Millennials Don’t Love the Apple Watch
Millennials, those tech-savvy young consumers that every retailer covets, would seem to be the ideal audience for smartwatches and other wearable devices but despite the fact that many of them seem to be surgically attached to their smartphones they aren’t as crazy about the Apple Watch as the company would like for them to be.
Back in June, Buzzfeed gave Apple Watches as a bonus to members of its editorial staff and later surveyed these employees on their opinions of the pricey device. The 130 respondents gave the smartwatch mixed reviews.
Not only do less than two out of three wear their Apple Watches every day, the majority are not taking advantage of the device’s most hyped features. Most wearers are using their watches for notifications and fitness tracking but 75 percent have not bothered to use Passbook and a whopping 86 percent have never used Apple Pay. So basically, the Buzzfeeders are using a $350 premium device for the same tasks that could be carried out by a glorified fitness band.
One employee pretty much summed up the feelings of the group about the Apple Watch: “I like it because it helps me check my phone less often, and ironically, I feel like I live less digitally these days. I can put my phone away in my bag and not feel separation anxiety that I need to look at it every 30 seconds. (I can’t believe I just wrote that, but it’s true.) I also love the activity monitor and the workout app. It’s also become sort of an odd party trick, too, because everyone always wants to talk about it and see how it works.”
This lack of enthusiasm explains why 80 percent of those surveyed would not recommend the Apple Watch to their friends. Ouch!
