Now, I am anything but a Luddite. In fact, I’m an early adapter of new technology provided that I can use it and it is useful to me.
I’ve never been an Apple user, but I got an iPhone soon after they came out. I’ve had a Facebook account since January of 2007, though I use it less and less every year. I hear about new browsers and search engines every week it seems, but as long as Google and Chrome get the job done for me, I’ll stick with them.
That brings me to the iWatch. Does this actually do anything other devices aren’t already doing better? Or is it just smaller and strapped to your wrist? One of the most desired features of the new iPhone is the larger screen, so what’s the advantage of a smaller version? I’m sure it’s fine for receiving messages, but sending anything is going to require going back to styluses, which always get lost. “I’ll forward that email to you, Joe, but I’ve got to find a pencil and a pencil sharpener first.” Let that image roll around in your mind for a minute…
The wristwatch has been seen and experimented with as a technology delivery device, but has it ever succeeded with any app that doesn’t involve telling time? Runners use them, but again, only for keeping time. Calculators failed, digital watches only served to identify dorks from afar. I just don’t see where being able to instantly send someone your GPS coordinates and heart rate is going to prove useful.
Am I missing something or is this the next Segway or Google Glass?
The problem with the iWatch is the same is the same problem that the competing watches have - it isn’t standalone and requires you to also have an iPhone with you to pair with to use most of the advanced features. That is no good. There was some speculation that Apple was going to come out with a standalone watch that is more like a tiny iPhone but they couldn’t seem to pull it off. I can see there being significant usefulness of having a full-fledged tiny computer on your wrist especially if it had really good voice control. Having to pair it with an iPhone just means you have to keep up and charge two devices instead of one.
I have a few friends who’ve been wearing smart watches for a couple of months and they almost all report that it’s one of those things that seem frivolous at first but then become indispensable, especially if you use your phone to do a lot of communication.
The main advantage seems to be the ability to triage messages. You can see at a glance whether a message is a) something important and b) something that needs a reply to which makes a big difference if you’re getting a lot of messages.
Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen for a while due to power constraints. Batteries for smart watches fall around the 1 Watt-hour range which, for a 16 hour battery life, means you need to keep your average power budget to below 60 milliWatts. That’s to power a constantly on screen, a Pentium 3 class CPU and a constantly connected bluetooth radio. Adding a Wifi radio, a cell radio and a GPS receiver and still staying within the power budget is going to require quite a few more technological breakthroughs.
I guess I just don’t see why the wristwatch configuration makes things any better. You can triage email on the phone in you pocket, plus a bunch of other things as well.
Samsung is supposedly going to release a standalone smart watch with full phone capability soon. I don’t know how good it will be but they are the early leaders in that race with several previous releases already. I won’t be buying one but standalone watches may be truly useful to some people. All it takes is a few killer apps that take advantage of the form factor to make them really take off. I don’t think anyone knows what those are yet but even smartphones took a few years to make themselves truly useful to large numbers of people as well.
Because it just requires a glance. It’s especially useful for the short informational type messages like “running 5m late” that don’t require a response.
Supposedly it can parse a received message and provide a menu of likely responses that can be chosen with no further input; e.g., “Sorry, can’t make it tonight.”
BTW, the item in question is called the Apple Watch, not the iWatch.
The feature that intrigued me was the haptic signaling for walking directions. As my vision deteriorates, the idea of feeling a little tap to tell me when to turn left or right when I’m out and about by myself sounds very cool.
On the other hand, it’s kind of expensive, bulky, and I doubt I’ll be able to read the screen outdoors–I use VoiceOver on my iPhone when I’m outside. No idea if the Apple Watch will support that in a useful way (probably, given Apple’s track record on accessibility, but maybe not enough to make it worth it for me). And, yeah, battery life.
To the original question about why, I actually have a Pebble watch which I really like.
It’s synched to my Android phone using Bluetooth and can last up to a week on a single charge. it doesn’t have the heart rate sensors or anything but it does have other fitness aps you can load onto it.
For mine, what I like about it is that I can change the watch face whenever I want, I don’t have to have the same one. if I want a rolex watch face, I can. if I want an 80’s casio digital watchface, i can.
Also, I really like how I can get notifications on it. if I’m wandering round the yard or house I don’t need to have my phone on me, just in Bluetooth range. If someone texts me, i can read it on the watch face. Same as a Facebook notification. If my phone rings, the watch vibrates and shows the number, giving me a chance to get to the phone rather than missing the call.
Are any of these things essential, can’t live without features? Nope. But for what it is, I like it.
I’ll see how the Samsung Gear S works out and check the reviews once it’s actually released and if any good, I’ll buy one as I really like the idea of the stand alone watch/phone.
It seems like they got a bunch of details right. The size in particular - 38mm is about the biggest you’d want to wear on a small wrist. And they’ve put a lot of thought into the finer details of the UI. If it’s properly waterproof and the battery life is sufficent, then it’s a technical success.
I don’t think the price is an issue. Anyone buying a watch is going to spend either $20, or hundreds and up. And most of the $20 crowd probably don’t wear watches at all now that they have phones. A watch is a luxury item.
The thing is, how is it better than just pulling your phone out of your pocket? Sure, I can see a text message or alert. On a tiny screen. When I move my wrist up to my face. That’s something I’d do maybe once or twice a day. And I’d probably want to get my phone out to reply. I could make a phone call… what am I going to do, move my wrist back and forth between my mouth and ear?
That’s not a failure of the Apple watch, I think it’s just the nature of smart watches in general. I think what Apple might have succeeded at doing here is proving that they’re a niche product at best.
The health monitoring stuff is more interesting. It could make a useful gadget for training. But the Apple watch’s sensors don’t seem to be better than those already available in other devices. And I suspect the screen will mean that its battery life is marginal at best.
I was kind of hoping they’d announce not a watch, but something more like an ipod shuffle with fitness tracking sensors. Strap it on your arm when you go for a jog, listen to music, track everything. I might buy that. But probably not the watch.
I’m not terribly interested in a $350 watch (“and up”), although I do like the looks of a couple of the watch bands. The only real value in it for me is that it will vibrate when I get a notification- that’s one of my frustrations with having a phone. If it’s in my pocket and I’m walking or in a loud area I don’t know when there’s an incoming notification, and if I’m expecting something I have to carry it in my hand until it comes through so I know I won’t miss it. I won’t miss a vibration on my wrist.
But I don’t really have any interest in the rest of it.
Yeah, the whole idea kind of falls flat for me, too, though I don’t even have a smart phone, so my opinion is of no value. I can’t help but think of it in terms of “I only have glowing rectangular screens in sizes very large, large, medium, small, and very small so far. How can I possibly live without also having one that’s very very small?!”
I wear a fitness tracker on my wrist now that this would replace. I know the new iPhones have similar functions but womens clothing does not have pockets in many cases and I’d rather know how much I’m moving than how much my purse is moving.
I like the wide selection of options they demo’d and I’m giving them time to reveal more functionality as we’re still over 3 months away from release. I’m not sold yet but I’m definitely not buying an upgraded fitness tracker until it’s released.
There was a mockup of one styled like the Nike Fuelband. If the Apple Watch had looked like that, I’d be a lot more interested in it. Instead, it just looks frumpy to me.
I had this great idea for an invention last year, and I went in to work all excited to tell everyone about it…and was informed it was already being done. I was a bit deflated, but happy to hear I might get my wish.
The idea was a wristwatch that would work with your cell phone. It would
Tell time (so I don’t have to dig out my phone just for the time)
Make noise/vibrate when the phone rang or a text came in (I can’t always hear it in my purse)
Let me know who’s calling/texting and have an option to read the text.
Have a feature to help me find my phone when I misplace it.
I could have thought of many other functions, but the above are what I really wanted.
I haven’t seen or read a thing about the iWatch yet, but it sounds like it will do at least the top 3 plus a lot more. It’s likely that I will get one eventually.
The trouble with a lot of the bracelet style mockups, and smart watches in general, is that they don’t really scale well to different wrist sizes. The Apple Watch seems to me to be the only smart watch that’s wearable on a wide variety of wrists.
The Motorola 360 looks great in product photos, till you see it like this. Apple’s watch looks better on a wrist that on display.
