The Apple Watch is not a seriously compelling product, nor will it ever be as (a) useful or (b) revolutionary as the iPhone. Apple knows this, and despite what pundits and analysts might think, it doesn’t care.
Tim Cook and Johnny Ive may present the Apple Watch as an incredibly novel, sexy-as-hell product in a nascent, high-value market, but they do that with every new Apple product line because it’s their job. They know very well that the Apple Watch will not see iPhone-like, extreme revenue generation.
Apple Watch was not designed to be a high-growth, standalone product. It was designed to be a companion to the iPhone. As such, Apple Watch success will be a direct function of iPhone success. As long as the iPhone continues to sell in mind-boggling quantities with a mind-boggling growth rate, the Apple Watch will enjoy a growing market as a complementary product with recurring revenues every 2 years or so, in line with the iPhone.
While sales of the iPhone and the Apple Watch will not match up 1:1, the ratio will still be high enough for Apple to make a decently profitable side business out of selling watches to a growing subset of consumers who will find some set of tenuous and borderline-indescribable reasons to purchase one. [1]
When Apple demoed the iPhone, many folks were amazed at how much computer they had fit into the form factor. And of course the iPhone 6s makes the first iPhone look like a toy.
At some point technology will permit iPhone-level computing in a form factor the size of a watch. When that happens, it will require new UI concepts to make that power usable. Apple has started the learning process by seeing what works in the market.
While the first generation iPhone started out buggy and feature-sparse, the form factor was completely revolutionary: a phone with a touch screen and internet capabilities. A mini-computer in your pocket, rather than just a phone. It set itself up for future success as wifi, 3g + 4g networks, and the app ecosystem developed over the next decade.
[Some] will argue that there will be a different ecosystem of apps for the Apple Watch. To that I would say, fine, but what are the inputs, mediums, and outputs of this new form factor? What data collection, processing, and presentation applications will be better on the Apple Watch than they are on a smartphone or a computer? What new and compelling apps are possible from these new IO and processing capabilities?
The only input that the Apple Watch gets that is different from a smartphone is from its physical location on the user’s wrist — a pulse. Otherwise, outputs will be relatively restricted and less useful than the iPhone’s outputs due to the watch’s smaller screen. Who wants to play a game, read a book, or surf the web on a watch? Nobody.
The Apple Watch is a glorified fitness tracker that obviates the need to take your phone out of your pocket to check notifications. Its secondary function is a marker of status, but there are plenty of other things you could buy to signal wealth to potential mates. [1]
I think smart watches will take off when they get good enough to be a second phone (LG almost launched this a couple weeks ago). It makes sense to get the platform out before that happens so that users and 3rd party developers can help improve it.
I have the complete opposite view. Early smart watches sucked because they just tried to be an android phone on your wrist. The most popular smart watch, the pebble (disclaimer: I own one) is also by far the least featureful. People don't want or need a second phone, they want the ability to get notifications, control their music, and tell time without having to take their phone out of their pocket.
So if you could get something equivalent to the Pebble that could also take phone calls when you were on a run (or at a bar, or ...), that would not be a good addition?
I don't think there is a big market for notifications. I think the tech is roughly in place to do notifications well (they are still pretty bulky), so people that get a lot out of that feature are satisfied. I pretty well implied that the tech isn't in place to have a compact watch that can also take calls, so I'm not really worried that early attempts failed to serve that function.
I can already do that with the Pebble as long as I've got headphones on. I wouldn't mind the addition of a microphone for voice input (the new Pebble Time has this), but I definitely don't want a speakerphone on my watch.
I think they will only take off when they get good enough to be the only phone... which I think will not happen or until it happens, some other, better thingammabob will be the dominant tech.
I dunno, I'd be way more inclined to pay extra for a sport watch/mp3 player that I could take phone calls on than I am inclined to pay for a smart watch that shows me notifications when it is near my phone (I guess I still wouldn't pay $500 for it).
I'm not super excited that it is centralized and cloud mediated, but the cross device integration is a valuable piece of the puzzle. I don't want to lose the ability to use a medium sized device for the same purposes, I want to be able to choose whichever one is best for what I'm doing.
The Apple Watch works well for my (N=1?) use case: I have an iPhone 6 plus, and no, I don't want to pull it out of my pocket or bag dozens of times a day.
I had an iPhone 5, and loved the form factor, but not the battery life. The 6+ can handle a couple of days of use as a smartphone and mobile internet access point. The larger screen is irrelevant to me, but the larger battery matters.
I like that when the phone rings, I see who's calling on the watch. Same for personal messages from my daughter, son, or +1. I like paying for coffee with a bar code on my wrist. I care about the weather and appointments on my wrist, and yes I have used it to call an Uber. The watch needs a better battery life, and it will be a game changer when it becomes untethered. But for now, it is fine just the way it is. I think the Apple Watch is a successful product.
As for the post, the title speaks to the watch being a failed platform. It may well be that, Apple has commoditized iOS apps, the opportunity for people to get stinking rich from watch apps is going to be smaller.
But if it can be a successful product, I think that is enough. IMO, Apple is playing defense, not offense. Apple wins if people keep buying iPhones. The danger with wearables is that by the time you can make a watch that replaces a smartphone for a lot of use cases, Apple might get disrupted. Likewise if watches tethered to smartphones were to become essential, Apple could get disrupted if it had a poor experience.
The last thing Tim Cook wants is to wake up one day and find people walking into stores, buying a Pebble Gizmo2016, and asking the clerk, "What's the cheapest phone that works with my new Pebble?"
I have a feeling that the Apple Watch 1.0 is doing enough to hedge against watches disrupting smartphones. As the leader in smartphones, that's its first concern.
This is my case exactly. What else can it possibly do? It tells me the time, wiggles my wrist for all my appts, reminders, messages, slacks, and even answer phone calls. Oh and it tracks my pathetic exercise and motion as a bonus.
I can now leave my iPhone6 on my desk at work, and on a table and home and never have to carry it around with me (at those locations). It does exactly what a >Watch< should do. It's not a computer it's a 2nd screen for my phone.
I had an iPhone 5, and loved the form factor, but not the battery life. The 6+ can handle a couple of days of use as a smartphone and mobile internet access point. The larger screen is irrelevant to me, but the larger battery matters.
Do you think the purchase of a Watch could have a bearing on iPhone purchase decisions based on the phone's battery life (if we do not see untethering in the near future)?
I really think apple missed on the aesthetics with this one: they should have gone with a round watch and used the rotating bezel (either physical or touch) for input, rather than a tiny crown. Even if it remained a niche product, which always seemed the most likely outcome, at least there would be some interesting design work to do with a circular UX.
I think that Ressence Watches (which are, ironically, mechanical) has done the most compelling modern watch design:
Something like the Type 3, with a touch-rotating bezel, would nail the smartwatch aesthetic the way that the iPhone 5 hinted at the platonic ideal of cell phones.
Well, as I said initially, I don't think that this product was ever going to be a home run.
Regarding busywork, it's worth recalling that "the enemy of art is the absence of limitations."
A circular UI would introduce some very interesting constraints and give Apples designers a chance to work in a new problem space. The tension and interplay there could lead to more interesting innovation than the scaled down mobile screen they are currently have.
And using the bezel, rather than a tiny crown, as the rotational input, which a circular watch allows, is an obvious usability win.
I'm not saying that a round face is a bad idea, just that the OP suggested making it round specifically so that the designers can explore a round watch face. That's busywork.
(and I suspect Apple did it at some point in the development of the watch anyway)
I agree - although I thought this when I saw the pebble time round - combine that with the scrolling from pre-touch ipods and you have something much more tactical, and prettier.
But, the iWatch is more fashion than function, so I'm not surprised it's stalled. v2 or v3 might pose some more appealing features, but for now i'm iWatchless, and i'm totally fine with that.
I thought that not being round was a error too. Now--I don't think it would have mattered. Once I saw it disassembled, and read the reviews, I couldn't see the point in buying it.
I understand they need a smart watch. Like another person pointed out, the last thing Appke wants is "Will this (any brand smart watch) work with my iPhone."
So they need a smart watch? When they figure out all the problems it might be a easier sell? Until they get to that point, I think they should work on making it waterproof.
A waterproof watch is not an easy engineering feat. Most watches, even high end watches, are not waterproof. Yes, they say they are, but unless you are vigilant on servicing a high-end watch; it will leak. I have had so many water resistant/proof watches cloud up while river rafting, or even sea kayaking.
I think Apple should focus on a truly waterproof watch. I think it would be a great selling point. It seems like it would be an easy engineering feat, but it's hard. They could do away with the crown. That would be one less gasket to worry about. And then you still need to access the internals for repair? You want customers thinking they will have this watch for life?
I think what Apple forgot about when designing the Iwatch is this; When people decide to buy a high-end watch, a little part of them is thinking, I'll have this watch for life? If it needs repair/servicing--I can easily it repaired. (If it's out of warranty it's very difficult/expensive to repair these high end watches.) "Hell, if I get tired of it, I'll sell it?" "I love those 60 year old Bubble-backs--they must be bullet proof?" "If I buy this watch, I give it to my kid eventually?"
When I look at the Iwatch, none of these thoughts come to mind. Actually, maybe Apple should have never tried to play up the luxury branding of the Iwatch. Forget about the 18k gold, and all that. Lower the pricing point. Make it truely water resistant. Maybe even waterproof?
But then again, what do I know? I do collect/repair old watches. I really wanted to like the Iwatch. Maybe the next model?
It's too fucking slow! Every interaction with a non-Apple app takes like 5 seconds just to boot the app.
Siri goes away and thinks for dozens of seconds when you ask her something and sometimes never comes back. Even once text has been translated from speech, it sometimes takes 5 seconds to actually send a text.
The functionality is amazing, but the speed of the device is abysmal.
I love everything that it does do, but it is too painful to do it.
I feel the same, to the point I'm now selling my watch and can't see myself buying v2 unless there's a huge improvement.
I use it for telling the time, tracking my activity, and reading iMessages, but I now know that attempting to do anything else I'd possibly want to (like replying to a message) will take twice as long on the watch as it does to take my phone out of my pocket and do it on there. It even lags while scrolling a notification, sometimes.
Many of my friends are the same, although don't dislike it enough to sell it. They don't plan to upgrade to the next version, however.
Edit: I also wish notifications were smarter. I like that you can choose which apps have their notifications show up on the watch, but it's currently all or nothing. I'd like to be able to choose what type of notifications show up. For example, I want notifications for Twitter DMs on my watch, but not notifications for likes, retweets, etc.
I assume smart watches are still way too early in their development life-cycle to analyze whether or not they are useful as a product. Remember the original iPhone? It didn't have the app store. The first day I got my iPhone 6, I didn't have an internet connection and couldn't connect to anything. It felt almost useless. I think the difference with smart watches is that we already have the power/versatility of smart phones, in effect, we have already realized their great potential. We didn't have this standard when getting the first iPhone to compare it to. It's possible watches will have some type of evolution that is as great (but probably less) from the first iPhone to the 6S.
I don't see myself buying a smart watch anytime soon, but I said the same thing about buying a smartphone years ago.
I want to have an open mind about the smartwatch platform, but when I look back and compare my thoughts about the Apple Watch to my thoughts about the original iPhone, I find a few differences. Even in its v.1 state, the iPhone offered lots of value: maps, web browser, nice touch-optimized calendar/ email/photo apps. People were excited by that. I'm just not getting that same sense of immediate value from the Apple Watch.
> I don't see myself buying a smart watch anytime soon, but I said the same thing about buying a smartphone years ago.
But a smartphone solves problems. lots of problems. GPS, camera, email... it does a lot. A smartwatch has to solve different problems, or current problems better, to be useful. Whereas right now it's more fashion than function.
Of course, the original iPhone didn't have GPS nor a camera that could compete with any of the digital ones available at the time. I think the problem is that almost all of the 3rd party apps run very slowly on the iWatch. I _really_ want to know how close my Uber driver is by staring at my wrist, but right now it's no faster than opening my phone.
I agree, that's why I wouldn't buy one right now. But future technology is hard to predict. I couldn't have predicted something like the app store. There might be some unforeseen killer feature that smart watches will dominate. Who knows.
There are many problems to be solved in health monitoring and sleep- and fitness-tracking. And there is a real market for fitness bands, even if it's not a huge one.
There's also a designer watch/fashion market, which is the one that seems to be of more interest to Apple. However, it doesn't appear to be winning in that one.
The current Apple Watch market appears to be "geeks with iPhones who live in Silicon Valley, or wannabees". How is it doing there?
For me, the Apple Watch has done a great job of solving meeting notifications. I have lots of meetings throughout the day, and it keeps me on track much better then my phone ever did. I also like the fact that I can keep my phone at my desk for long chunks of time and not miss important notifications.
The watch is not for everyone; however there are a few use cases that it handles much better than a phone (at least for me).
It's a watch first, computer second, not the other way around. And that's the right way to do it, IMO. FWIW, I'm enjoying mine. Its heart rate monitor is about as accurate as a chest strap. Its timekeeping is accurate (unlike with Android Wear which sometimes struggles with this basic task). It shows me which meeting I have next (if any). It tells me to stand up and shows text messages. It lets me set the timer while I cook without touching anything. Battery lasts a day and a half. And it'll only get better over time. That said I don't use any apps aside from built in ones.
Are you contending that Android Wear watching can't keep time? I'm willing to listen if you have any evidence, but that sounds like an extraordinary claim.
> Its heart rate monitor is about as accurate as a chest strap.
I'm surprised to hear that. I've found the apple watch to have very significant errors for measuring heart rates, often over 20% versus a chest strap.
For my purposes that makes it largely useless. I'm admittedly serious about tracking my exertion levels: I run about 40+ miles per week, use a Polar Ft7 for comparison.
If you think keeping time accurately is a notable feature in a $300+ digital watch, you seriously need to re-think how you evaluate usefulness of a product.
First, Not many people buy expensive mechanical watches. If they do, they already know that the time may be inaccurate sometimes.
Second, Macbook Pro is not a great example since its primary purpose is not displaying time.
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree then. I think it is a watch with additional functions, not something else that also works as a watch.
For me, any smartwatch's primary purpose is telling time. Everything else it does is secondary.
Having said that, you shouldn't buy Apple Watch for just telling time. You're better off buying regular watch for that.
What main competitor is not keeping time correctly?
The main competitor for any smart watch is the regular watch.
Specifically for the Apple Watch it is one of the many smart watches running Android Wear or the Pebble. I have never heard or seen anything to indicate these watches have a problem with keeping time.
Now that I think about it, I don't think I have ever seen anything about Apple Watch having problems keeping time. Do you have sources to back up your claim?
I feel the same way about Android Wear. I got my G Watch in 2014. I still like it, but I'm not doing anything with it that I wasn't doing the first week I had it.
Maybe it's the platform, or maybe there just aren't a ton of things I'm interested in doing on my watch.
Personally I'm fine with it. But some people expected smartwatches to have the same momentum that smartwatch and tablet had in the early days - tons of new apps, becoming more useful all the time, etc.
Whew! I'm pretty sure I armchaired-critiqued the Watch when it first came out (basically, my reasoning was that unlike the iphone, ipod, and ipad -- there is not as much inherently appealing on paper about having a watch, because of its physical form factor, among other things)...so now I can be a little relieved that maybe I won't be a CmdrTaco/iPod meme 10 years from now :)
Have to disagree on this one. The 6th gen iPod nano (https://support.apple.com/library/content/dam/edam/applecare...) is my absolute favorite, so if they made the Apple Watch able to be an iPod without accompanying iphone AND able to support bluetooth wireless headphones, I'm sold. Perfect fitness form factor.
Would it be successful today, though? I say that as someone who bought and loved the iPod touch...but quickly abandoned it since it can't load any of the modern music apps...I've pretty much abandoned not just my physical CD collection, but iTunes as well, for Spotify. I'm not saying the old iPod touch is useless...it's just I'm not going to bother to turn it on and maintain it when I have an iPhone 6, even though the phone is much bigger and not quite as nice for working out with. I'm hypothesizing that such tradeoffs in software usability will outweigh the form factor.
I thought the problems with the Watch were bigger than just its physical limitations, though...Even if the iPod lacked wireless and cost more and had less HD space than competing MP3 players, you don't have to "sell* the concept that a portable music player is going to be just awesome...sure, you may not be able to afford it, but at least you can aspire to it, because virtually everyone loves music, and before the iPod or any mp3 player had come along, they had Walkmans. Or they plugged their headphones into their laptops.
But that universal appeal didn't seem to apply to the Watch. I don't have a watch because I don't see it as a necessary fashion accessory (I think it goes without saying that a watch is no longer necessary for telling time). So whatever non-obvious features the Watch has...Apple can't rely as much on my consumerism-fueled imagination to aspire to buy it...even if I'm not falling into the mindset of "well my phone, which I already carry with me all the time, does everything the watch does".
I don't think I'm underestimating the appeal of the form factor. The original iPad has been the only thing that I've ever waited in line for an Apple opening (OK, that and the first Apple Store in Iowa)...yeah, you can call it a "big iPhone"...but I already know that I don't really enjoy reading/writing things on my iPhone...or, at least I can imagine such activities being much better if only I had a bigger screen -- and if I didn't have to pop-open a laptop.
I don't have the same imagination for the fact that I can look at my watch without pulling it from my pocket. I already hate that I pull out my phone almost reflexively to check it while I'm idling around in real life, so being able to do that on a tiny screen on my wrist has very little appeal to me, certainly not enough to pay hundreds for.
Yea I'm really surprised Apple didn't go with this route initially. Add the heartbeat measurer + calories burner and it will be the perfect fitness assist device.
I guess they don't want to pigeonhole a device into a specific category.
It's interesting that new devices always have a ratio of "cool factor" vs dorky, show-off or elitist (partly due to jealousy as well as actual dorkiness). The iPhone for example, I'd sa initially had about 90% cool factor, and about 10% of the negative. It's evolved to where probably only a tiny minority of people consider an iPhone to be dorky.
Google glass, on the other hand, seems in my observation to have launched with about 25% cool factor and 75% dorky, show-off, elitist kinda vibe to it. It devolved from there.
Despite Apple's reputation for coolness, the watch seems like it's at about 50/50 on the scale at best. I love technology and probably have a reputable score on the dorkiness scale myself. But, when I see Apple watches, they even seem a bit much for me.
They need to get the battery life above "1 day". I think that's what's stopping MANY people. In my case, I almost need sleep tracking (diagnosed with a sleep disorder).
I think I saw it here, but somebody had a pretty solid system for sleep tracking/making use of the silent alarms, which I've taken to using. Basically, you charge it twice per day, while you shower/brush/floss/eat in the morning and in the evening - basically, pop it off for an hour or so where you don't really need it and charge it then. It recharges really quickly, especially at lower battery levels.
I think this is a great future market. It's quite unfortunate that, although the Apple watch has a pulse oximeter in it, the functionality is currently disabled. Reportedly because it would then be a medical device in the eyes of the FDA.
Good sleep tracking, just that one function, could conceivably sell millions of units.
Just curious what benefit do you get from sleep tracking? I had sleep problems for a while. I wasn't really sure how helpful it would be for an app to tell me I had a crappy night's sleep! Is there more to it than that?
It's evidence to show people (family, doctors, etc... and yourself). It's harder evidence than flaky human memory or "impressions" of how I slept, in any event. You can literally see how crappy your sleep is, on a chart. It's rather eye-opening, and if you have a wife or girlfriend who wonders why you're a space cadet today who can't get anything done, you can always point to the "4 hours of good shuteye" chart from last night (if it exists) lol
I recently imported the Huawei Mediapad X2, a 7-inch phone with a 16:10 1200P screen not unlike the Nexus 7. I use it both for phone functions (BT headphones) but also as my primary web browsing, magazine/ebook reading and mobile gaming/XBMC device.
A smartwatch is the perfect accessory to a device like this, which is too large/unwieldy to use at the gym, or pull out for things like map directions, public transit arrival times, email notifications, etc. None of these are a problem with smaller phones, like the 6 Plus or Galaxy Note.
The Apple Watch is a poor solution for this, because, like the 2001 iPod, it requires a Mac device to work. And even if it didn't, like Android Wear devices, it must be tethered to a smartphone for most of its functions, as opposed to functioning as a standalone device.
I understand Apple, Google, etc. don't want to cannibalize device sales, but it seems ridiculous to me that a V1.0 smartwatch costing $300+ can't even support music playback on local storage, or have a built-in GPS and maps that work offline. If I'm on the go, I'd like to limit the number of expensive devices I'm carrying with me where possible. I think the same goes for most people, otherwise people would still be carrying their flip phones and digital cameras around. Yes, of course there are hobbyists who need their DSLR with them all the time, but the majority of people are happy with a solution that's good enough and convenient enough.
I'm not even thinking about more advanced features like a built in video camera that, with the appropriate strap, could act as a body cam or a helmet cam. I'm sure future versions will offer such functionality, but V1.0 functionality is already so limited, I simply can't muster any enthusiasm for this class of devices yet.
I'm still trying to figure out what an Apple Watch does that my iPhone doesn't do better. Notifications might be nice, but if I'm sitting down my phone is generally on the table/desk in front of me, and if I'm on the go I probably have my phone out anyway, or can pull it out in about a second. Fitbit-type functions would be nice, I suppose, but I'd rather just get a Fitbit for a fraction of the cost.
A smart watch just doesn't seem to add anything significant in the way that smart phones did. Smart phone benefits over a laptop are huge, but smart watch benefits over a smart phone are quite small. I think we're just seeing the natural limitations of a product with this form factor.
The watch is a pretty decent fitness tracker. Certainly better than an iPhone. It's more expensive than a FitBit, though the FitBit Surge is not cheap at $250.
Notifications are actually really nice. My phone has been on silent for months. When I'm at home, I never, ever have my phone with me anymore. Basically wherever I go I just put my phone down and forget about it because the watch is a sufficient proxy. Is it life changing? Nope, but it's definitely convenient.
I've taken phone calls through my watch when cooking before. That was actually really cool.
I think you're forgetting that it's also, well, a watch. I always find it silly how people underplay the fact that smartwatches are also just watches. In my case, I have the time, date, temperature / weather conditions, next meeting time, activity tracking, and the time of sunrise/sunset all available with a split second glance on my wrist. Again, it's not life changing, but it sure is convenient. The sport band is also way more comfortable than almost all traditional watches I've ever worn; I often barely notice I have it on.
I flew a bunch recently and I loved having my gate and terminal information for my next flight right on my watchface.
I don't regret getting the watch at all. It's been a really pleasant companion on my wrist.
I've never really understood why people are mystified by smartwatches. They're just watches that do more and provide more information. People wear them for the same reason they would wear any watch. They're not even that expensive. Maybe $350 sounds like a lot, but I can find you hundreds of Citizen quarts watches for that price or more. $350 is just not high in the watch world.
Great points. I think I'm just not a smart watch person in general. The added convenience factor just doesn't seem worth wearing a bulky device on my wrist that I can't use to get work done. I still have an iPhone 5s because I like being able to easily carry my phone in a pocket everywhere, and still have full-fledged input/output and connectivity capabilities. If I had a phablet things might be different.
I find it ironic that the iPhone itself probably got a significant number of people out of the habit of wearing watches. Once my phone could tell me what time it was, that was the end of my watch-wearing days. Though, I never really liked them anyway.
Cell phones have always been able to tell time. I wore a watch all the way until I purchased my first dumbphone. I'm not interested in watches for accessorizing/aesthetic purposes, so as soon as it's primary function was supplanted by my phone, I ditched it.
Everyone who wasn't wearing rose-tinted glasses knew this. Even when the pebble came out, I was skeptical. What can you do with an interface and battery that small?
It's too awkward to hold your arm out for the amount of time needed to meaningfully interact with it. They're big and clunky on small wrists, and the screen is way too small for people with big fingers. For the price you pay for one, you can get a really nice designer watch, which isn't limited by the lifetime of lithium-ion batteries.
It's just a silly gimmick, but so many people have buyer's remorse about it, that they forced themselves into the habit of using it.
I don't think my pebble time is a gimmick. Not having to fumble through my bag to pull out my phone on every other notification or to check the time makes the pebble worth it. It's not a gimmick, it's a time saver.
I also no longer have notification noises on, I just have a thing on my wrist that vibrates. Again, a not insignificant quality of life improvement.
If I used iOS instead of Android I'd probably have an Apple Watch instead of a PT, since that works better with that platform.
I don't really care about smart watches being a platform for apps. Maybe that has stalled, but it doesn't matter to me. I haven't found a single app for the PT I think is useful. It doesn't mean I don't find my PT useful. If I lost it today, I'd order another one without hesitation.
Perhaps this is where you and I differ, but I can honestly say there is no notification I have received in the last week, even month, that required my immediate attention. Every single one could have waited 5-10 minutes until I was able to pull out my phone. And my phone is generally on the desk in front of me, so I can see the notifications anyways.
I have to ask, what are you doing that it is so important for you to see the notifications immediately? I just have a hard time imagining what notification is so important that you need something vibrating on your wrist to tell you of it.
For me, it's not about notifications being so urgent. It's about convenience. I definitely do get very important notifications sometimes, but probably very few that need to be responded to faster than 5-10 minutes.
The thing is that I never have to even remember to check. That's why it's so convenient. I've completely eliminated "check phone for notifications" from my mental to-do list. That's a task I simply never have to do again. That might not count for much for you, but in my case I like just being able to place my phone down, forget about it for potentially hours, and still not have to worry about missing anything.
Speaking as a person who goes to a lot of meetings, having the right notifications on my wrist are great. I am rarely late for meetings now, and I can keep track of key events while sitting in those meetings. A look at my wrist is much more subtle than a look at my phone.
I don't need to check notifications right away - but I like to. It's definitely a personal preference and nowhere near a necessity. This is why I don't see smartwatches becoming as universal as smartphones.
> Not having to fumble through my bag to pull out my phone on every other notification or to check the time makes the pebble worth it.
How many notifications do you receive that it would come out to be worth it? Seems like cutting down on the notifications would yield a higher return than spending money on a pebble time, or any other smartwatch.
I carefully manage notifications. Notifications that buzz actually require my immediate attention: slack notifications, texts from my wife, important emails.
As other commenters have noted, this seems like hyperbole. But on the off chance this is true, it really sounds like you need a vacation. HN is a little culty at times, but I'd suggest a long look in the mirror or a good mai tai session on a beach. Get back to you and what is really important to you, we only have so much time on this planet, and responding to every email is likely not going to be on your highlights reel
For the price you pay for one, you can get a really nice designer watch
To flip around, you mean for all the money I pay for that designer watch, all it does is tell time? Hell, I've got my phone for that. An expensive device that takes up space on my wrist just to tell time in a world full of clocks is just a silly gimmick, but so many people have buyer's remorse about it, that they forced themselves into the habit of using it.
Of course, I don't believe any of that. Different strokes and all, and if folks want to blow cash on time-telling jewelry that can't even tell me what the weather is tomorrow, more power to them.
I think expectations are to high and it has a low ceiling in terms of potential. Apple shouldn't have gotten into this market for years to come but the pressure from investors forced them.
I didn't think I wanted one until I saw someone else using one. I bought one and used it for a week before returning it. I didn't keep it because: the screen was unusable when damp, the connection to my phone was really slow, the watch itself was also slow. The strava app was particularly bad.
It was good for pausing music and choosing podcasts with the overcast app.
I've now got a Garmin 235. It's much more comfortable, has a GPS, better battery etc. It also does all the health stuff and has an HRM.
Might be useful to turn it around and consider how the phone ecosystem has changed. I got my phone, I play podcasts, audiobooks, email, web browser, maps, music, kindle app, and nothing has changed in several years on my phone.
The article was very unclear about what rapidly changed in the phone market for all but the earliest adopters. And given that its basically a phone 2nd display, its not new at all.
The biggest issue with the Apple Watch is that third-party apps are heavily stunted. Basic things like audio/video streaming and audio recording aren't supported yet (only for Apple's own apps). Once the OS is upgraded to support additional features I think we'll see the ecosystem expand a lot more.
A propos of nothing, I love my Watch (a self-gift 2 weeks ago) but I can't see a thing on it except the time unless I have my glasses on. And I really only have my glasses on when I'm working on my laptop (which is a lot) in which case I can see the time on the screen, no need to move my arm.
When the iPhone was about this mature, it didn't even have native apps yet. One presumes that the watch will become substantially more powerful and better utilised over time too.
Maybe it is just me, but iPhone in 2007 was revolutionary and mind-blowing. You had grown men crying and falling off their seats during the keynote. Before native apps, before GPS, before 3G—the iPhone blew people's socks and changed the world. The critics and skeptics were quickly silenced in 2007. People broke contracts and paid extra fees! People switched carriers and put up with bad voice quality and dropped calls to continue owning one. Millions put up with a slow buggy phone. People didn't have buyers remorse and return it en masse—they bought a new one each year! Year after year you had long lines at stores on launch day.
Does anyone else not remember this?!
From comments online, I find it really hard to believe that the world has collectively forgotten that. Did I live in a bubble, or is everyone else's memory of 2007 just way off? From what I remembered, it was outright mass hysteria.
The watch, OTOH, just doesn't excite people the same way. Critics and skeptics have not been silenced. It doesn't even excite their owners the same way. People are buying and returning the watches. Owners are defensive when talking about the watch, instead of the cult-like adoration and mass hysteria that followed the original iPhone.
All in less than 10 seconds ... used to take 10 minutes, including taking out my laptop
If it's possible with an Apple Watch, surely you could also do it on your iPhone?
That's the problem with the watch for me - not that it can't do things, but that those things are also possible on an iPhone, and the extra expense/remembering to charge/etc isn't worth it for the ~3 second convenience.
Tim Cook and Johnny Ive may present the Apple Watch as an incredibly novel, sexy-as-hell product in a nascent, high-value market, but they do that with every new Apple product line because it’s their job. They know very well that the Apple Watch will not see iPhone-like, extreme revenue generation.
Apple Watch was not designed to be a high-growth, standalone product. It was designed to be a companion to the iPhone. As such, Apple Watch success will be a direct function of iPhone success. As long as the iPhone continues to sell in mind-boggling quantities with a mind-boggling growth rate, the Apple Watch will enjoy a growing market as a complementary product with recurring revenues every 2 years or so, in line with the iPhone.
While sales of the iPhone and the Apple Watch will not match up 1:1, the ratio will still be high enough for Apple to make a decently profitable side business out of selling watches to a growing subset of consumers who will find some set of tenuous and borderline-indescribable reasons to purchase one. [1]
[1] http://roymurdock.com/essays/2015/07/apple-watch-form-factor...