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Apple Watch Has Legs: A (Brief) Long-Term Review

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Apple Watch is poised to become the wearables market leader, IDC says. (Credit: Apple)

The Apple Watch appears poised to become the leading wearable.  After constant use of the Watch for two months, I'll take a stab at why.

IDC published some surprising data on Thursday.  Apple shipped 3.6 million Watches in the second quarter, the market research firm said. Surprising because many financial analysts had been bearish on the Apple Watch. Moreover, that number is even higher than some bullish forecasts.   That's not all IDC said.  Apple is already the "smart wearable" market leader and will likely become the overall wearable leader (surpassing Fitbit with 4.4 million units shipped in the quarter) soon. "Apple will become the stick against which other wearables are measured," the report added.

So, what makes the Apple Watch the smart-wearable market leader? Very briefly, here are a few salient reasons.

The Good:

Messaging: Dealing with messaging (email, text, social media) has evolved on the Watch.  When I'm on the move locally or traveling its utility shines.  Roughly 80 percent of the messaging I get can be dispatched with a quick glance (via notifications), which the Watch excels at.  In other words, the iPhone stays in my pocket most of the time.  That makes a huge difference.  I prefer to keep my head up as much as possible and participate in the real world, not bent over slavishly FOMO-ing in the online one.

Phone: The Watch also takes phone calls to the next level.  When you can't physically pull the phone from your pocket or if you get a call when you're away from the phone inside your home, the Watch solves a real problem.  Or it can be just a matter of convenience, e.g., you're hiking and get a call: it's just easier to answer the call on the Watch.

Fitness: I'm guessing a lot of users love the fitness tracking and health apps.  So, I'll just say that I am less enamored of these features.  Though I exercise a lot, after a couple of weeks I found the Watch data repetitive.

It's Apple: It's tied to one of the most popular phones on the planet.

The Bad: It's stating the obvious but...the Watch has limited utility and a tiny screen.  And it simply replicates functions that you can already do on the iPhone. While the IDC numbers are encouraging, so far the numbers show that most iPhone owners aren't running out to buy a Watch.  That is, they're not running out by the tens of millions to supplement their iPhone experience with an Apple Watch.

Verdict: Apple will likely be the overall market leader, as IDC is predicting.  As the Watch gets better (gen 2 and 3) over the next 12 t0 24 months and consumers use features like Apple Pay more, sales numbers should reflect this.  If the Watch gets 4G, for example, it could become more than just an appendage of the iPhone. Most importantly, technology is unpredictable. Wearables, in one form or another, could eventually replace the smartphone.