Technology

Why Apple Watch is the Only Smartwatch That Matters

Published

9 years ago

June 30, 2015

Jeff Desjardins

Why Apple Watch is the Only Smartwatch That Matters

Apple’s business model has famously focused on proprietary ecosystems to maintain maximum control over how a product is designed and marketed to consumers. When the company whiffs on a design, it can lead to one of their many product flops.

However, when Apple hits the nail on the head, it can be a game-changer.

Before the launch of the Apple Watch, there was much debate among analysts as to whether it would even move the needle on revenues for such a massive company. Many took the position that although it would be big, that sales of the Apple Watch would not compare to other devices.

Slice Intelligence, a company that data mines email receipts, so far estimates that Apple Watch sales as of mid-June were about 2.79 million. Further, about 17% of shoppers bought more than one high-margin band for the watch. Business Insider notes that the second-most popular second band is the more luxurious Milanese Loop, which sells for a lofty $149 and costs Apple just a fraction.

The above infographic shows that it took 74 and 24 days to sell the first 1 million iPhone and iPad units. Meanwhile, it only took one day for Apple Watches to reach the same milestone. That’s more sales in one day than Android Wear did in the whole of 2014.

Tim Cook said in an interview with Fast Company that the Apple Watch is the first smartwatch that matters. Based on initial sales numbers, this appears to be true. Android’s diversity of hardware makers and fragmented ecosystem has its advantages, but when it comes to entering a new category sometimes it is better to swing for a home run.

What is less clear, however, is whether the Apple Watch will ultimately have a big enough impact to provide a catalyst to the company’s stock price. As of now, $AAPL is still hovering around a $715 billion market capitalization, which is still falling short of the technology company’s quest to hit $1 trillion in value.

Enjoyed this infographic? Check out 37 Surprising Facts About Apple.

Original graphic by: MobileSiri

Related Topics:apple wearable technology aapl smartwatch apple watch android wear tim cook

Up Next

Six Problems Facing Driverless Cars and Their Track Record

Don't Miss

TSX Venture Bear Market Now 1,000 Days and Counting [Chart]

Click for Comments

Technology

Ranked: Semiconductor Companies by Industry Revenue Share

Nvidia is coming for Intel’s crown. Samsung is losing ground. AI is transforming the space. We break down revenue for semiconductor companies.

Published

1 week ago

April 9, 2024

Pallavi Rao

A cropped pie chart showing the biggest semiconductor companies by the percentage share of the industry’s revenues in 2023.

Semiconductor Companies by Industry Revenue Share

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on Apple or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Did you know that some computer chips are now retailing for the price of a new BMW?

As computers invade nearly every sphere of life, so too have the chips that power them, raising the revenues of the businesses dedicated to designing them.

But how did various chipmakers measure against each other last year?

We rank the biggest semiconductor companies by their percentage share of the industry’s revenues in 2023, using data from Omdia research.

Which Chip Company Made the Most Money in 2023?

Market leader and industry-defining veteran Intel still holds the crown for the most revenue in the sector, crossing $50 billion in 2023, or 10% of the broader industry’s topline.

All is not well at Intel, however, with the company’s stock price down over 20% year-to-date after it revealed billion-dollar losses in its foundry business.

Rank	Company	2023 Revenue	% of Industry Revenue
1	Intel	$51B	9.4%
2	NVIDIA	$49B	9.0%
3	Samsung Electronics	$44B	8.1%
4	Qualcomm	$31B	5.7%
5	Broadcom	$28B	5.2%
6	SK Hynix	$24B	4.4%
7	AMD	$22B	4.1%
8	Apple	$19B	3.4%
9	Infineon Tech	$17B	3.2%
10	STMicroelectronics	$17B	3.2%
11	Texas Instruments	$17B	3.1%
12	Micron Technology	$16B	2.9%
13	MediaTek	$14B	2.6%
14	NXP	$13B	2.4%
15	Analog Devices	$12B	2.2%
16	Renesas Electronics Corporation	$11B	1.9%
17	Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation	$10B	1.9%
18	Microchip Technology	$8B	1.5%
19	Onsemi	$8B	1.4%
20	KIOXIA Corporation	$7B	1.3%
N/A	Others	$126B	23.2%
N/A	Total	$545B	100%

Note: Figures are rounded. Totals and percentages may not sum to 100.

Meanwhile, Nvidia is very close to overtaking Intel, after declaring $49 billion of topline revenue for 2023. This is more than double its 2022 revenue ($21 billion), increasing its share of industry revenues to 9%.

Nvidia’s meteoric rise has gotten a huge thumbs-up from investors. It became a trillion dollar stock last year, and broke the single-day gain record for market capitalization this year.

Other chipmakers haven’t been as successful. Out of the top 20 semiconductor companies by revenue, 12 did not match their 2022 revenues, including big names like Intel, Samsung, and AMD.

The Many Different Types of Chipmakers

All of these companies may belong to the same industry, but they don’t focus on the same niche.

According to Investopedia, there are four major types of chips, depending on their functionality: microprocessors, memory chips, standard chips, and complex systems on a chip.

Nvidia’s core business was once GPUs for computers (graphics processing units), but in recent years this has drastically shifted towards microprocessors for analytics and AI.

These specialized chips seem to be where the majority of growth is occurring within the sector. For example, companies that are largely in the memory segment—Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology—saw peak revenues in the mid-2010s.