“The Apple Watch is a gorgeous device, which puts to shame the clunky, uncomfortable anti-aesthetic of the geeky wearables market. Its software is dazzling too. But it is also a device prone to the same big issue as the entire category, which is that it doesn’t do anything essential,” Tiernan Ray writes for Barron’s. “Whether Apple’s style and software magic will make the category suddenly a must-have remains to be seen. I, for one, think it will.”
“The most important thing is that the business is fundamentally sound. Apple will still bring in an amazing $39 billion in net income this year despite the diminished growth profile. The new iPhones maintain a pricing structure that is favorable to Apple’s profit margin while being accessible to the mainstream consumer. Apple reported on Friday that it had record pre-orders for the iPhone 6, as the larger of two models, the 6 Plus, sold out within hours. The Apple Watch contains a stunning amount of design and technological innovation,” Ray writes. “The company now has an entirely new electronic-payments service, the potential of which could be significant.”
Much/news/articles/SB51005578970899454132304580150512719192750″ target=”_new”>here.
Speculation aside; developers, users and companies will quickly come up with usage apps & methods that make Apple Watch more than a new toy.
Quiet notifications are very useful as are secure authentifications, which people have ignored for uses beyond payments.
Secure Apple Watch authentication could allow your watch to open your car door, home door, etc.
Yes, and it will be interesting to see future versions. Apple has a knack for pushing the envelope in style and technology in all their products. Just how thin will they be able to go?
Absolutely I have been crowing about the potential for this since Christmas when the old lightbulb flashed. Its a market that doesn’t exist at the moment yet all the technology to do so does and even exists to a great degree at many of the locations where it will be most useful or can be introduced at the next stage of upgrades be it cars, hotels, health clubs, offices, home, media, exhibitions and travel. Yes it will take years for it to all fall not place on a widespread basis but then you have the chicken and egg situation you don’t have one without the other and most importantly you won’t have the technology unless someone introduces the means to exploit its capabilities. apple is probably the only company that can actually drive the take up of these new concepts.
But one thing is sure no one is going to talk about no prime/core use of a smart watch when no one has to continually fight to find one card or other device all the time a number of times a day. I have been surprised how I now hate having to put a card in a card reader and put my code in when I can just touch it with the same card and that is really stone age to the potential of a wrist device doing numerous similar things in your daily life.
Most of these high-end smartwatches seem hampered by battery life. I honestly don’t see most consumers putting up with it. Even if they buy them at first, I figure they’ll get tired of charging them every night. They’ll have their smartphones and smartwatches to recharge and I for one think it’s too much trouble. I like watches and always wear one but my Casio’s are set ’em and forget em and they seem practically indestructible. I really would like to see smartwatches take off with all those neat features built into them but unless someone figures out how to get at least a few days use out of them I really don’t see them as a lasting and useful devices. This isn’t a prediction, but just how it looks to me. These smartwatches are about the only electronic devices in recent memory that I ever thought could possibly fall out of favor so quickly.
I’ve been looking at fitness watches and they’re fairly loaded with sensors and GPS and stuff but these are being bought by people serious about fitness and need them for training and the market for them seems rather small. However these consumer do-everything smartwatches seem to lack any specific focus and I can’t tell who they’re really targeted for.
Maybe I’m by myself in feeling this way and I can’t speak for the average consumer. I simply don’t like the short battery life which is my main gripe.
LB 48, ” Even if they buy them at first, I figure they’ll get tired of charging them every night. ”
Hey, my manual typewriter only needs a ribbon once a year. WHY would I buy this new fangled “computer thingie” that has to be charged every 4-5 days??? What a stupid idea!!
“Who needs a mouse when the command line works just fine. I predict Apple will fail and die because of this!”
Without a Parallel or serial port Apple will die. Who ever heard of this USB thingie? No one else has it! And its missing a floppy drive, what a stupid idea!!
Just saying that we wait until its for sale.
As for recharging… If you mostly just use the watch, I would expect it to last for several days, no problem. And if we get a remote charger adapter (clip it on the phone on your wrist and it gets power over wifi, so you do not need to remove your watch.. who knows)
Just saying. lets wait until it ships.
Yeah because it’s so hard to take off your watch (oh yeah, most people do every night anyway) and then slap on the magnetic charger on the back taking 2-3 seconds of your life every night you won’t get back. Sooo haaaaard! Wah!
The only thing that’s falling out of your favor are your postulating pestilent pustulant posts on this site. We are still waiting for Aliens to release long life battery technology. Would you rather cease all mobile technology until we have it?
“… I figure they’ll get tired of charging them every night.”
WHAT!!? It’s hardly an incredible burden — to touch that contact to the back of the watch every night. I think all the functionality may just be worth the time it takes to do that.
I don’t get the charging issue. I find a nightly charging routine easier than thinking about whether it needs a charge or not. Every night I pop my iphone on the charger by my bed, without wondering or checking if it’s required. If I did it any other way I’d forget. Same for the watch. I’ll take it off at night and pop it on its charger without a thought. It’s actually less work to charge nightly than doing so as required.
My Casio is also brilliant, by the way. I didn’t even set and forget, as it self sets! Solar too. But the Apple watch will provide so much more that I’ll have to switch even if there is some form of minor ‘hardship’.
Exactly! Daily routines are much better. The only people having a problem charging nightly will be those not sleeping in the same bed regularly. “Watch” of shame, anyone?
As Apple’s first offering as far as watches go, I don’t see the sparkle just yet… I mean there is some amazing tech in there don’t get me wrong, but for the price? Like the iPhone and the iPod before it, future generations of this watch is going to be nothing short of spectacular. Early adopters are going to show us the way and the app eco system will ensure the need for such a device. I see Apple developing a watch for health diagnostics as it’s primary function. Maybe even lower priced that seniors and insurance companies can get behind. I expected to see the sensors right out of the gate, but slow and steady wins the race 😉 Well done Apple thank you for the dazzling presentation and the wonder technology brings us!
I partly agree. Just as the first iPhone didn’t solve every problem it could have the Watch is blazing the trail, not covering all the bases.
The need for this is situational. If you stay at home a lot or work in a small office there may not be much need for this. If you travel a lot, speak in front of groups, visit noisy locations, attend conference and lectures and such then this could be very helpful.
Sparkle comes in stages. This is stage one which I think had a LOT of sparkle, blowing past competitors effarts. I hope for a watch that can instantly read blood sugar levels. It will come. But I love the immature dummies out there that bemoan the iterations and steady upgrades of the technology as insignificant, impatient for a preemptive paradigm shift that solves all their problems overnight like a petulant child. To them I say “grow up.” It only gets better from here.
The app ecosystem and potential for Watch will be unending. I think, though, just as the original iPhone was hampered in many respects, the platform will mature and features will be added over time. It’s an exciting time to be a fan of what Apple does, and to follow the tech industry.
The iPod solved a problem or, rather, several problems: portability; music all in one place; travelling with your music; listening selections… The iPhone solved problems: display size for web browsing; ease of use; finding your way around; single device instead of PDA and phone. The iPod took time to achieve widespread adoption because it didn’t solve all the problems in its first iteration. The iPhone launched into a receptive market because phones had become so hard to use and web browsing was so pathetic on existing devices.
The Watch is more like the iPod than the iPhone. It doesn’t solve any real problems and isn’t launching into a market of people waiting for such a device. In fact, the Watch is launching into a market where many people have stopped wearing watches altogether.
However, Apple will have done a great deal of research and they take a long term view. It may be that it takes a few years before the Watch becomes a “must have” device like the later iPods and the iPhone. Future iterations will likely be thinner, more capable and less dependent on a connection with the iPhone, with better battery life.
As with the iPhone, apps may be the key to widespread adoption.
Apple Watch+developers, developers, developers=blow away success.
I believe the watch needs more sensors for the developers to utilize…
Yes it does do something essential – it pays for purchases
More easily and more securely.
hey naysayers!
remember Dvorak who said in 2007 that the iPhone would fail and “Apple should pull the plug”?
A few years later after apple had made 150 billion in revenue off the phone he tried to weasel out why he was so stupidly wrong, maybe you guys should MEMORIZE it and use it yourselves:
” …. I really didn’t know anything …. leaves me vulnerable when I’m trying to predict the outcome of a strategy with a product …. . It is all theory at that point and it did not work out this time, to say the least. This column is a constant reminder.”
YOU’LL NEED IT.
Waving an apple watch clad hand and wrist past an apple pay device or past a hotel door and watching the magic seems to be rather fulfilling of some pretty basic needs. This writer wasn’t paying attention.
Oh, and how many times have I forgot my phone somewhere? Many. How many times have I forgot my watch? Never. Solve a need? Wait till the software comes out. You will wonder how you ever got along without it.
The killer feature is the taptic notification. This is exactly the feature that Apple needs to penetrate businesses.
Gear S is a thinner and better looking device with a curved screen.
Apple Watch seems a generation ahead in functionality, but they missed the boat in thickness. Too thick means you are going to whack it on something each day. I am disappointed in the outward design. Don’t want Apple to ever play catch up in appearance design.
Thinner and better looking? That’s a funny way to say chunkier and ugly.
The Gear S also has a built in power boost to its charger, that can give a full recharge of the phone without the need of a plug point. This is innovative and an added bonus to the expected life of twice that of the Apple Watch.
It also has GPS which is essential if you marketing any watch as a fitness essential. The built in phone is also extremely useful in emergencies when running or cycling any decent distance from home. With a built in Bluetooth music player in the phone you really should not have to bring any phone with you to the gym or outside when exercising especially with the bigger models.
The most obvious market for the new Apple Watch is blind people. Walking directions with different taps or vibrations on the wrist for time to turn right or left. Brilliant. That might be nice for driving too.
Overall, I don’t think people get this device yet — and largely I’m one of them! We don’t really know all it is yet, let alone what it will become.
The argument about the battery lasting more than a day is tired. We are now used to regularly charging our laptops, tablets, and phones. What’s one more in the grand scheme. I’m waiting to see if there is a killer app for me to want it. For now, the jury is still out.