A survey conducted by AttaPoll, shows that most UK consumers have no perceived need for a smartwatch. Apple released its Q1 2016 earnings yesterday, and once again it did not provide break-out figures showing the sales of the Apple Watch. Apple isn't alone, other smartwatch manufacturers (Huawei, Samsung, Motorola, Pebble, LG et al) aren't exactly shouting from the rooftops about their sales figures. What is preventing people buying a smartwatch?
51% of respondents did not feel there was a need to own a smartwatch. They probably have a point. None of the manufacturers have shown off a “killer feature” that would make you want to buy one to replace the traditional watch on your wrist or the smartphone in your pocket. Almost all smartwatches on the market rely on you having your mobile phone with you to give you access to their full functionality (LG Watch Urbane 2nd Gen, Samsung Gear S2 are notable exceptions). It is unsurprising that consumers may be left wondering why exactly they need a smartwatch to to be able to see notifications on their wrist instead of their phone screens.
Smartwatch features such as fitness tracking and heart rate monitoring might make for good advertising but these things are done as well by smartphones or even better by dedicated fitness wearables like those manufactured by FitBit, Jawbone and Garmin. The dedicated fitness bands and devices have the added benefit of being cheaper, having longer battery life and being ruggedly constructed.
Which brings us on to some of the other reasons why people haven’t embraced the smartwatch yet. 27% of people thought smartwatches were too expensive and 9% cited poor battery life as the main turn-off. You’re very lucky if you get two days out of your smartwatch before needing to charge it. People are reporting that they need to put their watches on charge with their phones overnight to ensure a full day of usage.
It may not be all doom and gloom. Contactless payments may yet be a bright spot for the smartwatch.
Contactless payment use in the UK is growing rapidly. A recent report shows that Visa’s contactless payments have risen 250% year-on-year. It is worth noting that, of those surveyed by AttaPoll, over 60% had used a contactless card to make a purchase. Maybe a smartwatch that keeps things simple by cutting down on features that your phone already does but adds in contactless payments would be an attractive proposition.
What do you think? What does a smartwatch need to offer before you buy one?
Note: Fieldwork carried out by AttaPoll, using a mobile poll on 26-Jan-2016.
