
A year after launch, it’s now clear that pretty much no one needs an Apple Watch - doener
http://qz.com/658010/a-year-after-its-launch-its-now-clear-that-pretty-much-no-one-needs-an-apple-watch/
======
braythwayt
I don't need ANY of the watches I own, including my:

    
    
      - Concord Mariner
      - M&Co. "10-5-1"
      - Apple Watch
    

It is not news to me that a watch is a luxury item. It is jewelry. Now that
being said, it also does some lightweight fitness stuff for me. It provides
unobtrusive notifications. I have made and taken a very small number of calls
with it. It is more convenient to start and stop Strava with my Apple Watch
than with my phone, and that saves me buying a dedicated bike computer.

All together, I say it is jewelry that happens to provide some handy-dandy
reasons for rationalizing my purchase of jewelry. What is the problem here?

Now if Apple isn't selling a metric fuck-ton of watches, is that a failure?
No. It is only a failure if Apple is not selling watches, but Samsung is
selling watches, and Google releases a Nexus watch, and so on.

If "Smart Watches" become huge and Apple Watch is squeezed out, Apple could
one day discover people buy a watch, then purchase a phone, tablet, and laptop
that are compatible with the watch, instead of purchasing a watch that is
compatible with their iPhone, iPad, and Macbook.

Thus, Apple may say they want to sell a bajillion watches, but what they
really need to do is sell enough watches and have enough credibility that if
smart watches disrupt smart phones, Apple already has a seat at the table.

~~~
randycupertino
If I could swim with the apple watch and have it track my laps, I would
totally buy one. The non-waterproofing was why I didn't buy it.

~~~
braythwayt
Funny story about that:

There are lots of reports of people swimming with their Apple watches. I
shower with mine on all the time. But Apple is simply not quite ready to
guarantee that you can swim with your watch.

~~~
mozumder
Does its heart-rate monitoring work while swimming with it? (I'm in the market
looking to buy a new HRM)

You'd figure it would have some level of waterproofing, as any sport device is
expected to handle a lot of sweaty athletes.

~~~
k-mcgrady
It's splash and water resistant (not proof) so the sweat isn't an issue. They
have a support page detailing the water resistance that might be useful for
you: [https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT205000](https://support.apple.com/en-
gb/HT205000)

~~~
MBCook
There are reports that it can handle water MUCH better than that. Showers,
swimming, etc.

But Apple doesn't promise it and it would void your warranty. It's a question
of if you're willing to risk $400+ on people's anecdotes or not.

------
brandonb
I worked on Android in 2008 and now work on applying Apple Watch to heart
health ([https://cardiogr.am](https://cardiogr.am) or
[http://on.wsj.com/1qCfnjR](http://on.wsj.com/1qCfnjR) for details).

People forget how long it takes a new platform to develop. It took Android
about a half a year to sell even a million units (Apple Watch is reportedly at
11 million). The first phones were frankly not very good: it wasn't until the
Motorola Droid and Samsung Galaxy that Android started to get significant
market share (see [http://imgur.com/nPgiS39](http://imgur.com/nPgiS39)). New
platforms always develop in fits and starts.

So what am I excited about, with Apple Watch? Think about the health
implications of 11 million people wearing heart rate sensors:

1) About a quarter of all strokes are caused by abnormal heart rhythms, which
are easily treated but often go undiagnosed for years. How many lives could we
save just by building an algorithm for just this one problem?

2) Heart rate variability is correlated with everything from stress and
depression to sleep apnea to dangerous heart rhythms to irritable bowel
syndrome. Can we build tools to help us understand our inner world in as much
detail as photo sharing apps have helped us map our external world?

3) We spend about a third of our lives sleeping. How much more productivity
and creativity would we unleash if everybody could use data to get a good
night's sleep?

4) The world is full of advice on how to exercise (should you get 10,000
steps? High intensity interval training? Yoga? Crossfit?), but what really
works? More importantly, what will work for _you_?

5) About a quarter of Americans have pre-diabetes, but only 4% have ever been
told that by a doctor. Medical research has shown that your pattern of heart
rate variability shifts in the early phases of insulin resistance. Can we
prevent the next generation from developing diabetes?

Those applications will take time to develop, and Apple Watch is quite clearly
a first-generation product, so I can see why people are disappointed. But I
think it's worth remembering that even with the iPhone, it took Apple two
years to go from the first version to the iPhone 3G.

~~~
frozenport
Sounds like you want a fitness tracker and not a watch. A pretty good one can
be had for 100$, and I don't charge mine every day.

------
CodeWriter23
Of course it's a luxury. What I find really enjoyable about it, I can reply to
a text by tapping it and speaking. It is a lot more satisfying of an
experience than it sounds like when described in words or even the videos used
by Apple. It combines the best of the immediate talkback feature of Nextel
with the benefits of asynchronous communication.

Where it really shined, I had my car in the dealer getting repaired. There was
a lot of back and forth, and they used text messaging. So I could read the
issue in about a second and dictate my answer and hit send. Each exchange
happened in seconds compared to minutes that it would take via voice.

~~~
thothsscribe
Based on this description, why did you spend that much money for an apple
watch? Pebble time gives to everything you just said, but saves you 100 bucks
and you have to charge it once a week.

~~~
skywhopper
Pebble Time does voice-to-text transcription for iPhone owners?

~~~
fsiefken
There are more voice-te-text apps, but Snowy is a good example, say "Take a
note" and the Nuance library in Pebble recognizes the speech
[https://mydogsnowy.com/commands/](https://mydogsnowy.com/commands/)

------
thedevil
I want a lightweight watch that can open my door at home and work, unlock my
car, pay for my groceries, and carry the digital equivalent of membership
cards.

If Apple could that, I'd buy one and empty out my overstuffed pockets. But at
the moment, I don't see any reason to buy one. Fitness tracking and the
grocery list app mentioned in the article sound nice but not nice enough to
buy another gadget.

Edit: Someone please, please find a way to make a watch that can replace
everything in my pockets. You'll be my hero.

~~~
marssaxman
Why does that gadget need to be a watch?

~~~
thedevil
It seemed convenient. Do you have a better way?

Edit: Convenient = it's right there all the time, you don't have to reach for
anything or hold anything.

~~~
zanny
Embedded microchip in your palm?

------
djhworld
I have a Pebble Time, which works fine for me.

I only really use it for 'glance' like interactions, when I get notifications
and calls, it's nice to be able to review them or dismiss them without having
to dig my phone out of my pocket, and obviously it tells the time.

Battery life is fine as well, 3-4 days between each charge.

------
alkonaut
What I want is a a dumb external screen+keys for my smartphone that already
has gps, Internet,...

I don't need another smartphone strapped to my wrist!

I'm not going to ever want to charge _two_ devices when I go to bed so battery
life of a watch needs to be in the order of many months.

~~~
rhizome
This comports with my thought that automobile screens should just be
extensions of your phone, without the separate hackable hardware/os.

------
WalterBright
Eh, I have a Timex with a plain face that I can read without my glasses on,
and the battery lasts for a year. I can check the time without having to carry
the phone around or dig it out of my pocket and turn it on (a problem while
jogging or driving). I can tell the time with a glance at my wrist.

I also regularly break my watch by banging it on things or lose it because the
band breaks. But the watch is cheap, so no matter.

I guess I'm just old fashioned and out of touch :-)

~~~
scandox
Old fashioned: rational. Out of touch: capable of independent thought.

------
joshpadnick
I found this article spot on and in fact just decided yesterday independently
I'd like to sell or give away my watch.

Yes, it's nice to respond to a call on your wrist, and yes the health tracking
(esp. the heart rate monitor) is kind of cool, but it just doesn't add that
much value overall.

And there are downsides:

\- The cost

\- I always felt a little embarrassed wearing it for some reason; probably my
own issues but I didn't like the idea that I was broadcasting "I spent $400+
on this not-that-useful watch"

\- I often went running without the watch, and then it would complain I didn't
do much exercise that week

\- It's another "thing" to manage: charge it at night, take an extra charger
with you on trips, something to get lost, etc.

I think the fallacy here is that Apple tried to create a mini iPhone plus a
few extra features. But then it's not adding much incremental value, and it
requires an iPhone anyway.

I'd rather the Apple Watch go in a direction that opens up new frontiers,
which I think is all around the health tracking and minimizing or eliminating
everything else. I'd love to get biofeedback, sleep patterns, stress level
measurements, heart rate graphs throughout the day, pulse oximetry,
echocardiograms, and other cool insights about my body.

My iPhone can't do any of that (without extra's), and that could make a real
impact on my day-to-day.

~~~
gvurrdon
Can the various fitness monitoring functions be turned off on an Apple Watch?
I always exercise without wearing a watch and so the health tracking features
are not something I'd want to use.

------
godzillabrennus
[http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/13/apple-watch-scooped-up-
over...](http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/13/apple-watch-scooped-up-over-half-
the-smartwatch-market-in-2015/)

They still took a ton of market share. Even if it's not a big market.

Frankly, I don't have any desire to own one, at all, and I use a lot of Apple
products. If they could put some effort into bringing Siri to OS X that'd be
nice.

------
zamalek
My sister lives in a politically unstable region and swears by them as a tool
to protect her children: one press of a button and help is on the way. Not
having to dig in their pockets avoids raising suspicion with assailants.

As for myself? All tech conveys two qualities: cost and utility. Having emails
buzzing on my wrist would likely cost me much more stress than any utility
than the device could possibly hope to provide. No thanks. Smart watches are
incredibly niche.

~~~
mdorazio
Seriously? Something like a life alert wrist band would be far more effective
for that, and cheaper. Plus I'm pretty sure wearing a multi-hundred dollar
watch in a politically unstable region is a very good way to put your children
in more danger, not less.

~~~
zamalek
I actually agree on the premise that simpler usually means more reliable. I
have no doubt that novelty also plays a large subconscious role in the
justification.

------
minikites
>Every Apple product in the last 15 years or so has been two things: desirable
and useful.

iPod HiFi? Ping? G4 Cube? Xserve?

Apple has a lot of failures, it would be almost impossible for something to be
as successful as the iPhone.

~~~
vt240
I wonder if MacOS X had been where it is today stability wise, weather Xserve
and the G4 cube would have been such failures. The hardware issues with the
cube most likely would have been worked out as they were with the iMacs of the
same era.

------
fsiefken
I wear my Pebble all the time, I imagine I'm Michael Knight or Penny (the
niece of Inspector Gadget). I use it for swim lap tracking, counting my steps,
measuring my run, my sleep, whatsapp and e-mail alerts, monitoring cryptocoin
value, watchface with a 24 analog display with sun position, sunrise and
sunset marks, 'is it going to rain in the next few hours' early warning, music
remote control, calendar and todo list, voice recording and picture remote,
starchart, compass, geocaching and ingress assistent and weight-tracker with a
battery life > 1 week.

Now it's just a bit thinner then the Apple watch, but the new Apple watch will
be thinner then this Pebble. Will the new Apple Watch be waterproof, have GSR
monitoring, headset and keyboard pairing, wifi, gps, a camera and match the
weeklong battery-life?

I'd be tempted, but how developer friendly is the platform compared to Android
Wear and Pebble (C and/or Javascript)?

~~~
draw_down
I don't think the argument here is that the Apple watch is lacking features to
make it useful. It's just an extra pointless gadget for most people, at least
so far.

~~~
fsiefken
The argument is in the last two paragraphs, does Apple have these sleeper hit
features, like for example extended battery life, waterproof, wifi and some
killer app like facetime calling? It's already less intrusive then a
smartphone for reading messages.

The iPod had a slow start as well and I remember the first responses to the
iPad. The time of smartwatches will come I think, question is, just like in
the article what will be the killer feature?

------
sourc3
Although I love mechanical watches, I caved in and got an Apple Watch just for
the purposes of seeing my next meeting time and getting alerts. So far it's
been good, although I miss the elegance of the mechanical watch that doesn't
need to be charged every night.

~~~
daman
Completely agree. I love having the next upcoming meeting, have both personal
and work calendars synced. As a web dev with some sys admin duties (small
agency) the uptime complication offered by the Vigial app, and the additional
use of the Happy Apps uptime is a really convenient way to be alerted of
downtime or events without having my phone out all the time.

------
k-mcgrady
I wouldn't wear an Apple Watch if it was free. I owned one when it first came
out and eventually sold it. A few months ago I decided to give it another try
and returned it at the end of the 14 day return period.

The product has many issues but it wasn't those that made me dislike it. It's
the fact that to get value from it I should wear it all day (to get accurate
health tracking for example). But it made me feel like I was ALWAYS connected.
Sure I can disable notifications, put it in airplane mode etc. but it just
felt like too much technology. Unless it starts doing really incredible things
I cannot do with my phone and cannot live without I don't see myself ever
buying one again.

It's a cool product and I think they've done a good job, but wearable
technology is a step too far for me.

------
Rudism
I wore a pebble for about a year and came to the conclusion that I'm much,
much happier when I'm _not_ immediately notified of every little email and
text message I get over the course of a day. I cannot even remember a single
instance in my life where I received an email that couldn't wait until later
that night or the next morning.

Now I don't wear a watch, my phone is just a phone, and I deal with email in
batches only once or twice a day on my laptop. I know a lot of people would go
into tech withdrawal if they gave up their smartphone, but for me it feels
great.

------
ivoras
This isn't specific to Apple Watch, it's about all smart-watch thingies: the
way we interact it them is just too limited. The screen is tiny, so you cannot
use it to read / watch content, and there's no way of interacting it except
for clicking a very limited number of buttons.

Though the voice recognition interface on some of them is kind of ok, it's not
private or exact enough to make it actually useful.

We have the technology - we can built it - but why? There's still not a
"killer app" nor a "killer UI" for a smart watch.

~~~
adamweld
The rotating bezel on my Gear S2 classic makes interaction easy and intuitive.
The fact that it actually looks like a watch, and the screen stays on at all
times, make it something I can actually wear and not be embarrassed about.

I've never understood why someone would buy a "watch" that doesn't display the
time at all times. Isn't that the main point of a watch? Getting notifications
and responding to texts are secondary features. A watch that doesn't tell the
time is a paperweight strapped to your wrist.

[http://i.imgur.com/ZZnx5Ld.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/ZZnx5Ld.jpg)

~~~
LCDninja
>I've never understood why someone would buy a "watch" that doesn't display
the time at all times.

Neither did I, however I found over time I got used to it.

p.s. Your photo looks awesome - is the screen really that bright?

~~~
adamweld
That photo was taken with the brightness at a medium setting (6 / 11). The
screen looks great, it gets bright and more importantly the blacks are true
black, because it's AMOLED.

------
draw_down
It doesn't seem like a very compelling product to me at all. However, I think
people made way too much hay about the expensive gold ones (Apple Watch
Edition). Its existence doesn't mean Apple is a jeweler now, it's just the
same product with a different metal that costs a lot. Apple makes consumer
electronics, including this one which at current seems to lack utility. From
what I know, most people are buying the low-end $350 aluminum one and very few
at all are buying the gold one.

------
b3b0p
I want an Apple Watch, but I'd much rather have a new G-Shock Frogman. For
some reason, having a rather fragile and easily obsoleted watch doesn't work
for me. Maybe I'm old and moldy (barely over 30) or it's what I am used to. I
might try and pick up a used one on Craig's List eventually to try out. Maybe
I'll change my mind once I try it for a bit.

------
mikhailt
No one "needs" any of the Apple products or just any electronics in general.

"Want", however, is a different story. All of my family members "want" an
Apple Watch but they have no needs for it. They never had a watch nor do they
plan to start warning one. Their smartphones (either iOS or Android) act as a
watch for them and they always have it on them.

~~~
dismal2
Ok, let's start at the beginning.

Electricity is an essential, safe, and cost effective means of lighting.
Radio/TV is a great way of receiving information about the world around you. A
computer is now an essential way to get things done in the modern world and to
participate in the market economy. A smartphone is a portable computer, it
lets you do (almost) all the things you can with a computer on the go. It is
quickly becoming essential. People need these things.

An Apple watch is just a useless status symbol, like all watches this day in
age.

~~~
mikhailt
> A computer is now an essential way to get things done in the modern world
> and to participate in the market economy.

I would say Internet is the essential way, not computers. Take the Internet
out and the equation changes completely and you can't do much without it. Take
the computers out, it still remains a valid statement.

You can use any devices you want to get on the Internet; computers,
smartphones, tablets, and so on. It is up to you and you do not "need" any
specific device, you "want" the smartphone because it is the most convenient
portable device you can use.

Do everyone need computers? No, do everyone need Internet? Most yes, it may be
the only way to pay bills for some, it may be the only way to securely
communicate in an oppressive country, and so on.

You can use libraries to get access to the Internet without owning any of the
electronics. So, no, people don't need these devices but they may need the
Internet and they want the devices to make their life easier.

------
Shorel
Apple, please do to Google Glass what you did to Blackberry.

This will help against police brutality, false reports against yourself, etc.

Everyone needs one, yesterday.

~~~
kalleboo
This article is about how people don't even want to wear a watch, and you
think people will want to wear something on their faces?

~~~
Shorel
Yes, because the recordings would be useful, while the watch does nothing a
smartphone can't do.

And I do wear something on my face all the time, glasses. Something Google
Glass totally ignored, real glasses integrated with the hardware.

------
cm2187
I'd be ready to bet the same article will be written in a year about
Microsoft's (and others) laptop-tablet convertibles.

------
6nf
The 2nd generation Apple Watch will be faster, thinner, sexier and all the old
bands will still work. (Just guessing of course) Even if they launched the Gen
2 in the next couple of months, two out of three Watch owners will upgrade.

This is already a decent little earner for Apple.

------
shinzui
Four years after launch, it's now clear that the web does not need another
useless news publication.

------
michaelbuddy
there is a $35 knockoff watch that is the perfect testing platform for whether
the smartwatch like the apple watch is going to be a useful item. It doesn't
have the app ecosystem but it has a decent UI, decent battery, decent
connectivity. You can even make a call through it apparently, which is nuts
for the price IMO. And if you find you don't like it, you can likely find
someone who will very easily to just give it to. I'm not sure about the
fitness functionality but it delivers the goods in terms of what it's like
having one on your wrist and being able to noodle around with it.

------
mgiannopoulos
>> In terms of usability, the watch has proven a tough sell. US presidential
hopeful and die-hard Apple fan Jeb Bush didn’t even know his Apple Watch could
make and receive calls. <<

With arguments like this, I wonder why this article is on HN :)

------
coldtea
a) Crashing by 10-30 times the sales of previous smart watches,

b) an 5-8 million in sales (estimations go from a low 3.1 million to a high
10.5 million),

c) and 60% of its buyers saying they'll buy the next model too (just one year
after they bought the previous one)? [http://appadvice.com/post/most-apple-
watch-owners-are-planni...](http://appadvice.com/post/most-apple-watch-owners-
are-planning-to-upgrade-to-the-next-gen-model/710517)

Sure, it's very "clear"...

Except if they mean "no one needs an Apple Watch" literally, in which case
DUH!

------
therealmarv
My phone is my watch no. 1

~~~
mikeryan
Just because my stove tells me the time that doesn't make it my watch.

~~~
creshal
Mainly because a stove is rather cumbersome to carry around. But most people
carry a (smart)phone around anyway, so why bother with a wrist-chafing watch
on top of that?

~~~
grkvlt
> wrist-chafing

You've been wearing your watch wrong, I think. A watch strap should be
adjusted to give a comfortable fit on the wrist, I bought a cheap GBP 10.00
stainless steel band for my LG Watch R (Android Wear) that I then got adjusted
in a small watch repair market stall by a friendly Russian gentleman for
another GBP 5.00 and my watch now fits perfectly. The watch works just like an
analog watch with always-on time and is a useful addition to my smart phone...

------
natch
I love being able to keep my phone ringer completely off all the time, and yet
never miss a call. "Need" it? No. Super convenient and gives me an advantage?
Yes.

------
trungonnews
I'm currently own an Apple Watch. If the future revision can operate without
the iPhone, then I plan to leave the phone at home when I go out.

------
acqq
And I consider the title of the article almost as the confirmation that the
Apple Watch is OK. Note how carefully it is worded. It's certainly not "it's
clear nobody buys." It's not "nobody will buy." It's "no one needs."

Even before the Apple Watch no one who had a smartphone "needed" a watch.

------
onewaystreet
Would things have been different if Apple hadn't branded it as a watch?

~~~
Aloha
what else would you brand it as?

it _is_ a watch.

~~~
maxander
The Apple Wrist-Mounted Ancillary Phone Interface™!

~~~
mrexroad
The Apple W.A.T.C.H.

Wrist Activated Taptic-notifying Checking Heartrates!

------
rdtsc
My work offered a deep discount on one, and I thought, even if it was free, I
don't need it. Here is the famous Apple Watch, talked about so much, and I
didn't even wanted as a free thing.

~~~
yq
I found people who wear Apple watch are solely the reviewers on Youtube. One
time I found someone has one in front of me while ordering coffee. Turns out
he is working at Genuis bar.

------
pearjuice
Apple thought they can sell anything with an Apple logo. Market mechanics
proved how horribly wrong they are.

~~~
jackweirdy
Are you kidding? No post-ipod Apple device _hasn 't_ sold. Even devices with
no real market need, like the Apple watch sell in their thousands.

~~~
duskwuff
Possible counterexample: iPod Hi-Fi.

Really a rather inexplicable product. There were already numerous iPod docks
on the market when it launched, and was neither cheaper, prettier, nor more
functional than its competitors.

I don't think Apple released any exact sales numbers, but it's safe to assume
it was a flop. The iPod Hi-Fi was quietly discontinued about a year and a half
after its launch, and there are less than a dozen currently being sold on
eBay.

~~~
charlesism
A few years back, I got a free iPod HiFi from work. It spent a year gathering
dust in my bedroom. Then I spent $30 on one of these, and it suddenly stopped
sucking:

[http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bluetooth-receiver-for-
Apple-1121-so...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bluetooth-receiver-for-
Apple-1121-sound-dock-hifi-speaker-iPhone-5-iPod-HTC-
etc-/201558414277?hash=item2eedd153c5:g:QxkAAMXQiFxR-DOE)

I understand why Apple marketing thought it would be cool to wedge your phone
in the thing at a 90 degree angle... unfortunately for Apple, normal people
look at that, and just think "no."

~~~
duskwuff
> I understand why Apple marketing thought it would be cool to wedge your
> phone in the thing at a 90 degree angle...

Nitpick: iPod, not iPhone.

The iPod Hi-Fi was released before the iPhone was even announced, and was
discontinued entirely just over a month after the iPhone was released. While I
believe it was technically compatible with the iPhone (as both devices used
the same dock connector), this clearly wasn't an intended use case.

(And in any case, the early iPhones weren't very good music players - they had
very limited storage for music, and streaming services were not available
until much later.)

~~~
dumbguy
Bluetooth didn't work like a damn for music when the Hi-Fi came out. Spec was
only 3 years baked, and wasn't in anything, certainly not the iPods everyone
had been buying at the time. We wouldn't see an iPod with bluetooth for
another couple years.

