“If you carefully follow the rumors for the upcoming Apple smartwatch, you’ll quickly realize flaws that may be part of the product,” John C. Dvorak writes for PC Magazine. “I’ve said before that this Apple product won’t get much further than any other computer watch, smartwatch, or anything else.”
“The people who want to buy it want it to be an actual phone in the watch. This means the device becomes a sort-of iPhone nano, a self-contained mobile phone controlled with a Bluetooth headset of some sort,” Dvorak writes. “But all evidence leads me to believe this device will be an accessory… If it can’t replace the iPhone completely it’s a goner”
“It’s also not enough to be a health monitor. The idea that we want to cover ourselves with sensors to keep track of every bodily function as if we’re robots running diagnostic tests is idiotic,” Dvorak writes. “Sensors are best suited to the hypochondriacs out there worried sick about their lipids. This will soon be replaced by some other fad… So what is really needed as a wearable is a Dick Tracy watch… This is not difficult to do. The only drawback is the overall size of the device. While the radio I/O can easily be fitted into a wristwatch form factor, the problem is the graphical user interface (GUI) and how it works on a diminutive screen. This would require serious redesign of the iPhone GUI to keep the product functional and modern and small. I can even imagine a flip-open design to double the screen real estate.”
Full article – Think Before You Click™ – here.
MacDailyNews Take: If Apple’s releases an iWatch, back up the truck! Dvorak’s premature “kiss of life” has been applied!
Cases in point:
• “Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone… What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong. If it’s smart it will call the iPhone a ‘reference design’ and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else’s marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures… Otherwise I’d advise people to cover their eyes. You are not going to like what you’ll see.” – John C. Dvorak, Bloated Gas Bag, March 28, 2007• “iPhone which doesn’t look, I mean to me, I’m looking at this thing and I think it’s kind of trending against, you know, what’s really going, what people are really liking on, in these phones nowadays, which are those little keypads. I mean, the Blackjack from Samsung, the Blackberry, obviously, you know kind of pushes this thing, the Palm, all these… And I guess some of these stocks went down on the Apple announcement, thinking that Apple could do no wrong, but I think Apple can do wrong and I think this is it.” – John C. Dvorak, Bloated Gas Bag, January 13, 2007
• “The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse.’ There is no evidence that people want to use these things.” – John C. Dvorak, Bloated Gas Bag, February 19, 1984
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Slim Slow Slider” for the heads up.]