60 percent of US iPhone owners not interested in Apple Watch: Poll

San Francisco About 60 percent of adult Apple iPhone owners in United States are not interested in buying companyrsquos new Apple Watch according to a new ReutersIpsos pollThe hightech smartwatch which will range in price from 350 roughly Rs 21000 to 17000 roughly Rs 105 lakhs for an 18karat gold model is Apples first major new product in five years and consumer demand for the device is being closely watched by competitors and investorsOwners of the iPhone are a particularly important market for Apple as it launches the new watch which goes on sale April 24 Because the watch needs an iPhone to work fully analysts say the most likely pool of initial buyers will already have an Apple smartphone in their pocketsBTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said that with more than 100 million active iPhone users in the United States and closer to half a billion globally the survey was pretty encouraging for a product that has not been seen in shops even if was unclear how much of the interest would translate into purchasesPacific Crest Securities analyst Andrew Hargreaves said it was not clear how many people wanted or needed a smartwatch But he expected Apples cache and marketing might to deliver strong initial sales of the Apple WatchWinning Apple customers is more realistic at this point said HargreavesThe watch allows users to check email listen to music and make phone callsIpsos surveyed 2469 Americans aged 18 and older online between March 9 and March 17 and found that 24 percent expressed an interest in purchasing the Apple Watch including 10 percent of those describing themselves as very interested The data was weighted to reflect the US population and has a credibility interval a measure of accuracy of plus or minus 22 percentage pointsAmong the iPhone owners 39 percent were interested in purchasing the Apple watch including 17 percent describing themselves as very interested There were 788 iPhone owners in the survey with a credibility interval of plus or minus 4 percentage pointsDiscussions about the watch have flooded online social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook since Apple held a splashy event in San Francisco on March 9 to showcase the watchSocial media chatter about the Apple watch was 15 percent positive and 5 percent negative in the week following Apples event according to an analysis that the firm Networked Insights conducted for Reuters The remaining 80 percent was neutral By contrast the social conversation for Apples iPhone 6 Review Pictures during the same week was 5 percent positive and 0 percent negative according to the analysisAmong the conversations relating to the Apple watch during the oneweek period 58 percent of the comments showed an intent to purchase according to Networked Insights which analyses tweets public Facebook posts and other sources Social comments about the iPhone 6 which has been on sale since September showed a 29 percent purchase intent during the same weekApple is among several large tech companies looking to jumpstart a new market for wearable electronic devices Samsung Electronics Sony Corp and LG Electronics have all released their own smartwatches many of them powered by software developed by Internet company Google IncMore than half of iPhone users in the ReutersIpsos survey believe that a smartwatch in the near future will be an essential gadget thats as common as the smartphone whereas 44 percent a broader poll of US adults felt that way