6% Of US Adults Plan To Purchase Apple Watch, According to Reuters Poll; Gadget Twice As Popular Amongst Men Than Amongst Women

A poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos around mid-March, right after Apple Inc. AAPL launched its Apple Watch, showed that 69 percent of Americans were not interested in buying the gadget. Now, a new survey revealed that roughly 6 percent of U.S. adults plan to purchase the smartwatch. Results also indicate that men are “twice as likely as women to purchase Apple boss Tim Cook's first new major product.”

Surrounding the preorders launch last week, Ipsos surveyed 1,829 U.S. adults online. According to the Reuters note, “if calculated based on 2014 U.S. Census projections, and excluding younger teens, this could mean potential sales of about 15 million watches, if those who said they intended to buy follow through with an actual purchase.”

Wall Street estimates differ widely regarding global sales. However, Gartner analyst Van Baker told Reuters that the poll’s results “indicated a ‘pretty high percentage’ was interested in buying. ‘It should serve Apple well if they can even get close to that,’ he said.”

On top of measuring people’s intention to buy the Apple Watch, the survey tried to calculate how many US adults were interested in the wearable device. Results showed that 18 percent of the surveyed adults were “very” or “somewhat” interested in it. The Watch proved to be most popular amongst men aged 18 to 28: 34 percent of them said they were interested in the smartwatch.

However, the aforementioned group does not represent the most likely buyers. The poll shows that “adults aged between 30 and 39 were the most likely buyers, with 13 percent saying they planed to buy an Apple Watch, followed by 10 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds.”

A not-surprising conclusion drawn from the poll is that people who already own an iPhone are more likely to acquire the new wearable gadget.