

Ask HN: Does anyone think the smart watch will ever actually take off? - blaurenceclark

Serious question.
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AjJi
Apple has a horde of people waiting to buy its devices, it will take off
thanks to Apple's marketing and then 2-3years from now, they'll start claiming
that they invented smart watches.

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edwhitesell
It all depends on the application. The ones I've seen that act as an extension
of some other computing device (typically a phone) are pretty handy (har har).

When used as an additional input device, or for notifications, etc. they are
much better for basic interaction than the alternative of accessing the device
itself.

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snippeteditor
I dunno...I think smart watches are a wristy venture(hardy har har).I created
an account just for that joke.I'll go jump into a fire now.

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lazylizard
i find it really curious. the phone is already a device for consuming
notifications. now everyone is trying to sell a smartwatch to consume phone
notifications.. its so meta...

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rprospero
The trick is that the phone is a lousy device for consuming notifications.
You're either tying up your hand holding it or it's sitting in your pocket and
not actually helping. Comparatively, the watch can pass notifications while
leaving your hands free, allowing you to get things done.

In the sordid tradition of technology prognosticators, I'm going to make a
prediction: there will never be a strong game market for the smartwatch like
there was for the smartphone. Games work on the phone because the phone is
what you stare at when you're bored. The smartwatch isn't for when you're
bored, but rather for when you're busy, so there's no point in gaming on it.

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tannerj
I'll second this, but I think there is possibly a huge market for the
watch/healthkit integration. As a runner, I'm really excited about the
possibilities of a customizable tracker that I don't have to carry in my hand
while I run. Particularly pacing my runs. I'd love to have the adaptive touch
let me know when I'm falling out of a set pace.

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lazylizard
i feel like the smart watch is like the pager all over again. it can only
display limited notifications, and cannot respond..well not really...

