Apple Watch is by far the most successful smartwatch to date in terms of sales, so perhaps it’s no surprise that Apple has been voted the “coolest wearables brand” by smartphone users.
The Cupertino company not only beat technology rivals like Samsung and LG to the top of the list, but also high-end watchmakers and fashion brands like TAG Heuer, Rolex, and Ralph Lauren.
This is according to a survey of more than 2,000 smartphone users in the U.S. and the U.K. carried out by Juniper Research, which says that even Android users voted Apple ahead of Android Wear vendors like LG, Sony, Motorola, and Huawei.
This is despite the fact that only one in five customers said they would be willing to spend more than $175 for a wearable of any kind.
Here are the top 21 brands in Juniper’s “Coolest Wearable Brand Ranking”:
- Apple
- Samsung
- LG
- Sony
- Nike
- Rolex
- UnderArmour
- TAG Heuer
- Ralph Lauren
- G-Shock
- Chanel
- Microsoft
- Motorola
- Adidas
- Omega
- Breitling
- Huawei
- Garmin
- Pebble
- Xiaomi
It’s interesting that brands like Motorola and Huawei, which have made some of the prettiest smartwatches to date, rank lower than brands like Nike and Microsoft. This is likely due to the fact they run Android Wear, which obviously isn’t considered cool by most consumers.
Juniper notes that the smartwatch market is already “moving towards a duopoly of Apple-Samsung,” with over 75 percent of survey respondents choosing one of these companies. The company adds that no fashion or sports brand received more than 3 percent of the votes.
And yet, “the value proposition for wearable devices still remains unclear for many,” Juniper adds, citing “the lack of a convincing use-case as being one of the main barriers.”
