“As people who wear fitness trackers will attest to, they can be useful, but none really stand out and they often end up discarded in a drawer somewhere after the novelty wears off,” Sanjiv Sathiah writes for Electronista. “The same can probably be said for users who have experimented with some of the first smartwatches to date (I know I have one or two lying around gathering dust). However, there is certainly room for a wearable device that takes the best of both of these device categories, marries them, while extending the depth and capability of their overall functionality – and importantly – their usability. A more advanced health tracker that also offers other smartwatch-like functions that delivers innovation in spades could take off.”
“If it has an Apple logo on it, the iWatch will come with an implicit promise that it will be fully conceived, beautifully designed, and properly executed. This doesn’t mean that it can’t and won’t be improved in subsequent iterations; of course it will. But you can be assured that version one of the iWatch won’t hit the market unless it is a truly great product,” Sathiah writes. “The original iPhone and iPad were more like second or third-generation products in that they were highly refined and fundamentally well-thought out from the beginning of their respective product lifecycles. In fact, the iPhone was so advanced that companies like BlackBerry and Microsoft were said to be in shock at the fact that Apple was able to release a device like the iPhone at the time… There is every reason to expect that the Apple iWatch will be similarly advanced for its time compared to the current competition.”
Sathiah writes, “Only Apple will be able to deliver the first truly successful and useful smartwatch because only Apple has the singular vision, ambition and ability to create truly great products. The iWatch will confirm Apple CEO Tim Cook is the real deal, while it will also reinforce Steve Jobs’ view that Apple’s “brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it.”
Much more in the full article here.
Related article:
Clueless companies race to debut stupidwatches before Apple defines the smartwatch – January 3, 2014
eh.
A succinct and mind blowing insight as usual.
eh.
Please everyone SELL SELL SELL your Apple shares now!! They are DOOMED!!
I’ll place my order for a few round lots when you are all done. Thanks and have a nice day!
I hope everyone understands the sarcasm. Yes, and I will be ready to purchase if people are foolish enough to SELL, SELL, SELL now.
If anyone is taking stock advice from someone on a blog post, they’re idiots anyway, no matter the blog.
The old “smart watches do not innovate” thing. Seriously, can you think of anything innovative from a hardware perspective that can be implemented with the size, heat, cost and battery life restrictions that a smart watch has?
So, what will make and break the smartwatch is the apps. Which is why Google was smart to get their Android Wear SDK out to developers as fast as possible. The issue is that thus far no developer has created anything compelling yet.
Incidentally, Samsung will finally release their Galaxy Solo device, a SIM card-capable smartwatch that can both pair with a (Samsung) phone and take and receive calls on its own, on September 3. Unfortunately, it will run Tizen, so no apps to make it a truly compelling device will ever be available for it. (Samsung could create an SDK that makes the process of porting Android apps to Tizen via recompiling the source code practical; shouldn’t be that hard to do since both Tizen and Android are Linux-based operating systems, but hey this is Samsung we are talking about).
That’s most people’s problem — they are thinking of a smart watch as a watch that can do other stuff.
I highly suspect that Apple’s wearable device will have a watch component almost as an afterthought. The device will be primarily used for far different functions than a clock with a phone relay.
And comparing Google and Samsung’s “innovation” to Apple’s is ridiculous. All either company has done is copy Apple and try to anticipate where Apple is going and attempt to beat it with a release date a week early. Incidentally, seeing as Samsung has delayed releasing Tizen phones, I would be shocked if it actually releases a Tizen watch. Even more shocked if anyone bought it.
” Which is why Google was smart to get their Android Wear SDK out to developers as fast as possible”
the only problem with that is that Google is dependent on OEMs to make the hardware. If they don’t make compelling hardware there is no place for developers to dump the apps so developers don’t want to write. But OEMS on the other hand are waiting for developers: with no compelling apps they won’t invest (or even know WHAT KIND of watch to build, i.e what will work best with apps) . It’s a chicken and egg situation .
Worse the OEMS don’t make the OS so they aren’t working in lockstep (OS designed step by step TOGETHER for max compatibility, functionality and performance like Apple). they don’t really know what Google has in store in the future so they can’t plan or predict future and profits … and they have NO MONEY TO FOOL AROUND WITH.
None of the OEMS except Samsung have any money to really muck around too much with experimentation as they make peanuts or lose money . (HTC, Motorola now sold lost money. Xiaomi which passed samsung in cheap phone sales in china doesn’t release financials but it might even be losing money or generating near nothing. Lenovo another giant china phone OEM made 230 m in May quarter counting all products including PCs, as they are the biggest PC maker in the world their phone profits must be near zero compared to Apple’s BILLIONS per quarter for iPhone…. )
Nobody in the Android world has full control. They are waiting for each other. Few have money to do real R&D or incentive.
None of them know what to do without Apple to copy from. Xiaomi was found COPYING PICTURES FROM NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC for advertising purposes (infringing copyright) , LOL, so it’s even one step lower than Samsung…
There is no mass market for a smart watch
You’re right, but only until Apple releases a smart watch!
Yup like there wasn’t any real need for the wheel when logs were perfectly adequate thank you.
Hopefully, if it does come out, Apple will provide some kind of cradle dock, because I will not tolerate having to plug the damn thing in every night to charge it.
It will not be an iWatch unless it is tied to the Apple TV (watch a “screen.”)
I believe Apple will continue the iP naming series by calling it the iPulse and marketing it as the center (pulse) of your “connectedness”. The pulse name will fit in with all the obvious health applications but also can be thought of being core to “the pulse (beat or Beats) of your daily life.” Many very moving commercials showing that theme will immediately follow its announcement.