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Apple has released so many popular products that it’s surprising to see one struggle nowadays, but the Apple Watch isn’t generating the kind of hype that the company hoped it would when the product was first released.
According to Alanna Petroff from CNN Money, a recent report from IDC suggested that Apple Watch sales have dropped 55 percent since the product initially launched back in the beginning of 2015.
“Consumers have held off on smartwatch purchases since early 2016 in anticipation of a hardware refresh,” said IDC senior research analyst Jitesh Ubrani, according to Petroff.
So far, it’s hard for Apple to convince consumers about the necessity for a smartwatch, especially since it has almost all of the same or fewer features than a traditional smartphone. Simply said, the technology isn’t advanced enough to make it popular among mainstream consumers. Surprisingly, other smartwatch products from Samsung and Lenovo are actually acquiring larger market shares in the most recent quarter.
Despite the reportedly declining sales, Apple seems determined to keep pushing for updated hardware and software. The next software update, watchOS3, is set to come out this fall and is supposed to deliver improved performance and new features. Apple is also expected to release a brand new “Apple Watch 2” around the same time as the software update, although there have been few details about the new model.
Apple probably isn’t too worried about sluggish sales from one of their products, because the company continues to do well with its other products, including iPhones, iPads and Macs. Only time will tell if Apple eventually decided to cancel the production of their smartwatches, or whether the technology will get to a point that it becomes a much more popular item.
