Apple
Founded by Steve Jobs, Apple Inc is a premium American multinational technology company that creates cutting-edge consumer electronics. It is the largest information technology company by revenue (365.8 billion, 2021). It creates smartphones, tablets, computers, smartwatches and more.
Smartwatch
Like everything in Apple’s inventory, they promote their products and more appropriately their smartwatches by displaying vibrant, modern and cutting-edge marketing showcases. Apple watch intends to please the demand for highly customizable attractive smartwatches to enhance their lifestyle.
Looking through Apple’s website we can find a clean and innovative layout showcasing their smartwatches in different settings, angles, themes, etc. In this means of presentation, they display an innovative, cutting-edge piece of equipment that can be customizable on all fronts to match the user’s taste.
Below shows what Apple is trying to convey in their smatch watch products:
- Customizable
- Cutting edge technology
- Simple & modern design
- Quality material
- Health benefits
Apple watches come in a variety of series such as the newest addition Series 7 all the way down to the ‘cheapest’ Series 3. On their sites, they showcase a list of cutting-edge features which that series of watches is capable of such as:
- Always-On Retina display, Nearly 20% larger than Apple Watch SE
- Blood Oxygen reader
- Cellular available
- Family Setup — pair multiple watches with one iPhone
- Emergency SOS, international emergency calling
- Fall Detection
- High and low heart rate notifications
- Irregular heart rhythm notification
Sounds great, right? Except there’s one main problem; the price. Apple has always kept this notion of premium, this means to live up to their standards most Apple products will cost a small fortune, for example, the Apple Watch Series 7 costs £369 without additives. For people living in poverty, these types of prices are out of the league. Meaning there is less opportunity to monitor a person’s health.
*Edit* – Apple Ad
In recent days I’ve been getting multiple ads from Apple on different platforms to advertise their new Series 7 smartwatch. This involves using real 911 calls from users reporting a serious accident that they had. This shows apple’s attempt of shifting the focus of their app from “look I can play a game on my watch” to a more health-centric narrative. I really found the ads to be so simple yet extremely impactful in the narrative.
Reviews – What do people like & dislike about this product?
Overall, the majority of Apple users were extremely happy with their product commenting on things such as the quality and features that the watch possesses. However, one main drawback from the negative reviews mentioned the expensiveness of the product (even on the cheapest version).
Positive (4.9 out of 5 stars)
- Cutting edge design
- Quality features
- Comfy
- Great for physical activity
Negatives
- Extremely Expensive
- Some people said they were underwhelmed
- Extremely short battery life
Fitbit
Founded by James Park in San Fransico, USA, Fitbit is another American consumer electronics and fitness company that mainly specializes in the production of smartwatches. The first smartwatch was released back in 2009. It has since rapidly grew to become one of the largest smartwatch companies to date.
However, on their website, Fitbit markets their smartwatch as an all-in health accessory, hence the name ‘Fitbit’. Throughout their website, we find a more native consumeristic-styled presentation. They present their watch as tailorable, simple and ‘cheap’. It is more targeted to your average joe than anything else.
Smartwatch
Fitbit is different from Apple as they direct their app as an adventure more than a cutting-edge experience. For example, on the smartwatch, they use games and challenges to entice people to engage in physical activity. Additionally, Fitbit automatically shares achievements to social media to build a sense of ‘social currency’.
Fitbit displays multiple smartwatch variants all in financial proximity to one another. They include sales to incentive the user to buy as seen below.
Fitbit also markets their watch as a fashion accessory allowing for customizable straps to meet the person’s style.
On their ‘Fitbit Sense’ series watch, they provide some of the benefits such as:
- Voice Assistant
- 6+ Day Battery Life
- Exercises
- Customizable clock face
- Menstrual Health Tracking
- Unique App
- ‘Loading’ edge design
- Health Metric Trackers
Reviews – What do people like & dislike about this product?
Overall, the reviews are mainly positive mentioning the comfort and easy-to-use product. However, some people did mention that the product didn’t work which can reveal slight quality issues.
Positives (4.6 out of 5 stars)
- Simplistic & modern style
- Comfort
- Ease of use
- Quick set up
Negatives
- Battery Life
- Faulty Product (some instances)
- Unreliable GPS
Overall, it is fascinating to see how my potential competitors market and cater their smartwatches to different types of people. Competitor analysis like these are extremely beneficial as it allows me to see what they are doing right but at the same time see what they are doing wrong. This ultimately gives me more opportunities to refine my own product.