Apple Waits as App Developers Study Who’s Buying Its Watch

The phone is about consuming/producing content and that's what many popular apps (like FB, Instagram, etc) are all about. No FB app on the watch indicates that the standard FB experience doesnt work on the platform, in the same way it wouldnt work on your kettle. That doesnt mean the kettle is a failure.

The watch is all about quick access to small, self-contained nuggets of information and simple actions. Previously, these have been limited to "what's the time?", "what's the date?", etc. With smart watches we can now have "what's next on my calendar?", "what's the weather like today?", "pay for this coffee", etc. They sound simple but they can quickly become habits. Developers will eventually work out which of these work, but this is a genuinely new platform - it will take time and iteration.

Additionally, any comparison to the iPad launch is unfair. The iPad, in terms of how it is used, really is just a big iPhone.

I have had the apple watch for a week, and I am indifferent to having or not having it.

This I think is its problem. It is probably the first Apple Device that has been released without a sharp use case. I mean it is cool that I can answer phone calls from my wrist (A candidate who I interviewed for an hour could not tell I was talking from my Apple Watch). But it is not a necessity.

This is in essence the problem with wearables. To quote an article from the Economist : "One measure of a wearable device's success is whether you would turn around for it if you were halfway to work—as you would for a smartphone. Yet market research suggests that consumers are not willing to make an about-face and fetch their fitness trackers"

Ref: An year old. http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21613925-...

Personally, I feel Apple should admit they got it wrong--on so many levels. Just let it die. Let companies like Pebble give it a go?

Drop the whole concept of a smart watch. Work on getting that iPhone small enough, so it can be strapped to a wrist.

If they insist on keeping this product; get the price down, and do a complete redesign.

(I know they don't want to canabilize iPhone sales, but that would be years away? I would actually strap a 1 x 3 inch devise to my forearm--if I could make calls, and access the Internet. That's something I might buy?)

One another note, to mechanical watch enthusiasts; I found a vintage IWC cal. 89 in a box of old broken watches. It is so old the paint on the face was worn away. I only noticed a fish on the crown. I don't think the watch has ever been servised? It's probally from the 50's. I'm in the process of getting its history from IWC. I literally thought it was a old, cheap Timex. I was bored one night, and wound it. It wound rather smoothly? "No--it must be a cheap watch, with a fish on the crown? A Horologist tossed it in the spare parts bin years ago?". Well, a day later, it was keeping perfect time? I was shocked? I timed it on a Viborgraph, and it was keeping time with an error rate of 1 min/day. They built this movement for longevity? IWC still has parts for this movement. I could pass along this watch to my nephew, and he could wear it another 70 years? (Dillon--you don't know me, and I'm sorry. Me and your father had a falling out. You seem like a great kid! This watch is yours when I pass, which may be soon?). Apple--this is why some of us love our watches. This actually happened last week. Sorry about using HN as a diary? I don't have anyone to talk to anymore.

Really? Are we at an age when taking the phone out of our pocket is an inconvenience? Frankly, I live my life in front of a computer on a desk. My calendar and a million other things are one click away and in a format far more convenient than a phone or a a watch.

I think the watch will, in the long term, be a flop. Apple needs to find a real killer app for it or it is toast. I already have a $500 iPhone in my pocket or on my desk and a $5,000 computer on my desk. They are going to have to pull off a really interesting trick to justify a $500 watch that is redundant. Yes, they are selling bunches of them, but I fail to see this as a long term product unless they pull a rabbit out of a hat.

How many of you developed iPhone apps? Us? Over a dozen. How many of you are developing Apple Watch apps. Us? Zero. No interest in working for Apple for free.

Down-vote away. I know the truth hurts.

I am old enough to have lived through the Casio and Timex smart watches craziness.

Even owned a Casio Databank.

So I don't get this first world problem of paying $500 for the convenience of not taking the phone out of the pocket.