Mark Gurman’s latest Power On newsletter for Bloomberg News highlights a stark reality for Apple’s flagship wearable: after more than a decade on the market, the Apple Watch needs a significant reboot to stay relevant in an evolving health and fitness landscape.
The Shift in Wearables: From Smartwatches to Passive, Screenless Monitoring
The Apple Watch revolutionized the smartwatch category when it launched in 2015, blending fitness tracking, notifications, apps, and health features into a wrist-bound powerhouse. But consumer preferences are changing. Competitors like Whoop (with its subscription-based fitness bands), Oura (popular smart rings), and Google’s affordable Fitbit Air are gaining ground by focusing on discreet, screenless designs that emphasize passive monitoring of recovery, sleep, and overall health metrics—without the constant distractions of notifications or bright displays.
These devices prioritize deep, actionable insights over all-day screen time. Gurman notes that Apple’s own health software often feels more like “reviewing charts in a waiting room” compared to the more sophisticated coaching and analysis offered by rivals. Apple’s apps, while comprehensive, lag in delivering the kind of proactive, personalized guidance that users increasingly crave.
Challenges Facing Apple’s Wearables Team
Several factors are compounding the pressure:
• Innovation Slowdown: The lineup feels stagnant, with incremental updates rather than groundbreaking new features.
• Leadership Flux: Key health and wearables executives have departed, contributing to a more cautious internal strategy.
• Strategic Missteps: Apple reportedly scrapped plans for its own smart ring, choosing not to directly compete in that emerging form factor.
As the broader wearables market pivots toward AI-powered coaching, longer battery life through simpler hardware, and non-intrusive designs, Apple risks ceding ground in the very category it helped popularize.
What Apple Needs Next
To regain momentum, Apple will likely need to rethink not just hardware, but the entire health ecosystem. Possibilities include deeper AI integration for smarter insights, new form factors that complement (or go beyond) the traditional watch, enhanced privacy-focused data tools, and tighter integration with other Apple devices like AirPods for a more holistic experience.
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 and standard models remain excellent for many users — offering robust sensors, seamless iOS integration, and safety features like fall detection and emergency SOS. But in a world where competitors are redefining “wearable health tech,” refinement alone may no longer be enough.
MacDailyNews Take: The Apple Watch isn’t going anywhere soon; it still dominates smartwatch sales. However, Gurman’s report serves as a timely wake-up call. If Apple wants to lead the next decade of personal health technology, it must innovate boldly rather than iterate cautiously. The shift toward screenless, insight-driven wearables is here, and the stakes are high.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
its another case of Tim not innovating but just leveraging the asset till its destroyed Hopefully this will change and that the replacement is not a clone,
(you don’t like publishing these types of comments)
I don’t wear an Apple Watch but I wear an Oura ring. I have a great screen in the iPhone, I don’t need or want on strapped to my wrist. What I want is smart health tracking and actionable insights. Forgoing the ring was a mistake for people like me. Btw, are young people clamoring to strap electronics in their wrists?
Well let’s think about this one. The notion that you can leave your iPhone at home and use the Apple Watch instead, is anyone really doing that? So if everyone has an iPhone with them why also get a watch?
Runners hate the Apple Watch, trying to use it on the run, and choose the expensive Garmin dedicated screen watch instead.
Apple Watch is popular for golf and diving, but that seems like a limited market.
I doubt Apple cares about the cheap no-screen device crowd, but what’s the target audience of a general watch device?
I’ll stick with the watch and not a chunky ring that could go with a chunky bracelet and necklace. Perhaps a few tattoos would complete the picture. People have forgotten what naff is.
I don’t see Apple moving from a computer-on-your-wrist to a screenless data collector on your wrist anytime soon. They have declined to make something like the Pebble or Fossil hybrid smartwatch, which have weeks of battery life but somewhat less functionality. Why would they make the jump all the way down to a screenless bracelet?
Seems much more likely they’ll rely on AirPods to gather HR or other data in a passive way, which IIRC they have patents for.
Interesting read on the future of the Apple Watch. It’s fascinating to see how the market is evolving, and companies like FunBoxie are also innovating in this space.
Has everyone seen Huawei’s offerings for a smartwatch? What do you notice in comparison to Apple Watch? Hint: look at design, fitness and battery features.
https://consumer.huawei.com/en/wearables/watch-fit5-pro/