Apple Waits as App Developers Study Who’s Buying Its Watch
Few of the major tech companies have provided apps for Apple Watch users, despite a lengthy gestation period. Neither Facebook, nor Google or Snapchat have launched apps for the Apple Watch platform, with some claiming it's difficult to offer a featureful app with such limited screen dimensions, and Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel commenting&nbsp;&ldquo;Why would you look at a small picture when you can look at a large one on your phone?&rdquo;.
The lack of support from Facebook — and from other popular app makers like Snapchat and Google, which also have few if any apps for Apple Watch — underscores the skepticism that remains in the technology community about the wearable device. That puts the watch, Apple’s first new product since the iPad in 2010, in something of a Catch-22: The companies whose apps would most likely prompt more people to buy the device are waiting to see who is buying it and how they use it.

That doesn’t mean the Apple Watch lacks apps. Apple released the device in April with more than 3,000 apps — far more than the 500 that were available for the iPhone when the App Store opened in 2008.

Yet only five of the 20 most popular free iPhone apps in the United States have versions for the Apple Watch, according to data from App Annie, an analytics firm. And the number of apps for the watch, which now stands at about 7,400, is growing at a slower rate than the explosive uptick of apps that were produced for iPhones and iPads in their early days. While the number of apps for the watch jumped 142 percent in the first three months, that compared to 437 percent for the iPhone and 200 percent for the iPad, according to data provided by App Annie.

Apple declined to comment on the sales performance of the watch.

Just how well the watch is selling — and whether the absence of prominent apps is affecting sales — may be signaled on Tuesday when Apple reports earnings for its fiscal third quarter. The company has said it did not intend to give specific sales data on the watch and instead would wrap it into a category that it called “other.” Investors and tech followers are expected to scrutinize that category to try to calculate whether the watch has been a hit or miss.

Analysts estimated that Apple sold three million to five million watches for the quarter. At five million, sales of the watch would surpass those of iPhones and iPads in the first quarters that they became available.