PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new study by Kantar has revealed that the French have very little interest in smartwatches and wearable technology and aren’t clear about how useful they are.
64% of French people polled do not intend to buy a smartwatch in the next 12 months and only 1.2% currently own a smartwatch. The main reason people give for their lack of enthusiasm is that they don’t see how wearable technology and smartphones are useful. Price is also cited as a major obstacle for 30% of the respondents, with 18% of smartphone sayings that their phone already meets all their needs. When asked about price, 76% of people are not willing to pay more than 200 euros for a smartwatch or a smartband.
Voice command annoys more than it entices
Voice command comes last in the list of features anticipated by consumers, with only 2% of our respondents currently using this feature regularly on devices such as smartphones, despite the buzz generated by features like Apple's Siri in recent years. 53% of the panelists said they would be embarrassed if someone else was using voice command in public.
Smartphone leading companies have an edge
Among the brands that French consumers most often associate with wearables, the ‘big-three’ of the smartphone market take the lead. Samsung, was the brand most associated with wearable technology, mentioned by 47% of people questioned, with anticipation for the Apple Watch seeing Apple come a close second (43%).
Google takes the third place (36%), probably due to Android Wear, its smartphone oriented OS, and thanks to the incredible media coverage surrounding the Google Glass since it was announced in 2012.
What future for the Apple Watch?
Carolina Milanesi, director of Kantar Worldpanel Comtech, says: “Apple has clearly bet on design, making its Apple Watch look very familiar to users. It even has a crown like an analog watch. Apple is also offering the highest degree of personalization. Appealing to the visceral versus the rational might be a better way to expand the opportunity of these devices."
Even though the introductory price will be higher than our respondents might like, Milanesi thinks Apple has reason to be confident: “At $349, Apple Watch is not for everybody especially judging from the results we just shared. Never the less it is hard to predict how much the visceral side of the purchasing decision will overtake the rational one”.
The full Kantar Wearables study, including an infographic and more data is available on the new Kantar France Insights: fr.kantar.com. It provides journalists with free data and expert commentary on technology, politics, retail and many more.
---- END ----
Note to journalists
For more information on this study and many others on the French market, visit Kantar France Insights: fr.kantar.com.
Kantar Insights France is a site primarily aimed to journalists offering data, statistics, charts and expert commentaries.
Kantar is at Mobile World Congress: Hall 8.1 Stand D51
Methodology
Online Study conducted from January 26th to February 2nd, 2015 with a sample of 1006 individuals representative of the French population. This sample is from the Kantar Worldpanel Comtech panel.
With over one million respondents only in Europe, ComTech is the largest continuous panel of smartphone users in the world.
