The iPad may be more popular than ever among young people, but according to one analyst that same level of excitement doesn’t carry over to the forthcoming Apple Watch.
In a research note to clients, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster describes reaction to the Apple Watch among teens as “tepid,” despite the fact that Apple remains an incredibly popular brand.
According to Munster, interest in the Apple Watch actually fell over the past year — starting out at 17% interest from teens in spring, and lowering to 16% just prior to Apple’s September 9 unveiling of its wearables device.
“[S]peculation has ramped significantly around an Apple Watch since the Spring and we would have expected to see at least a small uptick in interest from teens in the watch,” he wrote. “We feel that this data point supports our conservative view of the Apple Watch for its first year.”
Munster predicts that Apple will sell 10 million units during this period — a far cry from the 50 million+ Apple reportedly expects to sell, which would make Apple Watch the top-selling iOS device of all time in terms of its debut sales.
Comparing the Apple Watch with other Apple devices, Munster’s fall survey claims that 67% of teens own an iPhone, which is an increase on the 61% who owned one in spring. 73% claim they will buy an iPhone as their next handset. 66% of tablet-owning teens meanwhile own an iPad, which is the same percentage as it was in spring. 60% expecting to buy a tablet over the next six months claim to plan on buying an iPad Air or mini.
Munster’s research was carried out among 7,200 U.S. teenagers, asked whether they would be interested in buying an Apple Watch for $350.
Of course, it’s not really a fair comparison between existing devices and one that teens will have only heard about or seen pictures of. Since so few teenagers wear watches, it makes sense that only a fraction would be ready to pick up an Apple Watch on the day of release. Still, it reinforces the fact that Apple will need to educate consumers (and particularly younger ones) on why an Apple Watch is so necessary.
Given that Apple Watch is Tim Cook’s baby, being his first new product category while Apple CEO, there’s plenty of pressure for it to be a big hit — with teens and everyone else.
Via: Business Insider
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
11 responses to “It’s so September 2014: Teen interest in Apple Watch remains ‘tepid’”
Sounds to me that theory that Apple is no longer cool with the younger crowd is completely false.
“It’s so September 2014: Teen interest in Apple Watch remains “tepid”
Tepid Teens? For the Apple Watch that hasn’t been released yet? The one they probably can’t afford anyway?
Oh dear, here we go.
The only way Apple watch will dominate is if it becomes another big trend with teens.The #1 reason of the iPhone popularity is because of its an ongoing trend with teens.
Parents are willing to get their teens an iPhone that costs 7-800$ if they only end up paying 1-200 with a contract, but the Apple watch will not have the same justification which could make it hard to become a trend.
I saw this coming. The only reason apple made this stupid watch is because tech blogs and analyst told them they had to. No one really wants this stupid thing.
Smart Watches will be successful, but Apple Watch won’t be one of the top ones.
Watches are an accessory, a fashion piece. While having the same phone as everyone else in your pocket is acceptable nobody wants to wear the same watch as everyone else. Therefore Droid’s willingness to work with any watch maker will likely make it the preferred platform for wearable devices. People will choose smart watches from companies like Rolex, TAG, and Movado that will likely run Droid. So unless Apple changes it’s tune about letting others user it’s operating system, other than hard core Apple fans, most people will likely end up choosing smart watches from the traditional watch makers.
A Rolex smart watch…..thats down right laughable. High end watch makers will NEVER go digital. Rolex has hardly changed in 50 years but they’ll slap Android in there? BAHAHA
Please. A $350+ watch isn’t being aimed at teenagers anyway. This is a non-story.
Its wayy to expensive, and the sport edition (probably the cheaper) won´t have sapphire wich i think its a must have on a watch since all the watches i had end up all scratched even when i´m carefull…
It’s not exactly aimed for teens though…
One idiot writes a story and another picks it up. A 350 to 1000 dollar watch that is not subsidised at 99 bucks by an operator is not for teens. Duh!
I’m a teenager (16 years old) i bought the iphone 6 64gb with my money, i’m from Portugal and here the contracts are really expensive you will pay something like 30€ a month for 1gb of cellular data and free calls/texts to all networks, and still the phone (iphone 6 64gb) will cost you 580€ (the price off contract is 800€) its a ripoff