[ekianjo]

> I don't think anybody expected it to be as successful as it has been

How do you measure success? Because there is no way any comparison with the number of people who own an iPhone or any other kind of Apple device. Even in Japan where Apple has the lion share of the smartphone market I hardly see people with an Apple watch.

[stouset]

> Because there is no way any comparison with the number of people who own an iPhone

Apparently you measure success by "besting the single greatest consumer product success story in a generation". By this metric, virtually nothing would be considered a success.

Meanwhile, Apple became the biggest watchmaker in the world as of 2017. After only three years of producing watches, they unseated literally every other watchmaker in the world on revenue. That seems pretty damned successful to me.

[yoz-y]

Funny thing was that stories about how the Apple Watch is a flop continued well past the point when Apple lapped all of the watchmakers out there. Some bullshit stories just won't die.

[bryanrasmussen]

I guess there would have to be one success per generation.

[toasterlovin]

FWIW, I see Apple watches everywhere in the U.S. Even (especially?) on totally normal people.

[batiudrami]

Where in the US? I saw more Airpods during my 8 hour stopover in SF than I had seen in my entire life prior in Australia. It's a different world.

[rorykoehler]

Loads of people wear them in Australia.

[DEADBEEFC0FFEE]

Certainly in Sydney. I notice because I think they're over priced at AU$250, and I'm surprised how many school kids have them. I would lose them in a week.

[canuckintime]

> and I'm surprised how many school kids have them.

You might also be surprised how many are knockoffs [1] which are rapidly improving in quality [2]:

[1] https://www.macworld.com/article/3311456/airpods-knockoffs-t...

[2] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml3wayRMK_s

[sundvor]

Heaps in Melbourne as well. Personally I find them daggy; if they're anything like the earphones included with the iPhone 3 they'd fall out of my ears if I just turned my head.

Samsung Buds OTOH stay in (and don't have the daggy bits hanging out).

[toasterlovin]

I also have had problems with Apple's wired earphones staying in, so I was skeptical of the AirPods. But they stay in great. Turns out that most of the problem was the weight of the cord.

[batiudrami]

I know (I'm in Sydney regularly). But I reckon 1/10 people I saw walking down the street had airpods in on a Tuesday arvo in SF.

[newshorts]

I think you mean “heaps”

[TheOtherHobbes]

In the UK they've sold well to C1s and some C2s, but not so much to the Bs and some As who are Apple's traditional market.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NRS_social_grade

The amazing thing about the classic Apple designs was the way they managed to be textbook Veblen goods while also appearing to be gender and class neutral. They were aspirationally expensive, but not blingy.

That changed when gold and pink started to creep into the design vocabulary and the prices started moving up. The classic designs were more democratic. Not everyone could afford them, but they managed the neat trick of appearing to be visually inclusive rather than aggressively exclusive.

From that POV, Watch has been a design failure. It lacks the social status of the high-end I-have-money watch brands. It's neither expensive-but-neutral nor an outrageously self-indulgent statement product. The expensive straps and stainless steel variants made a pitch for the latter, but it was never convincing.

As a signifier it's visually bland and even slightly vulgar, which is why it hasn't had the same cultural impact. It's also why it works for C1/C2s but not for the ABs. Sales may be fine, but in its current form it's never going to be the covert high status product that Apple used to do so well.

[throwaway2048]

Apple products, while expensive in a general consumer goods sense are not anywhere near the pricing of a typical Veblen good, they have never been particularly status driven throughout their history in either computers or phones, and their sales violate the textbook definition of a Veblen good, sales dropped substantially when prices increased.

Apple is much more in line with a premium brand driven good like Nike, or Sony.

A true Veblen good phone would cost like $20000, be gold cased and nobody you know would own one.

[arethuza]

Vertu tried that approach with phones - didn't work out too well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertu

[Only ever saw them on sales at Heathrow Terminal 5 and Courchevel 1850]

[apetrovic]

Really? I live in Europe, where iPhone is hardly dominant, and I see Apple Watches everywhere.