According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, only 7% of US iPhone owners recently surveyed by him said that they intend to buy the upcoming Apple Watch. The analyst notes that the number is down from 8% this past September and 10% in September last year, CNET is reporting.
Munster also said in his recently released investors note that 34% of the 386 customers waiting in line to buy the iPhone 6 three months had back expressed an interest in buying the Apple Watch. However, he pegged that them as “early adopters” and not truly representative of the entire iPhone population. Now, Muster believes that the “muted” response to the watch so far is the result of consumers still awaiting more information about the product.
What is the watch’s killer feature? What apps will be available for the device? The analyst expects Apple to answer these and other questions as we approach the launch of the watch, thereby increasing consumer interest and demand. “As we get closer to launch of the Watch, which we expect in the Jun-15 quarter, we believe that Apple will begin to highlight more functionality of the product as well as third-party apps, which we note were what eventually helped the iPhone accelerate in adoption,” Munster said.
At the same time, Munster says that once Apple shares more details about its watch, the first-year sales of the device will be modest, adding around 2% to Apple’s revenue for 2015.
