started selling the watches in early August.) Apple did not provide specific sales numbers for the watch in its second-quarter earnings <http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf/q3fy15datasum_2.pdf> last month, but Best Buy’s comments provide more evidence of the device’s success <http://fortune.com/2015/07/07/apple-watch-estimates-analysts/>. Joly also announced steps that will deepen Best Buy’s relationship with Apple. It is currently updating its Apple shop-in-shops at 740 stores, including new fixtures and more display tables for phones, computers, and tablets. The work is already complete at 350 stores, and will be finished at another 170 in time for the key holiday season. He also said that Best Buy will begin selling AppleCare product service and support this quarter, and will start testing out being an authorized service provider at 50 stores. John
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