“It is far from controversial to conclude that it took Apple almost three years to nail the engineering of Apple’s first wearable: cramming in and fine-tuning batteries, processing and cellular chips and so on and so forth,” Steffen Reich writes for iDownloadBlog. “We were all there along the ride and we can all (provided you have worn a Gen 0 model before) attest to the enormous advancements made over the years.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, and we wouldn’t trade the experience for anything!
“With Apple Watch kind of hitting he nail on the head in 2017 it seems hard to predict where the puck will be sliding next,” Reich writes. “In view of the tech finally being in place, I think it would behove Apple to turn their focus to the optics of the wearables category leader, even if it comes at the price of a sabbatical for technological advancements. In plainer terms, it’s time to become more superficial, Apple.”
“I understand how stupid and not techy that sounds, but I also trust that many of us wearing the extremely potent Series 3 would hold a similar opinion,” Reich writes. “The design of a wrist worn device has way more pulling power than the design of a phone. Bottom line: 2018 needs to be the year to make this watch really darn flashy.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A bit thinner, if possible (without sacrificing battery life) would be nice, but we’re not sold on the round case idea. Square displays allow you to do round watch faces, but round watches do not accommodate rectangles or data that’s best presented in rectangles very well.
Still think it is too thick. My Movado is just about right. Make the watch band part of the unit, providing power and sensors as well as interchangeable.
In Time it will be, the software however is the most important part, which is why Apple needed to release the watch to the public.
Doing what pablorph suggests would be the embodiment of “Think Different” for Apple. The conventional thinking would be to put all the mechanics in the watch and use the band as a purely functional strap to hold the device in place on the wrist. Coming at it from a different perspective would allow for a thinner watch without compromising on battery life. My ancient (in tech terms) Nike+ Fuel Band has a battery in the strap and has been going strong for about 4 years.
The smooth uncomplicated design makes it look thicker than it is. When you compare an Apple Watch to another flashy watch they’re often close to the same thickness.
I agree that a more stylish watch would be nice. I haven’t worn a watch in about 10 years. The current Watch isn’t enough to get me to wear one. A different design and better workout features might get me to strap one on.
Massive sales await the Apple Watch when more health options (like blood glucose readings) are built in. Personally I don’t think we’re there yet for cosmetic changes that stifle function.
I wouldn’t mind if it became a little bigger in size. The 42mm could become 44mm without anyone noticing too much. More screen real estate is always better. 47mm wouldn’t bother me either.
The trend in expensive watches for the past 10 years is to get bigger.
This could be a good way to retain battery life while making it thinner. I’m still rocking my Gen 1 which is getting slow, but it’s as functional as I need it to be and it looks the same as the Gen 3.
I own a ‘series 0’ stainless steel Apple Watch that I got on launch day. I agree that the device is getting long-in-the-tooth and I’ll be ready to replace it when ‘Series 4’ arrives. That said, I am impressed how well mt ‘series 0’ device has held up in terms of performance and battery life. It still works pretty well!
I have to charge mine again during the day, but otherwise it’s holding up ok
The Moto 360 and Samsung gear are much more attractive devices. The Apple Watch has always had sort of a claw machine prize look to it.
Style is a matter of personal taste. To each his own.
Personally, I dislike having a hockey puck strapped to my wrist.
I think the obvious low hanging fruit for the Apple Watch Series 4 is:
1) Slightly thinner
2) “bezeless” screen with rounded edges like the iPhone X
3) Some form of always on display
A cosmetic redesign of the Apple Watch would be nice, but not at the expense of ongoing usability improvements.
Rest of the world is still waiting to get the series 3 GPS and Wireless models. I want to buy 3… So fix that one asap.
Round watch face? And people complain about the notch, that would effectively have 4 of them for most of the information shown. Ludicrous idea.
Release Apple’s internal watchOS SDK to developers so they can write more powerful apps. I’m fine with the looks. Enable it to do more.
Love my Apple Watch, I’ve had original sport, then original Stainless, onto black space stainless series 2 and am now sporting my Nike + Series 3.
It’s an awesome device and I love the Nike+ watch faces (which is why I opted for it over another stainless model)
I thinks its the nicest and most minimalistic and well proportioned smart watch design out there as it is. …. For mass apeal !
Can it be improved .. sure…but going too extreme maybe a dengerouse move….. it may better serve the tastes of a few .. but at the cost of alienating most… (unless they offer many designs which i doubt they will )
Apple should buy Microsoft and resurrect the Spot FM watch
That’s what a true Applecynic would suggest
I could see Apple coming in with a second Watch that delivers more fashion flash with less power, or a smaller battery.
At the same time the Watch’s current design needs to continue with enhancements that support expansion in critical areas, like Health. Look at the Stanford Project or
https://www.alivecor.com/technology/
for a brief look at heart health. Then start looking at the other areas of health that can be addressed with the WATCH. I’ll go with the same design and growth in health care support.