The smoke has cleared from last week’s 2015 Consumer Electronics Show and the new products presented are being more closely examined. Alas, some are already coming up short even before they actually go on sale. One Wall Street analyst thinks that none of the current crop of smartwatches can hold a candle to the highly anticipated Apple Watch expected to hit stores this spring.
In a research note released on Monday, Wall Street analyst Brian White of Cantor Fitzgerald had some disheartening words for the makers of the smartwatches that made their debut at CES 2015: You’re not as good as the Apple Watch. White came to this conclusion after checking out the collection of wearable devices hoping to compete with the first smartwatch from Apple for the dollars of buyers. The makers of those devices will not be happy with White’s assessment, which is blunt and to the point.
“The wearable technology buzz was in full force last week at International CES, and the smart watch has been chosen as the first mainstream product from this category; however, we were unimpressed with the innovations on display at the conference. We believe very few smart watch vendors will capture the consumer’s attention like Apple Watch.”
If those rival tech companies disagree with White’s opinion of their products, they will be even less thrilled with his predictions about the Apple Watch. The analyst thinks that the device has the potential to become Apple’s fastest-selling new category of products ever, even beating the iPhone, moving somewhere between 38 million and 43 million smartwatches in its first year.
Why is White so gung-ho on this smartwatch above all the others coming out this year? “Apple Watch is Apple’s initial push into the wearable market, and we especially like this product family, given that we believe it comes with flexible economic levers (various price points and potentially attractive margins), given the three collections (models) touch the high end to the midrange of the smart watch market.”
Not surprisingly, White advises his readers to buy more Apple stock to take advantage of the momentum expected from the new watch. It’s not easy to counter his opinions since none of the new devices exhibited last week seem to have the gotta-have-it excitement factor that makes for an instantly successful product. While some of them have built-in appeal for certain segments of the buying public, too many seem to have a high price tag for a product that has limitations. If you’re going to plunk down $350+ plus for a smartwatch, why not wait to see what Apple will bring in a couple of months?
The smartwatches that are truly worth waiting for are the ones yet to come from the major names in luxury timepieces. One watch with luxury looks plus smartwatch features would be a much more coveted item than anything we saw last week.
