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TechFortune 500

Apple Watch Is Your Favorite Smartwatch—But Just Barely

By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
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By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
July 13, 2016, 11:15 AM ET
Apple Previews Its New iWatch
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 10: The new Apple Watch is viewed at an Apple store in Manhattan on April 10, 2015 in New York, New York. Consumers around the world were able to try on the long awaited smartwatch on Friday and to place orders. On April 24, consumers will be able to buy it online or by appointment in select stores. The Apple Watch sport starts at $349 with the standard version retailing at $549 in the U.S. Luxury "Edition" watches with 18-karat gold alloys will be priced from $10,000 and will go as high as $17,000. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)Spencer Platt — Getty Images

There’s yet another Apple-Samsung face-off brewing.

Apple’s (AAPL) Apple Watch ranks highest among all smartwatches in terms of customer satisfaction, J.D. Power reported this week. However, with a score of 852 out of a possible 1,000, it just barely topped Samsung’s score of 842 and Sony’s (SNE) score of 840, according to the report. The average score across all smartwatches was 847.

J.D. Power analyzes devices on a 1,000-point scale. On smartwatches, the company surveyed device owners and asked them how they would rate their devices on 11 factors, including ease of use, comfort, battery life, price, and others. After collecting that data, it assigned figures to each factor to determine a particular brand’s customer satisfaction.

According to J.D. Power, Apple Watch won the race thanks to its comfort, styling, and ease of use. Samsung, which offers a wide range of smartwatches and wearables, did well in customer service and display size.

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Apple Watch launched last year and was the first device from the iPhone maker to enter the wearables market. Apple Watch comes in a slew of versions depending on customer preference, but customers can pick those variations in a few categories, including Apple Watch Sport, Apple Watch, and the luxury Apple Watch Edition.

Debate has raged over how popular Apple Watch is and how many of its owners are actually using the device. Critics have said Apple Watch hasn’t lived up to the hype and after using it for some time, customers generally discard it. Apple and its supporters, however, say Apple Watch has been a success and even outstripped the company’s sales expectations. Apple has, however, failed to provide Apple Watch sales figures, leaving everyone to guess at how well it’s actually performing.

Still, that hasn’t stopped analysts from taking a guess. Longtime Apple analyst Neil Cybart recently predicted that Apple has sold 12.1 million Apple Watch units that have generated $5.7 billion in revenue. He added that he believes Apple Watch is already a $10 billion business.

“Apple already has a $10 billion Apple Watch business on its hands,” Cybart said in his analysis. “This is even before all of the significant changes in watchOS 3 were unveiled on stage at [the 2016] WWDC. Rather than pressing a reset button, Apple is systematically going through the Apple Watch business to fix friction points that developed over the first year. All of this is being done to position the Watch for improved adoption and a valuation much greater than $10 billion.”

Now we know that Apple Watch is seemingly well-received among its owners.

In addition to looking at smartwatches, though, J.D. Power analyzed fitness bands. On that front, where Apple doesn’t directly compete with a dedicated fitness band, the company found Samsung and Garmin (GRMN) were tops with scores of 859 and 836, respectively. The average fitness band earned a score of 829.

For more about Apple Watch, watch:

J.D. Power’s fitness band report is based on responses from nearly 3,000 survey participants who have purchased a device within the last 12 months. The company’s smartwatch survey includes nearly 2,700 respondents.

About the Author
By Don Reisinger
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