Research claims 8.3m Brits will buy Tim Cook's Apple Watch
In order to reach its figure, Conjure, a company that creates apps for brands, asked 2,000 British adults if they would buy an Apple Watch and found that over one in 10 (13.25 percent) said yes.
The poll, conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Conjure, revealed that Brits are most likely to use the watch for texting and navigating, in addition to telling the time.
"Our data suggests that the 'Apple factor' will make today's launch the tipping point for the smartwatch market," said Sam Clark, MD of Conjure. "8.3 million Brits believe they would buy a smartwatch made by Apple - if even half that number actually end up buying the device, the product will be hailed as a success in the UK."
While it looks as though sales could be high, a number of UK businesses said last December that they weren't prepared for security risks posed the wearables revolution.
Meanwhile, in the US, the appetite is even greater, with analyst house Forrester claiming 36 percent of US citizens are interested in buying the Apple Watch, assuming the price is right.
Apple Watch vs Google Glass
The launch event will be watched by investors and anslysts as previous wearable devices, such as Google Glass, have failed to take off in the UK.
"The race for wearables really begins today. The Apple Watch launch once again sets the experience bar for what users expect in connected wearable devices," said Frank Palermo, senior VP of global technical solutions group at IT outsourcing firm Virtusa.
"The pattern of success is very familiar to what we have seen with iPod, iPhone and iPad," he continued. "Create a simple, intuitive device, design it to have a "cool" factor, setup a complete ecosystem, have apps that provide utility and value, package it well, price it reasonably and hype the heck out of it. The bottom line is that Apple delivers a complete platform rather than just discreet devices. Apple Watch will be launched into a ready-made thriving environment, unlike for example, Google Glass.
"The concern that Apple Watch might suffer a similar fate to Google Glass dissipates when you look at the respective approach of those companies. Google tends to take more of 'engineering' go to market approach, where they release new innovations quickly to market (in beta form), to get them into the hands of developers who they hope can create innovative applications for the technology. That approach can work, but takes a lot more time to get into the mainstream consumer market. Google Glass was always a cool idea looking for a practical application."