Apple Watch Consumer Interest Plummets says Analyst Report

The Apple Watch will go on pre-order on Friday, April 10. While Apple did some incredible marketing ahead of the launch, yesterday’s release of Apple Watch reviews from media pundits has dampened the anticipation for many, but this trend has been going on since a while reveals a new report from Argus Insights.

While the first Apple Watch reviews point to performance issues and lag, Apple could face another issue. 

Based on more than 7.8 million social conversations and 65,000 wearable product reviews measured over 6 months, consumer excitement and interest in the upcoming Apple Watch has not been sustained and has been surpassed by Fitbit and other wearables says Argus Insights.

“We have seen a couple of remarkable Apple Watch spikes – when it was first introduced of course and then when it was launched with details in March – but aside from those two periods, there has not been a sustained level of  consumer interest compared to Android Wear or FitBit,” said John Feland, CEO and founder, Argus Insights.

“Fitbit suffered the most after Apple’s initial announcement but dominated holiday 2014 with both their fitness bands and their first smartwatch, the Surge,” Feland continued. “Android Wear devices like the LG G R and the Moto 360 are the highest rated wearables by consumers, ahead of the Apple Watch shipping.  Even Pebble, which succeeds with a fraction of the promised functions of the Apple Watch, has been gaining demand since Apple’s September reveal.” 

“The Android Wear partnership with traditional watch manufacturer Tag Heuer, rumored for release in December, created almost as much social excitement as the Apple Watch news,” said Feland.  “These results show us that though the Apple Watch will of course be successful, we don’t see the product to be wildly successful when it is finally available to customers in early May. The fact that Pebble Time has had such success, even after the Apple Watch reveal in September suggests that even iPhone users resonate with a simpler experience than Apple Watch promises.”

Since September the firm has been engaged in continuous monitoring of consumer reactions to products being purchased around the world, including almost 7.8 million social conversations and over 65,000 consumer reviews on wearables to determine consumer interest in the Apple Watch. “With our analysis based on a substantial amount of data, we are very confident of our read on the market momentum around Apple Watch. We believe that competitive brands have launched more effective pre-emptive attacks and captured more wrists than Apple anticipated when it announced it in September,” said Feland.

The smartwatch market is still new for consumers. Our expectation is still that the huge group of early adopters in the Apple Fan community will jump start the Apple Watch in a huge way starting tomorrow. They will evangelize the Apple Watch like it happened with new Apple products in the past. 

Argus Insights is a new type of market intelligence company founded by tech industry veterans seeking to connect the dots between technology innovation and consumer adoption. The company creates monthly mindshare analysis reports for paid subscribers within days of the month’s end so clients can act quickly, rather than wait for traditional reports which lag more than a month behind.