On the Go with Watch
Wristly Apple Watch Insider’s Report #49
In this report we are delving back into the fitness and activity habits of Apple Watch owners. Ten months ago we first asked about the importance of Activity and Fitness tracking in your decision to buy the Watch. 60% responded that those features were core to your purchasing decision. After purchasing the Watch, 83% of you indicated a notable improvement in your overall fitness and health.
It should come with no surprise that we find nearly a year later that Apple Watch owners are still very active. Let’s first look at how frequently Watch owners exercise.
68% of Users Exercise at least 3 times per Week
The vast majority of Apple Watch users exercise regularly, with 86% exercising at least once per week and 22% of those exercising 6–7 days per week! Leaving only 14% stating that they are not doing regular exercise. When looking at the types of exercises, the most common among respondents is running/jogging, followed by weight training and cycling.
The “other” exercises include various other workout routines such as walking (6%) and elliptical training (1%).
Surprise! Apple Watch Owners Wear it While Exercising
The majority of Watch Owners use a device to track their fitness activity every single time they exercise (81%), while 13% say they use wearable tech to track at least half of their routines. Only 3% of users never use a wearable to track their exercise routines.
Of those who use a device, a majority 87% use the Apple Watch to track their activity, followed by 3% who use the iPhone, and 8% use a different device or combination of devices.
Of those who use a device other than the Watch, they say it doesn’t accurately track their activities (23%) or it doesn’t track track enough statistics about their workouts (17%).
More Features Will Help Motivate Users to Exercise More
Let’s now take a look at the subset of users who do not regularly exercise: they still pay attention to the Activity Rings, with the Move goal being most important (34%) followed by the Stand goal (24%), and lastly the Exercise goal (6%). 17% say they pay attention to all three rings equally, and 18% say they don’t pay attention to the goals. Users say they would be more motivated to exercise if they were able to track their overall health, blood pressure and blood oxygen levels:
Which of the following possible future enhancements of Apple Watch would motivate you to exercise more?
A feature Apple Watch will be getting with watchOS 3 surprisingly got only 8% of the votes from users who don’t regularly exercise: gamifying activity by sharing your goals with friends.
The Workout App is Still King
Only 11% of Watch owners prefer to use a third party app every time they workout, but 30% say they use both a third party app and the Workout app. Our research therefore shows that in the aggregate 89% of users use the default Workout app. This is an indication of a lack of differentiated capabilities of third party apps and something we expect that will change when watchOS 3 apps get released thanks to the much more powerful and open APIs of the new OS.
Users want the native Workout app to incorporate some features from third party apps, primarily the ability to track trends during workouts and workout history, as well as route mapping:
What Features Do Users Want in the Native Workout App?
We asked our panel about which features they would like to see added to the default Workout App. The majority of users indicated that they would like to see historical trends and charting of their workouts:
What Do Watch Users Want in a “Smartband”?
We asked Apple Watch owners about their interest in a hypothetical “smartband”, which could potentially expand the capabilities of the Watch. 50% of owners who do not regularly exercise indicated that a smartband which expanded workout capabilities would be at least somewhat valuable to them, which indicates it may add some extra motivation.
We also asked the regularly-exercising users what features they may find most valuable in a smartband:
Some of the “other” responses include great ideas such as a sleep-tracking band and even a solar band which would charge the Watch!
“Smart” Earbuds are Still Just… Earbuds
We’ve begun to see truly wireless “smart” earbuds coming to the market recently and asked our panel in which features they’re primarily interested. Perhaps unsurprisingly, users just want to listen to audio:
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