Creative Strategies has long been a well-known market research company following technology, and their opinions sometimes feel like they tilt in Apple’s direction. That makes a recent survey of people who bought and abandoned their Apple Watches particularly interesting.
Researchers found 340 people in that boat and discovered that about half of them lasted two weeks or less, failing to find immediate value in the device. That indicates that Apple may have a problem overcoming an “is that all there is?” feeling — perhaps difficulty bringing features and capabilities to light quickly.
That would be, essentially, a software, packaging and messaging problem, all of which can be solved pretty easily. But what may be more difficult — and dangerous to the product’s viability — is a feeling that the watch is too limited in function, too slow, and too tethered to the iPhone. Battery life wasn’t much of an issue, but people seemed to dislike that the watch only shows its screen when it’s rotated up.
Something to note here: the panel apparently skewed heavily toward people working in the tech industry — a tough and not necessarily unbiased audience. Still, this is a good look into places where the