为何美国消费者愿意让智能手表共享手机流量套餐，却不愿让平板“蹭网”？

新近发布的一份报告称，自2010年苹果推出可用蜂窝流量上网的iPad以来，去年第一次出现更多消费者选择从套餐里取消平板电脑，而不是添加平板电脑的现象。

整理该数据的业内资深分析师及顾问切丹·沙尔玛认为，对无线运营商威瑞森（Verizon）、AT&T、Sprint和T-Mobile来说，该变化不全是坏消息。几年前还没有消费者用智能手表花流量上网，去年已经增加到几百万人。不过沙尔玛拒绝透露具体数字。

“平板可以用手机流量或者直接连Wi-Fi，对消费者来说已经够用。”沙尔玛说。

至少现在连接Wi-Fi比几年前方便多了。IT巨头思科公司的数据显示，在全球范围内，2015年咖啡店和机场等场所的公共Wi-Fi热点只有6400万，2017年增长将近一倍，达到1.24亿。

但智能手表不适合用热点上网。使用手表的场景更多是追踪用户的锻炼和健身情况，或者听流媒体音乐和查看短信。对消费者来说有个解决的方法：每月支付给运营商10美元，将智能手表加入手机流量套餐。

苹果并不是第一家将蜂窝网络上网功能添加到智能手表的厂商。苹果公司在2017年才推出首款可联网的新款手表，比有些竞争对手晚了一两年。不过沙尔玛称，苹果智能手表第一次引发大批消费者关注。

他认为起售价为500美元的可联网4代 Apple Watch是2018年无线市场的“黑马”。苹果并未公布手表具体销量，联网版和总数都未透露。但分析师估算，去年销售量应该有约2500万块，2019年销量预计为3000万到3500万块。

“新版支持蜂窝网络的Apple Watch电池寿命更长，而且看起来消费者也喜欢能上网的手表。”沙尔玛说道。

过去几年里，可联网的平板电脑数量也迅猛增长，然后有所回落。智能手表可能出现类似趋势，但沙尔玛比较乐观。

他说：“有待观察。不过，由于手表和医疗保健关系紧密，应该会发挥良好的协同效应。”

沙尔玛指出，回看2018年运营商新增联网设备里四分之三都不是手机。其中AT&T占多数市场份额的联网汽车占比最大，约占40%，其次是占比25%的手机，相机或者传感器等智能设备占16%，可穿戴设备占12%。（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林

For the first time since Apple introduced cellular-capable iPads in 2010, more people took their tablets off their U.S. mobile plans last year than added them, according to a new report.

But the reversal wasn’t all bad news for wireless carriers Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, said longtime industry analyst and consultant Chetan Sharma, who compiled the data. The number of people connecting cellular-capable smartwatches has grown from almost none a few years ago to millions last year, though he declined to disclose the exact figures.

“Consumers are satisfied with attaching their tablets to their smartphones or just using Wi-Fi,” Sharma said.

At least in terms of Wi-Fi, connecting is a lot more convenient now than a few years ago. The number of public Wi-Fi hotspots at places like coffee shops and airports nearly doubled to 124 million worldwide in 2017 from just 64 million in 2015, according to Cisco Systems.

But hotspots are generally a bad option for smartwatches, which are increasingly used on the go for tracking exercise and fitness activity, listening to music streaming, and checking texts. The alternative is for consumers to pay carriers $10 monthly to add a smartwatch connection to their plans.

Although Apple wasn’t the first smartwatch maker to add cellular capability—its first connected Apple Watch models debuted in 2017, a year or two after some rivals. But it was the first to grab the attention of large numbers of consumers, Sharma said.

He calls the connected version of Apple Watch, which starts at $500 for Series 4, the “the sleeper hit” of the wireless market in 2018. Apple doesn’t disclose how may watches it sold, cellular or total, but analysts estimate it moved about 25 million last year with forecasts of 30 million to 35 million for 2019.

“The new version of Apple Watch has better battery life for the cellular version and consumers seem to like having connectivity on their wrists,” Sharma says.

Still, connected tablets also saw rapid growth cellular connections for a few years, before tailing off. That could happen with watches, too, but Sharma is optimistic.

“It remains to be seen,” he says. “But given that watch is now tightly linked with healthcare, there is some good synergy.”

Overall in 2018, three out of every four new connections for the carriers was something other than a phone, Sharma said. Connected cars, a category dominated by AT&T, grabbed the largest share of new connections—about 40%—followed by phones at 25%, smart devices like cameras or sensors at 16%, and wearables at 12%.