Parks Points

Smart watch technology and user experience has been improving year-over-year, bringing these products on the cusp of a major breakout.

Apple’s promotion of its Apple Watch, which owns 50% of the U.S. smart watch market, has already increased consumer familiarity with these products and adoption will continue to grow with the tech giant’s upcoming announcement of the Apple Watch Series 4.

Top brands in this space have already built consumer loyalty by their product quality, strong UX, and winning features, but may face challenges led by lower-cost alternatives. While brand is a strong consideration factor for purchase decisions about smart watches, price ranks even higher. Nearly 75% of smart watch owners rank price as a top five purchase consideration, while 65% rank brand in the top five consideration.

Adoption of smart watches has so far seen rapid growth, with one in six U.S. broadband households now owning one of these devices. This is up from one in 10 who owned a device in 2016. While adoption has steadily increased in recent years, so has Net Promoter Scores (NPS) for these devices. This high satisfaction will ultimately accelerate adoption over the next few years.

For more information on this topic, see Parks Associates’ 360 View: CE Adoption & Trends.