iPad as a Benchmark for Apple Watch Success

Charles Arthur, writing for The Guardian:

The real question is whether the watch can become an unstoppable money-maker like the iPhone rather than a shorter-term fizz like the iPad — which nevertheless generated $27.8bn in revenue in 2014.

That seems awfully dismissive of the iPad’s continuing success. Yes, unit sales are down, but they’re not collapsing, and as Arthur says, they generated $27 billion in revenue last year. If Apple Watch is as successful as iPad, that would be an amazing success story for Apple. Amazing.

(I can even imagine a scenario where Apple Watch sales taper off like iPad’s have. I think a major difference between iPad and iPhone is that phone users upgrade every two or three years — partly because of contracts and the subsidies carriers offer, and partly because phones take a physical beating. A lot of people out there bought an iPad a few years ago and they’re still using it. Apple Watch could be like that — not something you buy and replace every two years, but something you buy and just use for many years. Maybe not “many years” by the standards of mechanical watches, but “many years” by the standards of the phone market.)

★ Monday, 9 March 2015