“Before Apple Inc. ever confirmed last fall it was making a watch, mobile game makers plotted how to find ‘Candy Crush’ gold on the device,” Sarah E. Needleman reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Game developers have released hundreds of apps since Apple first started taking orders for the watch in early April, hoping to capture the kind of success they’ve had with the iPhone. But finding a smash hit on par with a ‘Candy Crush Saga’ could take awhile.”
“There are good reasons: It is still unclear how many people are walking around in the wild today with the watch, since Apple hasn’t released any data on preorders or deliveries,” Needleman reports. “And while developers were eager to make apps from the get-go, they didn’t receive a software kit until late 2014. Some developers said they didn’t have a good feel until they were able to spend some time using the watch.”
“That will change, particularly once the watches go on sale in stores, which Apple targeted by the end of June,” Needleman reports. “Apple is putting at least one more arrow in game makers’ quivers next week at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, the first since the watch was made available to buyers. Developers will be offered a software kit that will allow them to create apps that run natively on the watch, instead of drawing horsepower from the iPhone, Apple executive Jeff Williams said at the Code Conference in May.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple Watch yearns to be allowed to execute its potential to the fullest. Apple’s native apps work very well. Limited third-party apps don’t always do the same. The new WatckKit SDK should be enthusiastically welcomed by developers and Apple Watch users alike!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Bill” for the heads up.]
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Apple Watch apps are about to get a lot faster – June 2, 2015
The Watch ecosystem damn dam is about to burst. By Christmas we should see quite a few more Spaceman Spiffy apps for the AW. The enticements continue to grow exponentially…
i know that the feature set and capabilities of Apple Watch will continue to grow over time, but games will probably adversely clobber battery life, even if they were actually running on iPhone, just from pumping up Bluetooth data rates. Before I install a game on my watch I really would like to get to a two day battery life and a one hour charge. Not too unrealistic an expectation. Games might be fun however. But think of the Watch more as a Wii controller rather than peering at its tiny screen.
dd
A few times I have gotten two days out of my Apple Watch battery and on several occasions it had around 50% power when I recharged it at night. I have two games. Lifeline I like; it is a very simple interface and take small amounts of my time throughout the day. Brain Fruit not as much; the UI is ugly and it’s not all that fun. These are experiments and will give those developers an early advantage. I like the idea of the Wii controller the Watch on one hand and the iPhone in the other. Most people don’t know that the Apple TV is also a game box. It puts the games on your iOS device on your TV. The problem is connection; the lag time with wireless is too long, the connector is too bulky and requires a HDMI and a power cable. When Apple solves this the ATV will not need a SDK, everything on your iPhone will be on your TV.
I don’t plan to put any games on my watch. If I have time to play a game, I also have time to pull my iPhone out of its charger/bag.
I’m also concerned about the limited resources on the watch.