A survey conducted by UBS team suggests that the interest in smartwatches is growing ahead of Apple iWatch release next year.
Consumer interest in smartwatches is no surprise to us but we still don’t have a clue for how long this wearable craze is going to last for. Well, looks like the analysts over at UBS have it all figured out. As suggested by their recent survey, this interest in the smartwatches is going to keep on increasing and it is showing all signs of continuing to grow prior to the launch of Apple’s iWatch. 4000 respondents were part of this huge survey and a good 10 percent out of them revealed that they were very likely to get hands on a smarwatch by the next year.
According to predictions taken from Apple, based on their projection of the iPhone sales and the current installed base of iPhones compatible with the Apple Watch, it seems that the company is going to be selling 24 million Apple Watches within the first nine months.
A portion from the report says “Figure 10 indicates that 10% of respondents (401 out of 4,000) are very likely and 17% (682 out of 4,000) somewhat likely to buy a smartwatch in the next 12 months. That is a three-fold increase vis-à-vis the 386 respondents claiming to already own a smartwatch and a four-fold increase if we assume that around one-third of the currently owned smartwatches are actually fitness bands.”
UBS has suggested that the estimate of 240 million iPhones compatible with Apple Watch being in customers’ hands by the end of 2015 shows that around 24 million units of Apple’s smartwatch would be sold off within the first 9-12 months of availability. This of course would majorly depend on the availability and the supply of the iWatch.
Analyst Steven Milunovich has claimed that “Given that two-thirds of Apple’s profit is generated by the iPhone, the company has to be concerned about the longer-term threat of replacement technology, whether it be a leap in handset technology or loss of key functions to wearables. With a sophisticated user interface and third-party apps coming on, Apple /4/be readying for the time when the Apple Watch encroaches on the smartphone market.”