

In the Future Everyone Will Wear a Smartwatch - melling
https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/in-the-future-everyone-will-wear-a-smartwatch/

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marssaxman
It's been more than twenty years since I last wore a watch and I'm really
happy with that situation. I see nothing a smartwatch can even theoretically
do, which a smartphone can't, which would motivate me to start wearing one.

I completely disagree with the author's assertion that "we'd give anything for
a bit more of either [health or safety]". If that were true, there would be a
long list of lifestyle changes I would make first, before I would consider
buying a fancy computer gadget and strapping it on my wrist every morning.

In fact, most people routinely make tradeoffs against health or safety in
exchange for other things they want out of life. I see no reason smartwatches
will be an exception.

~~~
Terretta
The smart watch can -- if designed like Pebble -- provide ambient awareness of
"notifications" without interruption. The smartphone cannot.

Unfortunately, Apple Watch and Android Wear don't do this nearly as well; they
are closer to the smartphone interrupt interaction model.

Pebble prevents response from the interruption which is a feature. Apple Watch
minimizes response effort, but is still disruptive. Smartphone risks
maintaining the interruption longer as the UI affords off task rabbit holes.

~~~
marssaxman
You have a point. I had been thinking about sensors and computation, but the
ambient use of touch was something I hadn't considered.

I still don't expect I'll ever want one. :-)

------
liw
Everyone who ever makes absolute statements is always wrong about everything.

I didn't wear a watch for a long time. I used my phone instead. However,
living in a place with proper winter means wearing winter clothes. Digging out
a phone from a jacket pocket becomes a whole operation. It becames evident
that wearing one more thing was preferable to using my phone to check the
time.

For a long time I thought I wanted a smartwatch. I was eagerly awaiting a
Pebble.

After a while, though, I realised that the lifetime of smartwatches if fairly
limited. They're high tech, electronic tiny computers, networked via Bluetooth
to a smartphone. They might last several years, physically, but even before
that, they might become obsolete due to software changes.

I'd rather not have a throwaway gadget, especially one in the price range of
smartwatches. Seems all manner of wasteful.

Once the technology matures, this might change. We're still waiting for that
to happen with phones, especially smartphones, but let's give it a while. I've
been using mobile phones for two decades now, maybe in another decade they'll
be mature technology. And smartwatches might mature too, two or three decades
after that.

Meanwhile, I went for a fully mechanical watch, from the low end if you ask
watch collectors, but still cheaper than a Pebble. It's supposed to last a few
decades, and should thus outlast me. I like that.

~~~
melling
Google, Apple, Samsung, and perhaps Microsoft are about to enter an arms race
with smartwatches. Progress will be made fast. This won't take 2 or 3 decades.

Also, I wouldn't rule out smart mechanical watches either:

[http://www.techtimes.com/articles/22366/20141218/tag-
heuer-h...](http://www.techtimes.com/articles/22366/20141218/tag-heuer-hints-
at-mechanical-smartwatch.htm)

~~~
liw
All four of those have been making smartphones for many years now. Smartphones
are still fragile, crashy little devices with miserable battery life and short
lives.

