How Apple Watch took on Fitbit, and won – but can Facebook steal the smartwatch crown?
- Critics initially dismissed the smartwatch as a fad – but today more Apple Watches are sold than all Switzerland’s heritage timepiece brands put together
- Facebook are reportedly debuting its own wearable device in 2022 – can Mark Zuckerberg succeed where Samsung, Fitbit, Fossil and Garmin failed?
The Apple Watch has come a long way since it hit our wrists six years ago.
It was initially deemed a flop in 2016 and failed to win customers over in the months after it launched.
Now it’s the most popular smartwatch in the world, with a 55 per cent market share that dwarfs competitors like Google, whose US$2.1 billion Fitbit acquisition gave it an edge starting in 2019.
Facebook is reportedly ready to launch its first-ever smartwatch in 2022 – but it has its work cut out for it, given Apple’s dominance.
Here’s how Apple’s smartwatch went from floundering to flourishing in the consumer wearables market.
Fitbit was once leading the race
Fitbit launched in 2007 and had set the stage for what would later become the booming wearables market when the Apple Watch launched in April 2015.
With a price range starting at US$349, it required an iPhone to operate and was the company’s first new popular product debut since the iPad in 2010.
Some, like Jean-Claude Biver – the CEO of legacy watchmaker Tag Heuer – doubted that it would endure over the years.