“Tim Bajarin has an interesting theory concerning Apple’s future plan to boost Apple Watch – making it available as a device for Android users,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld. “‘My personal guess is Apple will keep it proprietary to the iPhone for at least the first 18-24 months but eventually make it compatible with at least Android in order to help them gain the kind of impact they desire and allow it to be a broader industry game changer,’ he writes.”
“Preposterous? Potentially, but it’s hard to ignore it as a possibility – after all, hasn’t Apple already said it intends supporting Android with Apple Music in Fall?” Evans writes. “Didn’t the company do really, really well with iPod once it made that product available to Windows users? Does Apple not already dominate the smartwatch space with off the charts customer satisfaction?”
“Some might note that any such plan would require the Watch to be controlled by an Android phone, just as it demands an iPhone right now. This may be true but it doesn’t need to be in future – Apple is just about to give the smartwatch the power to run apps more independently in watchOS 2,” Evans writes. “As the company improves this capacity to run apps on the watch itself in future the device it is twinned to will become less important.”
MacDailyNews Take: Even today, porting the iPhone’s iOS Apple Watch app to Android takes care of that issue.
“However, I’m not entirely convinced Apple needs to do this thing,” Evans writes. “I imagine in future as the Watch becomes more powerful and more individuated that it will become its own platform.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: However Apple plans it, eventually Apple Watch will not require an iPhone to operate.
SEE ALSO:
Is it time for Apple to make Apple Watch compatible with Android? – July 24, 2015
I sure hope Tim’s wrong about this.😡
Ever since the Apple Watch was announced, I have bee saying what MacDailyNews said in it’s take: “eventually Apple Watch will not require an iPhone to operate.”
Bee saying: “Buzz buzz buzz buzz. . . .buzz buzz.”
What’s the buzz?
Apple could better use the Watch to sell iPhones, if they want, just drop the price.
Can’t see an upside. Apple will have no control over the core of the functionality, the phone that the Watch pairs with. Would they open Siri to Android devices? If they try and Android phones fail to play correctly, the Watch will get the blame. How many sales would be required to offset the bad publicity?
All Apple needs to do is just wait. Eventually everyone will come to iPhone and the Watch will be compatible by original design.
Everyone?! I’ll dust off my Moto Razr before that happens. When that, then kicking and screaming. Hopefully by then the Apple anti-trust case will have come and gone.
There are those who consider self-abuse a part of their persona. One must respect their choices. But you’ve already said you don’t want an Watch, so you wouldn’t be part of the target market.
There’s just no upside for Apple to crawl around in the muck that is the Android universe. They’ll just come out needing a shower. With Android marketshare on the skids, it’s just a matter of time before the question becomes moot.
Just replying to you saying “Everyone will come to iPhone”. I will not willingly support an IT department, over my own device, that I don’t control. This is a computer, not just a phone.
I agree completely, and I see the Watch as a remote screen/ interface for that computer, not a stand alone device. But it is not a remote screen/ interface for any (or every) computer/ phone, just the one. And, if you need control, some aspects are going to be hard to get in the Apple ecosystem. How do you let iPhones into a secure facility when every one of them has the capability to scoop up any bit of information they come across and take it with them? But most of us don’t go there and Apple is just peachy.
I’m still saying no to this. Apple needs to expand in the top smartphone market because it doesn’t play in the bottom market. The Apple Watch gives most current iPhone owners something to improve their phone, especially with Apple pay. This is great for people in a contract. It gives Android people another reason to switch. It already is a controller for Apple TV. The next Apple TV will most likely become a hub for Home Kit and gaming. The Apple Watch can be deeply integrated with it. Apple is more about connecting all it’s products together and getting more people into their ecosystem. I think this whole story is because some Android fan wants a smart watch and / or Apple Pay. They realize that no Android maker will have anything close to either anytime soon. However the can’t face telling anyone they bought an iPhone.
Everyone seems to be arguing this using the iPod/iTunes for Windows parallel. The story goes, Apple already did this before, making iPod compatible with Windows, and it worked well.
There is a fundamental difference between then and now. At the time of iPod for Windows, Mac had approximately 4% of the world market share for desktop computers. Today, iPhone’s market share in the developed world (primary target market for Apple Watch) is just a little below Android’s, and in some markets it is even greater. More importantly, back then, Mac market equaled to a few million active users; Windows was hundreds of millions. Today, there are hundreds of millions of iPhone owners.
When iPod launched in 2001, it had nowhere to go quickly, when Mac was the only computer it could talk to. Windows compatibility was imperative in order to grow it. Apple Watch doesn’t need “Windows” (Android in this case) in order to grow.
Google cannot get Android users to pay for apps in any great number. Apple will not get them to pay (big money) for an accessory. Apple could sell more Watches to Blackberry owners.
I think it’s a great idea. It would highly benefit Apples economies of scale and further defang the competition.
Economies of scale will benefit Apple, what they won’t do is pass the saving to the customer.
I think I will change your mind and instead agree with all of you who brought up the multiple android compatibility problem, and say it’s not worth Apple spending time on Android and instead ween those customers off of it and encourage them to switch to an iPhone.
As internal technology shrinks further Apple Watch won’t need a phone at all to operate.
however I know several die hard Android users who got an iPhone just so that they could get the Apple Watch. I’d milk that halo effect for as long as possible
Unless Apple could hook their android app into the myriad of android services, they’ll need to port over Appke Maps, Siri, iMessage, possibly FaceTime…
Fragmentation and inconsistency in the Android-verse alone I would think would keep Apple away from an Android solution for Apple Watch. It’s far different from putting cross platform iTunes on Windows and the like. A proverbial “bag of hurt.”