There are no hard numbers that indicate just how popular the Apple Watch is. All we have are anecdotes and not-quite-reliable evidence that watch sales have plummeted in the weeks after launch. But a new report indicates that early Apple Watch buyers are pretty pleased with their purchases—and they don’t all work in tech.
Techpinions analyst Ben Bajarin joined forces with Apple Watch research platform Wristly to survey Apple Watch owners and found that 97 percent are satisfied with the watch, which is higher than the percentage of original iPad and iPhone buyers who were happy after those respective launches. To compare, the current iPhone has a 99 percent satisfacion rating. More than 1,100 people have opted in to the study, though just 800 answered the most recent round of questions.
Bajarin has also been interviewing people on the street who are wearing the watch to get more off-the-cuff answers.
“As I listened to 14 different people tell me about their Apple Watch, I observed a pattern,” he wrote. “Those whose job it was to think about the Apple Watch or who were early adopters who thought deeply about tech and the tech products they buy, were all much more critical of the watch.”
People who identified as “non-tech users” reported higher satisfaction levels with the watch than those who self-reported as “tech insiders” and app developers.
Don’t work in tech? You might like the Apple Watch more than those who do.
There are a few things that need work, panelists said. While design and quality satisfaction rates are high, performance and battery only scored a 28 percent satisfaction rating, and ease of use clocked in at 43 percent (though women were more pleased with ease of use than men). Check out the rest of the data here.
Why this matters: Apple might reveal some actual data on watch purchases when it reports earnings tomorrow, but the Techpinions/Wristly report is the first indication that people are actually happy that they bought the watch. Given that the people who writing about the watch in the press and on web forums aren’t exactly mainstream consumers, the spate of critical opinions in recent weeks might not be a great barometer of how the average buyer feels about the Apple Watch. Something to keep in mind.