Apple Watch In Focus: Holiday Sales, A User Survey, And Market Share

The Apple Watch got some good, indifferent, and bad news this week.

Holiday sales: Let's start with the good news.   Target , one the largest Black Friday retailers, listed the Apple Watch at the top of its "most popular items" list (which also included the iPad and FitBit Charge HR, by the way). And Best Buy , commenting on Black Friday results, said "customers purchased twice as many wearables, including smartwatches and health-and-fitness trackers, as they did a year ago." Those increased Best Buy sales undoubtedly included the Apple Watch as the retailer heavily promoted discounts on the Watch of up to $100. (When contacted by email, Best Buy declined to be more specific.)

Market Share -- Watch is No. 2: On Thursday, IDC released global market share numbers that are best characterized as neutral for the Apple Watch.  The Watch saw "a slight increase" from the previous quarter, "mostly the result of additional markets and channels coming on line." Buyers, not surprisingly, are focused on the least expensive models. Less positive for Apple is that Fitbit maintained its position as No.1 on the back of Fitbit Charge and Fitbit Surge models.  Even less positive for Apple is that Xiaomi is gaining fast on Apple and is now No.3. 

User survey: Though not a definitive study by a well-established market research company, Wristly published some "insights" from a select group of dissatisfied owners (see chart below). "We have now captured completed surveys from just over 330 people who stated that they owned an Apple Watch and were not satisfied with it," Wristly said.

The post from Wristly added some heavy qualifiers, however, including previous panel results that gave Apple Watch a "97% satisfaction rating in July confirmed by a 96% approval rating in October."