Apple Watch may not be ticking with customers (APPLE Watch Sales Plunge 90%)

Market Watch ^ | 07/07/15 | Brett Arends

[Swordmaker]

That’s about the value of the company without Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011 when the Market Capitalization of Apple was ~$360 Billion. In the time since then, the value of the company has more than doubled. Sorry, you are just factually wrong.

[Swordmaker]

From watching the commercials, it seems the watch is more of an annoyance than convenience.
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I think we need Swordmaker to comment on that..

My Apple Watch is not an annoyance. My girlfriend finds that hers is not either. It save both my girlfriend and me from having to dig our iPhones our of her purse and my pocket to see what the alert or phone call is. You can set what alerts you want to get on your watch. . . and they are very subtle. No one but you notices them, for the most part. It is quite useful.

Can it be more useful? Yes. Are their some apps that are useless? You bet. Those can be removed.

I like the Maps function with silent directions is great. Messaging is great. SIRI is fantastic on the watch, better than on the iPhone and dictation is almost flawless, with quick response by selecting from a menu of choices— including user created—to send is easy, I am finding the health reminders a big help in keeping me on my schedule for doing what I should be doing for fitness. . . although I have yet to meet my daily goals, much to my chagrin.

So far the battery life has been great, with putting on the watch in the morning when i get up and putting back on my charge stand when I go to bed at 1AM or 2AM and it always has between 60% and 70% remaining charge after a day of normal use.

Answering and initiating phone calls is very easy, but you look a bit strange talking to your wrist ala Dick Tracy, so I keep phone calls to a short conversation while I do get my phone out and then hand it off to the phone. Clarity is excellent but more volume would be appreciated.

When out together, while in different parts of a mall or store, connecting to my girlfriend, without the Watch, she'd often not hear her phone ring or message ping. Now she does and can respond without digging her phone out of her purse. We find that one of the most useful things. . . making those connections where before it could be very frustrating not getting her because she literally didn't hear, or the phone cycled off before she could find it in her purse.

[ctdonath2]

Fine, prior post mentioned 22k so I went with that. Point is there’s less gold per volume than normally expected, even though it’s the same _percentage_ of gold, thanks to a patented alloy making the metal...sparser. Not a bad thing, just is (saving the customer $$$ and weight, yet greater strength at same volume).

[ctdonath2]

Yup, the two primary wins with the Watch:
- flick-of-the-wrist notifications (no more digging out the phone for frequent trivialities)
- taking calls without running to find the phone.

Major bonus having the constant activity monitoring for health goals.

[norwaypinesavage]

"Sorry, you are just factually wrong. "

My, my. Testy aren't we?

[Swordmaker]

Look up Tungstent Gold. Here is what it looks like when you open it up. So instead of being pure gold all the way through the gold bar. You have this.

There's a company in China selling Gold Bars made of gold plated tungsten that advertises large quantities for sale to nations and hints at replacing their gold stocks with look alike tungsten bars and that no one will know the difference. . . they also sell tungsten Double Eagle $20 gold coins. . . with the exact weight guaranteed to look just like the "real thing." I posted an article on it several years ago on Freerepublic with a link

.

There was an article just last week about some phony gold bars being traded as real in New York. Those faux gold bars are merely 100% tungsten with a 24K (100%) gold plating. . . or sometimes with a 1mm to 2mm surface casting of real 24K gold to pass a preliminary scratch test.

You can alloy Gold with tungsten and have a legitimate 18K gold so long as the gold content is 75% gold and 25% tungsten.

[Swordmaker]

Here is more of it.

That's one of the 24K clad tungsten fakes.

[Swordmaker]

So, enlightened1, what do these have to do with the Apple Watch and its legitimate 18k gold alloys? Not a damned thing. 18K gold can be alloyed with sliver, copper, beryllium, tungsten, iron, anything, depending on what your purpose is for the finished properties you want. Karat is based purely on what the percentage of Gold to other alloying materials making up the final product, nothing else.

I am trying to figure out what your point is.

[ctdonath2]

It’s quite convenient.
I’m annoyed that I forgot mine this morning (one of _those_ mornings).
Walk away from phone (plugged in & charging)? still get notifications with a flick of the wrist, and can even take calls if needed without racing back to it.
Curious about health patterns? monitors my activity & heart rate; cardiologist is gonna like my next visit.
Calendar? what’s up next is shown whenever I look at my wrist (particularly good for those of us whose calendars are sparse but not empty, too often missing things because actively checking a calendar is not normally needed).

A few apps aren’t quite up to snuff, but the thing just came out a few weeks ago and WatchOS 2 is coming soon.
It’s already much better than my pretty “time and nothing else” watch costing more.
Speaking of cost, I’ve a rule of thumb: if it costs less than a dollar a day, and is used every day, it’s worthwhile - even if it gets replaced in a year or so. $400? meh, I’ve gotten a dollar-a-day’s worth out of it when I get around to upgrading.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

I read that a dozen times. A watch was too small to read, and didn’t have enough battery to last. That’s why Jobs never did it. Both things are still true.

The watch is merely a cash flow device. Apple has been on a self serving kick for some time now. Locking out SSD’s, pushing out crapware that you can’t remove, buggy/not ready OS releases, just name a few. This iteration of the watch is going to die in peoples dresser drawers.

[Swordmaker]

I think the suckers that paid for the simulated 22k gold have an “emperor’s new clothes” mental block.

There is no "simulated gold" and not 22K gold. It is fully 18K gold. Who told you and 4rcane it was simulated or even 22K? It certainly was not Apple. This claim is pure FUD.

[Swordmaker]

My, my. Testy aren't we?

Nope, just calling you on your BS.

[Swordmaker]

I read that a dozen times. A watch was too small to read, and didn’t have enough battery to last. That’s why Jobs never did it. Both things are still true.

I have absolutely no trouble reading my 42mm Apple Watch. . . and Thursday I am having cataract surgery on my right eye. . . yet I can read the watch right now with that eye. Perhaps your eyes are worse than mine. But you don't know what you are talking about in general.

As for battery life, you also don't know what you are talking about. I put the watch on when I get up in the morning, use it throughout the day, and when I go to bed at 1AM or 2AM, I out the watch on to charge there is between 60% and 70% charge left. So much for that meme the Apple Watch won't last a day.

Apple doesn't need a "cash flow device". Apple has more cash than it knows what to do with having $200 billion in cash in the bank. That's more than 75% of the NATIONS in the world are worth. Third party SSDs work now. I have never seen "crapware" from Apple. There are Apple software that you cannot remove, but it is generally not "crapware." I will grant you a couple of not quite ready for prime time for SOME users OS releases but those users were fewer than 1% of the installed base and they were satisfied within a few weeks. You tend to focus on the glass being half-empty. . . and the complaints of the smallest minority reports.

[Fresh Wind]

Yep, if you can't see it becuase the screen is too small then it's worthless to me.

To use the iWatch, I guess you would need the next new product from Apple...

iGlasses.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

They finally got around to 3rd party SSD’s a year later. If you were unawares you nearly brick an Mac with that mistake.
What an arrogant move on Apples part. What about all the WIFI issues people are having. That’s basic stuff.

Then there is Maps, MobileMe, Antennagate. This major version of IOS has been problems from the beginning. Nothing but crass commercialism in place of tech breakthroughs.

[Swordmaker]

What an arrogant move on Apples part. What about all the WIFI issues people are having. That’s basic stuff.

Also a small minority of users. Fixed.

Maps is now better than Google maps in many areas. . . fixed three years ago.

Mobile me is GONE. Replaced by iCloud three years ago. . . and works better with encryption. Old news.

AntennaGate was pure FUD. . . and proved so at the time. The iPhone 4S went on to be the best selling smartphone in the world without CHANGING A THING about the antennas and the problem did not exist anywhere else in the world. All cellular phones attenuated if you held them where the antennas are located. It was NOT a problem except for the fact that the sheer number of iPhones 4S sold overwhelmed the AT&T networks. . . and the campaign of FUD being pushed by Google and Samsung trying to break into the smartphone market.

This version of iOS has had problems? Where? If it has, they are again a very minuscule fraction of the user base.

As I told you, you focus on the few complaint you can find and magnify them anthills into Mount Everest.

You can rest assured your membership in the Anti-Apple Hate Brigade is in good standing.

[TexasFreeper2009]

weird that no one wants to wear an overpriced, crappy looking, bracelet that screams “i’m a sodomite!”

lol

[Swordmaker]

To use the iWatch, I guess you would need the next new product from Apple...

iGlasses.

Read my previous post. . .

[Swordmaker]

A new thread on this topic has been started over here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3308873/posts

[Fresh Wind]

It was a joke, for crying out loud. /facepalm