Nah... they were ultrabooks. Intel purposely used the Macbook Air as a template of what they should look like. Shameless really.
Netbooks were already dying on the vine right around the time the 1st-gen MBA came out no? I still remember quite a few a$$hats on this forum years back clamoring how netbooks were going to overtake the industry, resulting the yet another "Apple is doomed" scenario.
That is true. First there were netbooks, which were a disaster, and then ultrabooks were introduced to compete with the Macbook Air's complete dominance.
Just out of curiosity I wonder what made Apple want to go into this segment of the market. Then again what makes them choose one segment over another? There's obviously some potential that we don't see that they do so it'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out. I for one would love to be a fly on the wall for those types of discussions.
Apple announced the watch too soon. Should have waited.
Now the watch is turning into over promise where people will perceive as under deliver.
We have heard too much and much of it speculation.
I am still struggling to see why people would pay $349 and up for a device that is only a limited extension of a phone screen. And it need to be constantly charged although about as much as a phone. Why do people want or need this? Just asking.
Apple announced the watch too soon. Should have waited.
Now the watch is turning into over promise where people will perceive as under deliver.
We have heard too much and much of it speculation.
I am still struggling to see why people would pay $349 and up for a device that is only a limited extension of a phone screen. And it need to be constantly charged although about as much as a phone. Why do people want or need this? Just asking.
At least android shipped a watch.
Wow, your post is a jumble of statements not making any sense whatsoever.
"Android" shipped a watch? Huh? Who is "Android?" Yes, Google made a half-assed Android based wearable OS so they can be "first". They didn't have to ship any hardware. The OEMs took care of making that junk. Your point? Also, would you have preferred the Apple Watch be leaked by the FCC? Apple revealed it on their own terms, which gave them the freedom to continue working on it without being so fucking paranoid, and also to prepare devs. It was the perfect time to reveal it. They will obviously have another event with unannounced features and finalized details before the launch.
720k sold, for the entire year of 2014, and that's ALL of them combined! How laughable. How pathetic. How embarrassing. What an epic fail.
I bet that more than 720K buttplugs were sold in 2014 than all Android watches. That tells you how desirable an Android watch is. Besides a few fanatics, even the average consumer knows garbage when they see it.
In short, they're still being outsold by the obsolete iPod line...
The line would not be obsolete if they made a targeted, music only device with 256GB of flash for $299. The ability to carry a compressed version of your entire music collection with you is still useful. I would buy one for my car today if they sold it.
This is hardly surprising. How long has Pebble been around? They just sold their millionth watch. It took years. Wearables are a niche market. The public still has not embraced them. Only people inside the Silicon Valley bubble think they're the next big thing. The Apple Watch will definitely sell a few million units out the gate, but sales won't be sustained, nor will the Apple Watch suddenly make wearables a viable category.
In reality, most of the features of the Apple Watch have been available on other devices for a while now. You can get notifications and track your steps using a variety of products. Why haven't all the people who are so excited for the Apple Watch bought a Pebble? Why is it that when Apple puts a notification on your wrist, it's life changing, but when Pebble does it, it's ho-hum? The answer is simple. There's a relatively small, loud group of Apple Fans who can't wait for the next Apple gadget, whatever it is. The public at large, however, doesn't care. They haven't embraced wearables, despite the existence of other hardware products that offer similar features to the Apple Watch. Will the Apple Watch convince them to take the plunge? I seriously doubt it.
This is what I pretty much expected. No Smart Watch has really sold in any great numbers. Not even a Million of all these combined? It's even worse then I thought. I figured Pebble would be number 1. They have a watch that lasts days. They are also a small company, so should do OK in this small market. I never under stood, remember that one Annalist middle of last year that said if Apple didn't have a Smart watch out within a couple months Apple was done for!!!! That cracked me up. Watches have been a dying market. I never got the whole Smart Watch thing. There's been Smart Watches in the past of types. Never have done that good, in fact pretty poor. Apple expects to sell 5 million a quarter. I don't see it. Most everyone I know has iPhones and not one plans to buy a Apple Watch.
I look at who wears watches. At least on a regular bases. I have my one fancy normal watch I wear once on a blue moon. I stopped wearing watches when I got my first Cell Phone. I have a clock on the cell, why have another? I really hate things on my wrists.
For the who wears watches? OLD PEOPLE!!! Maybe don't have sell phones, but if they do, they're generally dumb phones. Though my Grandma just some some cheap ZTE Android phone, but even then, rarely uses it. has her Normal wired Home phone. Then there's the people who wear suits, Business men, Maybe Doctors, Lawyers, etc that still wear a watch was part of Fashion accessory. Do you think most of them would even think about any smart watch? Or more into a classy nice Watch, maybe a Rollex or some such thing instead??? That leave those that put on a suit for a Date, Church, Wedding or Funeral. So throw on a watch for those time. Again, Zero need for a Smart Watch, don't wear it enough to make it worth it anyway.
Lastly the tech in a Smart Watch is going to get outdated quickly. I give a Smartphone double the normal life of a Smartphone. So a Phone 2 years and a Watch 4 years. While I held onto my iPhone 4 for 4+ years, and maybe a Smart Watch I'd hold longer also. The Tech inside would get outdated after a few years. I figure at 4 years no longer supported, Android would be even worse. A first generation device is even worse. After a bunch of people have it in the real world, that's when people will be saying what they like and don't like and needs to be changed or fixed for the next generation watch.
If Apple sells a bunch great, but I really don't see it. If Apple sold 1 million a quarter that would far out number everyone else combined!!! I still don't see how Apple selling a bunch of watches will greatly increase everyone else's sales. Samsung released 6 different Smart Watches on like 3 different OS's and none of them sold. How could Apple Watches being sold change sales for Samsung? No one wanted their crap!!!!!! For Android to have this HUGE market share over Apple, it's sure had piss poor sales for Smart Watches. A very TINY fraction of Android users buying one. How sad in a way for Android. There really is very little money to be made with Android for everyone.
Just out of curiosity I wonder what made Apple want to go into this segment of the market. Then again what makes them choose one segment over another? There's obviously some potential that we don't see that they do so it'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out. I for one would love to be a fly on the wall for those types of discussions.
They probably had the existing products and said we can do so much better than this.
Apple announced the watch too soon. Should have waited.
Now the watch is turning into over promise where people will perceive as under deliver.
We have heard too much and much of it speculation.
I am still struggling to see why people would pay $349 and up for a device that is only a limited extension of a phone screen. And it need to be constantly charged although about as much as a phone. Why do people want or need this? Just asking.
At least android shipped a watch.
The Apple watch was outed long before it was announced.
Just out of curiosity I wonder what made Apple want to go into this segment of the market. Then again what makes them choose one segment over another? There's obviously some potential that we don't see that they do so it'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out. I for one would love to be a fly on the wall for those types of discussions.
The 6th Gen. iPod nano that a lot of people liked to wear as a watch, probably showed them there was a lot of interest. That was 4 years ago. They've applied for many patents over the years one of the first being a sensor-laden wrist band that worked as a peripheral to another device that "snapped" into it (the iPod nano). I think they determined that the iPod was on a downward trajectory, so they decided to just go "all in" and make a wrist-wearable device.
This is hardly surprising. How long has Pebble been around? They just sold their millionth watch. It took years. Wearables are a niche market. The public still has not embraced them. Only people inside the Silicon Valley bubble think they're the next big thing. The Apple Watch will definitely sell a few million units out the gate, but sales won't be sustained, nor will the Apple Watch suddenly make wearables a viable category.
In reality, most of the features of the Apple Watch have been available on other devices for a while now. You can get notifications and track your steps using a variety of products. Why haven't all the people who are so excited for the Apple Watch bought a Pebble? Why is it that when Apple puts a notification on your wrist, it's life changing, but when Pebble does it, it's ho-hum? The answer is simple. There's a relatively small, loud group of Apple Fans who can't wait for the next Apple gadget, whatever it is. The public at large, however, doesn't care. They haven't embraced wearables, despite the existence of other hardware products that offer similar features to the Apple Watch. Will the Apple Watch convince them to take the plunge? I seriously doubt it.
The line would not be obsolete if they made a targeted, music only device with 256GB of flash for $299. The ability to carry a compressed version of your entire music collection with you is still useful. I would buy one for my car today if they sold it.
I would too. Apple could do a lot more in the music department that would have far greater appeal (and make more $$$) than the Apple Watch:
1. iPod Touch w/ 256GB+ flash storage, as you suggest
2. Sell Lossless music
3. Buy Sonos and offer a seamless music solution for the home (sorry, AirPlay is NOT it)
Plus, focus on the living room:
4. Apple TV with App Store and gaming features
5. Apple-branded game controllers for Apple TV
6. Game rentals on Apple TV
7. Buy Nintendo, making all Nintendo franchises Apple-exclusive
Apple doesn't need to reinvent TV for Apple TV to become a much more viable product. They have to offer a few logical improvements.
People aren't against wearables like smartwatches.... they're just not too fond of the ones that are made for Android.
I agree with the second part of your statement, but not the first part. I think most people aren't intereted in a smartwatch because they don't see a need, and unfortunately all previous attempts have been shit, which has taken many from a clean slate of "what would be the need?" to "this will do nothing for me."
The logic is not unlike other areas Apple has jumped into with a winning solution after a long period of failure after failure. NFC-based payments come to mind. I'd say most people on this forum were against the idea because it was such a shit experience with no real benefits for so many years because of Google's poor implementation. Now we have ?Pay and the path is clear. We can say the same about the iPad and iPhone, too, but on a larger scale outside this forum.
[@]pazuzu[/@], of course, doesn't fall into the above category, but is simply anti-Apple at every turn, which is another category altogether.
This is hardly surprising. How long has Pebble been around? They just sold their millionth watch. It took years. Wearables are a niche market. The public still has not embraced them. Only people inside the Silicon Valley bubble think they're the next big thing. The Apple Watch will definitely sell a few million units out the gate, but sales won't be sustained, nor will the Apple Watch suddenly make wearables a viable category.
In reality, most of the features of the Apple Watch have been available on other devices for a while now. You can get notifications and track your steps using a variety of products. Why haven't all the people who are so excited for the Apple Watch bought a Pebble? Why is it that when Apple puts a notification on your wrist, it's life changing, but when Pebble does it, it's ho-hum? The answer is simple. There's a relatively small, loud group of Apple Fans who can't wait for the next Apple gadget, whatever it is. The public at large, however, doesn't care. They haven't embraced wearables, despite the existence of other hardware products that offer similar features to the Apple Watch. Will the Apple Watch convince them to take the plunge? I seriously doubt it.
Yeah, pretty much the same thing was said about MP3 players as well. When Apple introduced the iPod, EVERYONE was like, WTF!?. Apple has lost their mind. Guess what happened? Not only did Apple go on to sell millions and millions of them, it helped prop the entire MP3 player industry with it. Oh and help move the music industry into the 21st century. <--- This is what Apple can do to a specific market.
Should we move on to the tablet market next? You know, the market that Microsoft started in 2001 and dragged on for another 10 years before Apple came along with their own "useless" tablet that no one saw a use for. What happened there? Right... Apple went on to sell hundreds of millions and it also just happened to prop the entire tablet market with it. <--- This is what Apple can do to a specific market.
Now... what about this wearables market YOU see no need for... Right.
Apple is full of talented, smart people. I'm sure they did their homework. Even if they do the same with this watch that they did with the original iPod - sell it to the faithful - that user base today isn't just 25 million Mac users... it's a half a billion iPhone 5 (and later) users and growing. I think when the Apple Watch is released, we're going to see another surge of iPhone 6 sales.
Yeah, pretty much the same thing was said about MP3 players as well. When Apple introduced the iPod, EVERYONE was like, WTF!?. Apple has lost their mind. Guess what happened? Not only did Apple go on to sell millions and millions of them, it helped prop the entire MP3 player industry with it. Oh and help move the music industry into the 21st century. <--- This is what Apple can do to a specific market.
They've come a long way in a short time. I expect ?Watch to evolve at an even faster rate.
I agree with the second part of your statement, but not the first part. I think most people aren't intereted in a smartwatch because they don't see a need, and unfortunately all previous attempts have been shit, which has taken many from a clean slate of "what would be the need?" to "this will do nothing for me."
The logic is not unlike other areas Apple has jumped into with a winning solution after a long period of failure after failure. NFC-based payments come to mind. I'd say most people on this forum were against the idea because it was such a shit experience with no real benefits for so many years because of Google's poor implementation. Now we have ?Pay and the path is clear. We can say the same about the iPad and iPhone, too, but on a larger scale outside this forum.
[@]pazuzu[/@], of course, doesn't fall into the above category, but is simply anti-Apple at every turn, which is another category altogether.
I was just replying to pazuzu's blanket statement that wearables are a non-starter.
Sure... smartwatches aren't something everybody will rush out to get... but there will be demand.
720k sold, for the entire year of 2014, and that's ALL of them combined! How laughable. How pathetic. How embarrassing. What an epic fail.
I bet that more than 720K buttplugs were sold in 2014 than all Android watches. That tells you how desirable an Android watch is. Besides a few fanatics, even the average consumer knows garbage when they see it.
The article said 720 000 shipped. Chances are not all of those were sold through which is even more pathetic although hardly surprising. Even after the ?WATCH is released and the Android OEM's have something to copy I doubt they will be able to compete with the ?WATCH.
Comments
Nah... they were ultrabooks. Intel purposely used the Macbook Air as a template of what they should look like. Shameless really.
Netbooks were already dying on the vine right around the time the 1st-gen MBA came out no? I still remember quite a few a$$hats on this forum years back clamoring how netbooks were going to overtake the industry, resulting the yet another "Apple is doomed" scenario.
That is true. First there were netbooks, which were a disaster, and then ultrabooks were introduced to compete with the Macbook Air's complete dominance.
Just out of curiosity I wonder what made Apple want to go into this segment of the market. Then again what makes them choose one segment over another? There's obviously some potential that we don't see that they do so it'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out. I for one would love to be a fly on the wall for those types of discussions.
Apple is better, because Apple wearables will change your life !
Now the watch is turning into over promise where people will perceive as under deliver.
We have heard too much and much of it speculation.
I am still struggling to see why people would pay $349 and up for a device that is only a limited extension of a phone screen. And it need to be constantly charged although about as much as a phone. Why do people want or need this? Just asking.
At least android shipped a watch.
Apple announced the watch too soon. Should have waited.
Now the watch is turning into over promise where people will perceive as under deliver.
We have heard too much and much of it speculation.
I am still struggling to see why people would pay $349 and up for a device that is only a limited extension of a phone screen. And it need to be constantly charged although about as much as a phone. Why do people want or need this? Just asking.
At least android shipped a watch.
Wow, your post is a jumble of statements not making any sense whatsoever.
"Android" shipped a watch? Huh? Who is "Android?" Yes, Google made a half-assed Android based wearable OS so they can be "first". They didn't have to ship any hardware. The OEMs took care of making that junk. Your point? Also, would you have preferred the Apple Watch be leaked by the FCC? Apple revealed it on their own terms, which gave them the freedom to continue working on it without being so fucking paranoid, and also to prepare devs. It was the perfect time to reveal it. They will obviously have another event with unannounced features and finalized details before the launch.
720k sold, for the entire year of 2014, and that's ALL of them combined! How laughable. How pathetic. How embarrassing. What an epic fail.
I bet that more than 720K buttplugs were sold in 2014 than all Android watches. That tells you how desirable an Android watch is. Besides a few fanatics, even the average consumer knows garbage when they see it.
I bet that more than 720K buttplugs were sold in 2014 than all Android watches.
I think I'll just take your word on that rather than google search for it :-D
In short, they're still being outsold by the obsolete iPod line...
The line would not be obsolete if they made a targeted, music only device with 256GB of flash for $299. The ability to carry a compressed version of your entire music collection with you is still useful. I would buy one for my car today if they sold it.
In reality, most of the features of the Apple Watch have been available on other devices for a while now. You can get notifications and track your steps using a variety of products. Why haven't all the people who are so excited for the Apple Watch bought a Pebble? Why is it that when Apple puts a notification on your wrist, it's life changing, but when Pebble does it, it's ho-hum? The answer is simple. There's a relatively small, loud group of Apple Fans who can't wait for the next Apple gadget, whatever it is. The public at large, however, doesn't care. They haven't embraced wearables, despite the existence of other hardware products that offer similar features to the Apple Watch. Will the Apple Watch convince them to take the plunge? I seriously doubt it.
This is what I pretty much expected. No Smart Watch has really sold in any great numbers. Not even a Million of all these combined? It's even worse then I thought. I figured Pebble would be number 1. They have a watch that lasts days. They are also a small company, so should do OK in this small market. I never under stood, remember that one Annalist middle of last year that said if Apple didn't have a Smart watch out within a couple months Apple was done for!!!! That cracked me up. Watches have been a dying market. I never got the whole Smart Watch thing. There's been Smart Watches in the past of types. Never have done that good, in fact pretty poor. Apple expects to sell 5 million a quarter. I don't see it. Most everyone I know has iPhones and not one plans to buy a Apple Watch.
I look at who wears watches. At least on a regular bases. I have my one fancy normal watch I wear once on a blue moon. I stopped wearing watches when I got my first Cell Phone. I have a clock on the cell, why have another? I really hate things on my wrists.
For the who wears watches? OLD PEOPLE!!! Maybe don't have sell phones, but if they do, they're generally dumb phones. Though my Grandma just some some cheap ZTE Android phone, but even then, rarely uses it. has her Normal wired Home phone. Then there's the people who wear suits, Business men, Maybe Doctors, Lawyers, etc that still wear a watch was part of Fashion accessory. Do you think most of them would even think about any smart watch? Or more into a classy nice Watch, maybe a Rollex or some such thing instead??? That leave those that put on a suit for a Date, Church, Wedding or Funeral. So throw on a watch for those time. Again, Zero need for a Smart Watch, don't wear it enough to make it worth it anyway.
Lastly the tech in a Smart Watch is going to get outdated quickly. I give a Smartphone double the normal life of a Smartphone. So a Phone 2 years and a Watch 4 years. While I held onto my iPhone 4 for 4+ years, and maybe a Smart Watch I'd hold longer also. The Tech inside would get outdated after a few years. I figure at 4 years no longer supported, Android would be even worse. A first generation device is even worse. After a bunch of people have it in the real world, that's when people will be saying what they like and don't like and needs to be changed or fixed for the next generation watch.
If Apple sells a bunch great, but I really don't see it. If Apple sold 1 million a quarter that would far out number everyone else combined!!! I still don't see how Apple selling a bunch of watches will greatly increase everyone else's sales. Samsung released 6 different Smart Watches on like 3 different OS's and none of them sold. How could Apple Watches being sold change sales for Samsung? No one wanted their crap!!!!!! For Android to have this HUGE market share over Apple, it's sure had piss poor sales for Smart Watches. A very TINY fraction of Android users buying one. How sad in a way for Android. There really is very little money to be made with Android for everyone.
Fixed that for you.
Android Wear struggled to sell 720,000 units over a span of about 6 months.
On the other hand... the Apple Watch will likely surpass that number in a few days or weeks.
People aren't against wearables like smartwatches.... they're just not too fond of the ones that are made for Android.
They probably had the existing products and said we can do so much better than this.
The Apple watch was outed long before it was announced.
Just out of curiosity I wonder what made Apple want to go into this segment of the market. Then again what makes them choose one segment over another? There's obviously some potential that we don't see that they do so it'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out. I for one would love to be a fly on the wall for those types of discussions.
The 6th Gen. iPod nano that a lot of people liked to wear as a watch, probably showed them there was a lot of interest. That was 4 years ago. They've applied for many patents over the years one of the first being a sensor-laden wrist band that worked as a peripheral to another device that "snapped" into it (the iPod nano). I think they determined that the iPod was on a downward trajectory, so they decided to just go "all in" and make a wrist-wearable device.
See post #11.
The line would not be obsolete if they made a targeted, music only device with 256GB of flash for $299. The ability to carry a compressed version of your entire music collection with you is still useful. I would buy one for my car today if they sold it.
I would too. Apple could do a lot more in the music department that would have far greater appeal (and make more $$$) than the Apple Watch:
1. iPod Touch w/ 256GB+ flash storage, as you suggest
2. Sell Lossless music
3. Buy Sonos and offer a seamless music solution for the home (sorry, AirPlay is NOT it)
Plus, focus on the living room:
4. Apple TV with App Store and gaming features
5. Apple-branded game controllers for Apple TV
6. Game rentals on Apple TV
7. Buy Nintendo, making all Nintendo franchises Apple-exclusive
Apple doesn't need to reinvent TV for Apple TV to become a much more viable product. They have to offer a few logical improvements.
I agree with the second part of your statement, but not the first part. I think most people aren't intereted in a smartwatch because they don't see a need, and unfortunately all previous attempts have been shit, which has taken many from a clean slate of "what would be the need?" to "this will do nothing for me."
The logic is not unlike other areas Apple has jumped into with a winning solution after a long period of failure after failure. NFC-based payments come to mind. I'd say most people on this forum were against the idea because it was such a shit experience with no real benefits for so many years because of Google's poor implementation. Now we have ?Pay and the path is clear. We can say the same about the iPad and iPhone, too, but on a larger scale outside this forum.
[@]pazuzu[/@], of course, doesn't fall into the above category, but is simply anti-Apple at every turn, which is another category altogether.
This is hardly surprising. How long has Pebble been around? They just sold their millionth watch. It took years. Wearables are a niche market. The public still has not embraced them. Only people inside the Silicon Valley bubble think they're the next big thing. The Apple Watch will definitely sell a few million units out the gate, but sales won't be sustained, nor will the Apple Watch suddenly make wearables a viable category.
In reality, most of the features of the Apple Watch have been available on other devices for a while now. You can get notifications and track your steps using a variety of products. Why haven't all the people who are so excited for the Apple Watch bought a Pebble? Why is it that when Apple puts a notification on your wrist, it's life changing, but when Pebble does it, it's ho-hum? The answer is simple. There's a relatively small, loud group of Apple Fans who can't wait for the next Apple gadget, whatever it is. The public at large, however, doesn't care. They haven't embraced wearables, despite the existence of other hardware products that offer similar features to the Apple Watch. Will the Apple Watch convince them to take the plunge? I seriously doubt it.
Yeah, pretty much the same thing was said about MP3 players as well. When Apple introduced the iPod, EVERYONE was like, WTF!?. Apple has lost their mind. Guess what happened? Not only did Apple go on to sell millions and millions of them, it helped prop the entire MP3 player industry with it. Oh and help move the music industry into the 21st century. <--- This is what Apple can do to a specific market.
Should we move on to the tablet market next? You know, the market that Microsoft started in 2001 and dragged on for another 10 years before Apple came along with their own "useless" tablet that no one saw a use for. What happened there? Right... Apple went on to sell hundreds of millions and it also just happened to prop the entire tablet market with it. <--- This is what Apple can do to a specific market.
Now... what about this wearables market YOU see no need for... Right.
Apple is full of talented, smart people. I'm sure they did their homework. Even if they do the same with this watch that they did with the original iPod - sell it to the faithful - that user base today isn't just 25 million Mac users... it's a half a billion iPhone 5 (and later) users and growing. I think when the Apple Watch is released, we're going to see another surge of iPhone 6 sales.
They've come a long way in a short time. I expect ?Watch to evolve at an even faster rate.
[VIDEO]
I was just replying to pazuzu's blanket statement that wearables are a non-starter.
Sure... smartwatches aren't something everybody will rush out to get... but there will be demand.
The article said 720 000 shipped. Chances are not all of those were sold through which is even more pathetic although hardly surprising. Even after the ?WATCH is released and the Android OEM's have something to copy I doubt they will be able to compete with the ?WATCH.