You’ll be hard-pressed to find an analyst in the technology industry that doesn’t believe the Apple Watch is going to put wearables on the map. For years now, predictions and projections have shown the wearable market exploding following the launch of a device from Apple, and now we’re just months away from seeing if the analysts were right.
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Adding to the pressure, CCS Insight predicted this week that Apple will ship 20 million units of its new wearable in the first year of availability, making it the “most successful smartwatch ever.”
“The Apple Watch will be instrumental in taking the wearables market to the next level of growth,” CCS chief of research Ben Wood said in a statement on Tuesday. “If successful, it’ll create a rising tide that will lift the whole market.”
This has been a common theme for the past several months — even executives at other technology companies admit that they’re ready to see if Apple can bring a wider audience to wearables. After all, only about 720,000 Android Wear watches shipped last year. It’s going to take more than another six smartwatches from Samsung to turn those numbers around.
On the other hand, a disappointing launch could be enough to kill smartwatches altogether:
“The current love affair affluent US consumers have with the iPhone guarantees a strong start for the Apple Watch in its home market,” the report noted. “However, if sales of the Apple Watch fail to meet expectations it could hurt the whole smartwatch market.”
