Part 1: What is the Use of a Smartwatch?

Now that Samsung and Apple have seriously entered the smartwatch market, expectations are very high, but sales figures are disappointing. Many people do not see (yet) the usefulness of such a watch.

I wore a smartwatch for a month and every morning when I wrap it around my wrist it was against my will. I do not like wearing a watch too much. So having something around my wrist was not natural to me, but that was not the problem. During this month, what I liked the most, it was simply to watch the time. The usefulness of the 'smart' part of the watch escaped me completely. And I'm not the only one, by far, thinking that way.

Last year, only 30,000 smartwatches were sold in Belgium, according to GfK figures. In comparison, the first year sold 50,000 tablets, and Apple was the only supplier at the time. This time, the roles are reversed: the smart watch has existed since 2013 already when the pioneer Pebble launched one on the market via a very successful campaign on Kickstarter - Apple only followed last year with his Apple Watch.

Reserved for fans of the first hour?

The founder of Pebble, Eric Migicovsky, wiped the plaster in 2012 and wanted via Kickstarter collect $ 100,000 with his smartwatch, but the counter panicked and quickly reached $ 10 million. His Kickstarter campaign quickly became a big success, but who were the buyers? Nothing but nerds? Only early adopters?

The general public does not seem interested yet. 30,000 copies sold during the third year that a series of products exists, it is not much, even very little. This number would eventually grow with the introduction of the Apple Watch and the Samsung Gear S2, the two best-connected watches of the moment. Both were released in October, so the last quarter of 2015 contributed significantly to total sales for the year, according to GfK figures.

"Following the launch of these products and the fact that it was the last month of the year, Sales grew strongly in December," says Jürgen De Mesmaecker of GfK. "In the last quarter of the year, we make about 50 percent of the turnover and the last month, about 25 percent of the annual figure." Because according to De Mesmaecker, the smartwatch was in 2015 the ideal Christmas present. "In 2014, the last quarter accounted for about 40 percent of the total, and in 2015 half, so the last month of 2015 has become more important."

Niche product

But it still remains a small group of products, according to De Mesmaecker: "If 30,000 copies are sold, it is still a niche product. The smartwatch is not yet intended for the general public, although the number of copies per year increases. " The manufacturers themselves see it too.

"Some people probably do not need a smartwatch," the 29-year-old CEO told The Telegraph newspaper recently... "It's rare for a company to admit that everyone does not need their products, but I think that's true." According to him, three groups are interested in the smartwatch. The first includes people who still want to be connected, who are actually addicted to their smartphone. The second group is made up of health-conscious people, who use a smartwatch to keep everything up to date, as a kind of Fitbit. And the third group is made up of people who do not want to be connected. They want to put some distance between their phone and the rest of their lives. "Maybe they activate some notifications, but nothing else."