Will Apple Watch Wear Smartwatch Crown?
We've finally set eyes on the much-anticipated Apple Watch. I wore it in a controlled setting — so controlled that I couldn't interact with it. In other words, I was asked to marvel at it. And I did. The Apple Watch represents distinct, compelling steps forward for this nascent technology category — steps that, once again, Apple proved only it can make. [A hands-on video from Apple's event is embedded below.]
As exciting as it was, I was left wanting more. For one thing, the Apple Watch is still probably six months away. For another, it will still be tethered to a phone (and specifically an iPhone 6 or iPhone 5). To top it all off, it will cost $349 just for the least expensive model. In hindsight, I guess I'm not all that surprised.
But none of this will deter the Apple faithful, the first movers, the hip, the rich. (Will those who follow Apple still be called Apple watchers?) The Apple Watch will do gangbusters, if for no other reason than it's Apple. Love or hate Apple, the company doesn't just rush a product to market without a few attempts at creating something iconic.
The most obvious example in the Apple Watch is the digital crown, a user interface so obvious and simple, watching it in use made me feel stupid for forgetting about it. Scrolling through notifications or within an app, zooming in and out, even pressing it as a home button all seemed pretty obvious.
The device changes from a watch to a phone peripheral by sensing that you're looking at it. There is subtle haptic feedback (via linear actuator — Apple calls this its "taptic" engine) when getting a notification. You can input with a touch, but the watch can sense force, so it can detect a tap versus a press. You can send quick, fun messages using the watch face as a drawing board. You can even send your heartbeat to another user.
The watch's 38mm face (42mm for the bigger versions) has a retina display, protected with a Sapphire lamination. The watch supports Siri in addition to typical swipe gestures and the digital crown UI.
Oh yes, Apple intends to make the Apple Watch the ultimate fitness device, too, detecting your pulse, but also tracking daily activity, helping you establish milestones and view them throughout the day.
And I haven't even talked about the choices — choices in size and style, from the strap to the face of the watch body, including 18-karat gold. There's no telling what Apple's legion of developers will do with Watchkit, the new SDK for Apple Watch apps. Apple showed off customized versions of Twitter, American Airlines (check in from your watch), and Starwood Hotels (you can not only check in, but you will be able to unlock your room door by waving your watch in all W Hotels by next Spring). Control lights in your home, your Apple TV and so on. Like the iPhone 6, the Apple Watch will make payments using NFC.
With Apple's S1 chip for the Apple Watch, along with the normal assortment of gyros and accelerometers, and using the GPS and Wi-Fi from an iPhone, the roads are certainly being paved. If the smartwatch industry moves as fast as the smartphone market did, we'll have it all baked-in in short order.
Until then, the Apple Watch will remain simply the most compelling accessory to an iPhone ever created, and that's where I still grapple with the smartwatch, no matter what bells and whistles are included: it still seems like it solves a need that doesn't quite exist. But then again, isn't that where Apple truly thrives? Tell me: Will you be lining up to buy the Apple Watch?
Overall seemed like a decent entry to smartwatch market, but so far none of them appeal to me.
Without the fanboy reaction, apple launches are nothing
Yeah, I can choose a friends picture and send a recorded burp instantly, I'm sure the others in the business meeting, especially the clients, will get a big kick out of it.
Nothing about this watch says Apple but saying that even the new iPhone 6 doesn't look like an iPhone anymore, looks like they have leaned more towards the styling of the Galaxy with the curved bezel and I guess in that respect the iWatch does resemble the new iPhone 6.
Not that I would have ever bought one anyway, or any smart watch, but I was at least hoping to see something special and seeming innovative.
- At least match what the Garmin 910XT can do, including being waterproof and built for sweat and slightly rugged too.
- Have at least 6+ hours of battery time, while actively GPS records and doing feedback every 5 sec
- Have touch and basic phone capabilities(receive texts, emails in text forms) and perhaps a full basic phone feature set(phone capabilities, voice msgs, two way communications)
..I would consider buying one. If it can match what an Edge 800 can do, as well as the above full feature set of the 910XT and two-way phone features, then I'll get one.
But it does look lovely, I must say.
Sorry not for me. Everybody has a portable computer know (Smartphone) you don't need 2, because they do the same thing: EVERYTHING
You lost me right there.... I mean, you sound like a hypnotized goon and I feel everything beyond that point is going to be embellished rubbish because you're eyes are glossy over it being Apple.
Toms has extremes. You mock Motorola before you even try it but then you post an Apple article like this.
There never was any from the beginning. It only a fusion of the shortcomings of a watch (small form factory, small 'display area') with the limitations of smart phones (battery life, possible and existing compatibility problems, short software support life, lack of security, artificially fast life cycles, etc.)
A 100 year old pocket or wrist watch can be still functional with little care (and it's value only grows as it ages), these won't live to see the third generation of their kind.
Combine that with the next sentence:
"The Apple Watch represents distinct, compelling steps forward for this nascent technology category — steps that, once again, Apple proved only it can make."
and you can just see the fanboy drool dribbling down his chin. That first paragraph definitely sets the tone for the article as something extremely biased.