Apple Watch.
Oh, I could be very wrong. But I feel that as long as the Watch is tethered to an iPhone in order to function fully, it’s sort of doomed in this first generation. Particularly out West here. We in NM have a hard enough time with a cellphone alone, maintaining contact with cell towers (a lot of dead areas). What good are all the features of an Apple Watch if the paired iPhone can’t make contact with cell service? If a tree falls in the forest ...
Comments:
I wonder if Jobs would have fielded this, in this form factor ...
Yeah…really not sure. The products were sliding toward ostentation even under him, but he managed to stay on this side of minimalist most of the time. They’re getting full-on Gucci now.
Having grown up on Apples and then early Macs, the trend has bothered me for years, but I’ve been trying to be better about not being strident about it, so I’ll just say…it looks like a misstep by Apple to my eye.
Oh come now. Don’t you remember the original iPhone? It could do very little at first. Then the app store matured and its usefulness skyrocketed.
I’ll bet in two years there will be 10 core apps everyone uses with their Apple Watch, and almost all of them will have companion/partner apps on the iPhone.
The point of the Apple Watch is not to replace the iPhone but to complement it. I can totally see myself using an Apple Watch to do a lot of things I currently do with my iPhone:
- glance at a map while driving
- advance a podcast while driving
- glance at a text message
- glance at a notification or event reminder
Therefore the Apple Watch is more of an information conveyance platform, not necessarily a good interaction platform. I could never see myself trying to type a message using just the Apple Watch interface.
I think it’ll appeal strongly to the affluent two-coaster (NYC/CA).
The early-on Mac naysayers felt the hardware was priced out of range, yet we all found the ease of use worth paying for. The Watch is different. I suppose it comes down to whether the buyer sees it as a ‘tool’ or a ‘luxury item.’
Sorry, Cam, I didn’t see your post before writing that previous.
I’ve read informed speculation that in a year or so the Watch won’t need the iPhone to be ever-present. Seems reasonable to me…
Cam, I can see your point(s). No doubt the future will see really useful iterations. It just feels weird to have a new Apple device reliant on an older one. It comes across to me like having an iPad that needs an iMac within wifi range to function. I know that’s a wrong assumption, but I’m just opining from my gut.
I suppose I’m just let down that it’s not a standalone. I could deal with a Watch that had to dice with our poor cell coverage. But to have to fiddle with an iPhone *and* a Watch to get the ‘system performance’ folks on the East or West Coasts get ... would be the height of frustration.
I stand by my contention that it will be best on the two coasts, where you have good, fast, reliable cell service. That was my thinking behind the ‘doomed’ comment, more than just the tethering, but I didn’t express it well. It won’t sell well in other parts of the US.
I’m also bleeding out the ears with frustration at the glacial pace of tech upgrades across the suburban, rural US ... even more than the tethering of the Watch.
And Bill, that’s good news.
Synchronicity. I just received a text message from TMobile. I quote:
“Thanks for being a loyal customer! Your line is being upgraded to Unlimited 4G LTE data through 2015 at no extra cost! If you don’t want unlimited data, opt out by 4/24.”
And my cell strength is currently dipping between two and four bars. In my house.
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I think there’s a big gap this time between how this has been hyped and the reality on the ground. I just kind of can’t imagine someone actually wearing one of these. It just seems to scream “I have more money than I know what to do with.” By design, no less.
Especially in a jeans-to-a-dinner-party state like NM.
But hey, I’ve been wrong before about, oh, the iPhone and the iPad, just to name a couple.