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Geeks, gamers and Trekkies most likely to pay with Apple Watch, survey says

Technically Incorrect: A survey asks Americans who they think will most likely pay for items by waving their Apple Watch at a scanner.

Chris Matyszczyk
3 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


Is paying with Apple Watch a Trekkie thing? CNET

I wonder if there exists an American who hasn't, at some point in their lives, been surveyed.

So keen are marketing companies to know what people (claim to) think that they must be e-mailing and calling at all hours, just to hear feelings and verdicts.

Of late, scores of research results about the Apple Watch have exposed themselves beneath my brows. Some are plainly lunatic. Others may be lunatic but accidentally offer a possible insight into human perception.

One that just drifted exclusively into my view examined what sort of people will be using their new Apple Watches to pay for their lattes at Starbucks and their lacies at Macy's.

The survey asked 1,000 Americans aged between 22 and 55 for their considered (but instant) opinion and these Americans beamed their thoughts up as only Americans can.

Their conclusion was that the most likely people to impress with their wristy modernity were geeks, gamers and Trekkies.

Yes, the very people who love the idea of gadgets being all and ending all will be the pioneers of hand-wafting at the counter.

Those who construct these surveys are very clever. It's not as if every American volunteered "geeks, gamers and Trekkies" as an answer. No, this was one of the options they were given. Still, the respondents gravitated toward it most.

In second place came celebrities. Surely you can imagine being behind Robert Downey Jr. in the line at FootLocker as he nonchalantly and regally waves his timepiece to pay for some purple sneakers. (Hmm -- maybe not Robert Downey Jr.)

In close order behind celebrities came early adopters, hipsters, business professionals, snobs, innovators and trendsetters and the lovely loose term -- creatives.

Second to last on the choice of likeliest to use Apple Watch to pay: everyday people. Yes, they beat out only professional athletes, perhaps because these respondents knew that professional athletes never pay for anything.

You must decide whether this survey says more about the respondents than about the Apple Watch. Is it more about how they see the world of gadgets than how gadgets are actually bought and used?

I know that at least one server at my local restaurant Sushi Ran is desperately excited about his Apple Watch delivery. (Should be some time, well, soonish.) Of all the categories here, he thinks of himself as an everyday person.

Still, who would want to commission a survey like this? I can reveal this was performed by a company called Ask Your Target Market on behalf of the Stratos Card, which claims to have actually started shipping its product.

Should you not have heard of the stratospherically ambitious entity, it's a flashing -- if not flashy -- digital credit card-type thing that stores your credit cards on it. Not too long ago, I met with Stratos CEO Thiago Olson, who struck me as a geek, gamer and Trekkie dressed in a fine (rented) tailored jacket.

Which leads me to the other part of the survey. The respondents were also asked what sort of people were most likely to pay with an all-in-one digital card like Stratos or Coin.

You will be stunned into binge-watching "The Celebrity Apprentice" when I tell you that these same 1,000 people believed that business professionals would be most likely to use one of these cards. In second place, a significant way behind, came early adopters. Geeks, gamers and Trekkies did come third.

Most fascinating, though, was that everyday people made the leap to fifth place, beating out celebrities, hipsters, creatives, professional athletes and snobs. Yes, snobs were last. They're not going to like that.

Or perhaps they will. Snobs adore being at the extreme.

Clearly, the bent of this survey suggests that weirdos will be paying with their watches, while the classy, the sensible and the everyday (as well as the weirdos) will be paying with Stratos or Coin.

Still, 67 percent of respondents claimed that they, like "Star Trek," are moving to a next generation -- of payment systems, that is.

I wonder if any of these payment systems will actually be quicker than whipping out cash or a credit card. Or do these new forms of payment merely exist to make humans feel like they're in "Star Trek"?