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T-Mobile CEO predicts Apple Watch will take wearables mainstream in 2015

apple-watch

In the months leading up to the launch of the Apple Watch next year, early opinions about the smartwatch have been quite mixed. While some believe that the Apple Watch will be as successful as iconic products released ahead of it, including the iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac, others are more skeptical about how much of an impact the device will truly have.

While the wearables market is forecasted to become over a $5 billion industry by 2018, it hasn’t reached that point just yet. But T-Mobile CEO John Legere certainly thinks it will sooner than later, predicting that the Apple Watch launch in 2015 will be the turning point in which the wearables market goes from niche to mainstream.

“I love what Jawbone, Fitbit, Samsung, LG, Microsoft and others are doing in the wearables space,” wrote Legere. “But we haven’t begun to see the potential of this category. It’s going to go from $1 to $20 billion in the next few years. And though we won’t see its full impact in 2015, I believe that the Apple Watch will mark the tipping point when wearables go from niche to mainstream.”

Multiple rumors suggest that mass production of the Apple Watch will begin in January, ahead of an “early 2015” release. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently demoed the Apple Watch for Chinese officials during a U.S. visit and Apple Stores have been recruiting fashion and luxury experts ahead of the smartwatch’s debut.

As far as sales figures are concerned, Morgan Stanley predicts that 10% of users with an iPhone 5 or newer will purchase an Apple Watch, leading to first year sales of around 30 million units. Apple Watch will start at $349, likely for the entry-level Sport edition, while the luxurious gold model will reportedly sell for between $4,000 to $5,000.

In his prediction letter, Legere also mentioned the strides that T-Mobile has made over the past year and reiterated that the company will soon overtake Sprint to become the U.S.’s third-largest wireless carrier. The CEO added that T-Mobile will expand its LTE network in 2015 to cover some 300 million Americans, up from its current 264 million footprint.

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Comments

  1. Taste_of_Apple - 9 years ago

    Totally agree with him on this.

  2. msmithj567 - 9 years ago

    Reblogged this on Mohit – The caretaker.

  3. Joaquim Inverno - 9 years ago

    I think the lunch of the Apple Watch will be similar to the lunch of the iPad, not as big sales wise, but this will be the device that will bring mainstream awareness to the category, I believe we still have a lot to see, we don’t know what else the watch does, what kind of apps developers will come out with, I think this is the kind of product that has a lot of potencial to take off in a big way.

    Of course it will grow fast and gather a good amount of market share, but after a few months there will be a lot more Android watches with a much more affordable price tag, but does that even really matter at this point? Android’s market share hasn’t influenced developer interest in iOS, and Apple products have the best profit margins in most or probably all the categories it does business in!

    • You answered your own question but to piggyback on that you’re right, Android’s huge lead in terms of actual devices in the wild hasn’t been a factor that’s slowed Apple’s success.

      More isn’t better, sometimes it’s just more. In the case of Android that’s a harsh reality because for as many devices they have in the field Apple still makes 3 times that in mobile revenues when compared to Android. Google may not want to admit it but it’s been reported several times that Google gets more ad revenue from iOS devices than they do Android devices linked to Google’s services.

      I believe the Apple Watch is the next breakthrough product in Apple’s portfolio and agree with Legere that it will be the product everyone’s been waiting for. And since the Apple Watch is practically useless without the iPhone it will directly impact iPhone sales in a very positive way.

  4. mlanders1433 - 9 years ago

    If Apple really wants to compete with medium to high end watch makers they need to remember people will pay thousands for a watch because with care it will last a lifetime.

    I don’t expect an apple watch to last a lifetime but if I’m going to pay 800 or 900 dollars for the bigger face and steelband I don’t want the hardware to be obsolete by the time iphone 8 comes out. It would be nice to know that the guts will be upgradeable.

  5. I just don’t know how big the Apple Watch will be. $350 for a watch that you might have to replace 1-4 years for the hardware to stay current? I also just don’t see the usefulness being worth the price either. At least it looks nice haha. We’ll see how it goes.

  6. Toro Volt (@torovolt) - 9 years ago

    Unfortunately Post Steve Apple didnt get it right.
    No surprise.
    The 1 day battery life is the show stopper, the price is too high for an optional accessory with fast obsolesce and is no water resistant.
    Apple should have done something similar to Pebble and incorporate more complexity as technology allows it for a more practical and usable battery life.
    My prediction, it is going to sell fast at first only because is a shiny Apple iDevice but will have a high return rate since people wont find it useful enough to justify the high cost and the chore of daily recharge.

    • proudappleuser - 9 years ago

      I’ve had the same concerns. What I’m hoping is that it is technology upgradeable. We still don’t know about that, if there will be a waterproofing coating on them or if they have increased the battery life. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple has a trade in or upgrade program for this, soon to be released, product.

      The  Watch we were shown was very incomplete so I’m excited to see what the finished product will be.

      • Nycko Heimberg - 9 years ago

        Very complete watch?
        – Fewer sensors and possibilities than Band Microsoft
        – So autonomous as Sony Watch 3 and Band Microsoft for the Sport with GPS ?
        NO

    • luckydcxx - 9 years ago

      It is water resistant.

    • Richard J Lawrence - 9 years ago

      As someone else said, the first iPhone was missing a lot of features. No copy/paste, no outside apps, no 3G, full price + 2 year contract – and those are the things I remember from 7.5 years ago. There might be more. Of course the watch will have some shortcomings, but until it is used by everyday folks in everyday situations, only then can improvements be made.

      One day battery life (if it does end up being that short) should not be much of a show stopper – it will take less than 30 minutes to get a full charge. Remember the battery is only 1/4 the size of an iPhone 4.

    • Richard J Lawrence - 9 years ago

      One more thing (no pun intended). I know people like to criticize the post Steve Jobs Apple as having lost its way or lacking in innovation, but perhaps we should be reminded of a couple flops that happened under his watch (again, no pun intended).

      -iPod Hi-Fi
      -Mac Cube
      -iTV/Apple TV (has remained steady but never huge success)
      -First gen MacBook Air (was OK, but it really didn’t take off until the 2nd gen redesign)

      Yes, I will be getting the watch once it’s publicly available. Will it be resounding success? I’m still on the fence. But I know it has the potential to be a nice accessory for my phone. I’m looking forward to not having to always pull out my phone to check the time or to check for notifications or to answer a quick call. I’m excited.

      • jfairweather - 9 years ago

        It is too bad about the Cube. It was one of my all-time absolute favorite Macs. I used to be a contract Apple rep and was showing off the Cube along with the original (and hugely impressive) iMovie at BestBuy the holiday season following the release of these two products. Customers were extremely impressed. For most people, the issue with the Cube was not the minimal upgradability but the price.
        A few years later I picked up a Cube shell in perfect condition. It now lives as an extremely classy tissue dispenser. (Since then, others started doing this mod as well. It is very easy. Google it.) An ignoble end to a hugely cool machine.

  7. carterwgills - 9 years ago

    Not waterproof? Not interested.

  8. theapplepeeler - 9 years ago

    Reblogged this on The Apple Peeler.

  9. luckydcxx - 9 years ago

    I predict that the T-mobile CEO is correct.

  10. I haven’t worn a watch in many years, I sure don’t need one that can give me updates that I can get from my iPhone that I have in my pocket all the time. I haven’t been able to find anything this watch can do that my iphone can’t

    • Ron Hummel - 9 years ago

      I have the Pebble and wouldn’t be without one now that I’ve had one. Yes your iPhone does what it does but not having to go to your pocket all the time is a big plus! All I do is glance at my watch to get game scores, texts, screen phone calls, news, weather and I never missed an important message. Another thing is if you are in a crowded area that is noisy you miss nothing. When the family was at Disneyland I was the go to person for calling and messaging when we split up. Some work places don’t want you on your phone also.

  11. bunim1 - 9 years ago

    I so agree if anyone cares. Personally I was unimpressed at first. Also the long wait between announcing and yet to launch date. BUT every day I’m liking it more and more….Apple is smarter than we think, since I doubt I’m alone here.

    In regard to features, I thought, meh no point….but who remembers how stripped the original iPhone was ? It took a while for the app store to appear, and everyone knows the rest of that story.

    Apple Watch will be amazing !

  12. Pierre Calixte - 9 years ago

    Apple has gone from a taker of markets to a maker of markets.

  13. jfairweather - 9 years ago

    The wearing of watches has fallen out of fashion big time. Ironically, most of us have reverted to pocket watches (high tech, but still pocket watches). I am guessing that for every three hundred iPhones they’ll sell one AppleWatch. It won’t be a bonanza but it won’t be a bust, either. Show me the slimmed-down attractively priced AppleWatch of 2025 and make it appear in 2015, I’ll show you a major hit.
    As for daily charging – what’s the big deal? The inductive charger is on your nightstand. Put your watch on the nightstand when you go to bed.
    As most people say, I find it interesting and it clearly overpowers the competition, but I do not plan on buying one.

    • jfairweather - 9 years ago

      BTW, the way to slim down an AppleWatch is to convert a lot of the guts and the battery into flexible components and offload them into the band.

  14. The author is right to support that the Apple Watch will basically kick-start that market, yet until the device features at least a 3-4 day battery life, the device itself won’t take off big time.