“Apple has refocused its smartwatch on the fitness market, a move analysts believe was prompted by the company’s recognition that the broader definition it has used was simply not making the grade,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld. “‘They’re responding to what’s working, what’s resonating with customers,’ said Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research.”
“Dawson and others were reacting to the shift in Apple’s portrayal of the upgraded Watch, dubbed ‘Series 2,’ during last week’s launch event that also included the iPhone 7. Virtually all of the stage time about the new Watch, and many of the new features the Series 2 model sports, related in some way to fitness, from its water resistance, which an executive touted as ‘swim-proof,’ and GPS tracking to a new Nike-branded model,” Keizer reports. “That was significantly different than the opening salvos of the Watch two years ago when the Cupertino, Calif. company introduced the wearable. Then, Apple dipped into the iPhone playbook to trumpet a trio of primary use cases: For notifications forwarded from an iPhone, for telling time, and as a fitness accessory.”
When introducing the Series 2, “Apple trumpeted fitness, health and more fitness,” Keizer reports. “The fitness pivot, while perhaps a retreat from the bigger dreams of 2014, doesn’t mean that Apple’s lost the war, argued Dawson. He imagined the device’s trajectory as an hourglass shape. ‘The original idea of the Watch was very broad,’ Dawson said. ‘It has the potential to broaden out again, to become another small computer. On paper, it still is that.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple Watch Series 2 ticks off our four most important boxes, in order of importance: GPS, performance (CPU/GPU), waterproofing, display brightness.
The wait until “Late October” for our Apple Watch Nike+ units is killing us!
SEE ALSO:
Apple Watch Series 2 delivers the goods in 4 very key areas – September 9, 2016
Hohum… Have they dropped the silly gold line? A fool and his money…
Meanwhile people are drifting away from the long-neglected Mac.
For me AppleWatch killer applications are :
Fitness tracking, notifications/messages/dictation replies, ApplePay, Navigation …… ohhh and of course Time and i love the Jellyfish face.
series 1 has been waterproof enough for me.. and i believe it would be for most people who choose not to dive deeper than a few feet.
I Windsurf in ocean all the time, Kiteboard, swim shower, etc.. litterally i dont take my watch off unless i need to charge it.
sereis 2 deeper water resitance is an added bonus.. now i can dive too ;).
Brighter display, Gps, extra battery capacity, faster, watchOS 3 … looking forward to all!!!
I love my Applewatch (sport, silver, white band ).. and since day one (last year) i have grown more and more addicted to it.
How did you get a series 1 so early? They have not shipped yet.
my bad…. by series 1 i meant first Applewatch… released last year april .
It skipped my mind that series 1 and original Apple Watch have different processors… sorry.
Most are referring to the original as “Series 0”. I like that.
Well, I’ve decided to finally put my toes in the water, and am planning on getting a Series 1 model. I think this will meet my current needs at a decent price.
This article makes it sound like Apple actually removed features from the Apple Watch to make Series 2, rather than just chose different bullet points to highlight for their marketing. The Series 2 watch still does all the same stuff the Series 1 did, and more.
This article makes no sense. Fitness was always a focus of Apple Watch, along with notifications and time.
Did I miss an announcement that Series 2 does not include a clock? Do all the notification and app enhancements in the new WatchOS only work on Series 1? Did the writer make any effort to understand the product?
No, no, and no.
Careful with the watch and water. The sport band is not jump-into-a-body-of-water-proof. Jumped off a cliff this summer into a lake. Ripped the watch right off my wrist. 😡