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Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

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Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#101

Post by D13Fd »

burnte wrote: post #95
least wrote: post #17

I'm pretty skeptical that Apple has a decade-long lead on any of the other big players in the market. Any innovations that one company can make can be more quickly adopted than new innovations occur and there's nothing as far as software goes that Apple is uniquely positioned to create. The other factors mentioned such as silicon tech being years ahead of the competition is one that is hardly a factor for the smart w…

The whole article is viewing things through some heavily tinted glasses. 1. Apple was early - Nope, Apple came late to the party, years after first movers were there. 2. Voice computing distraction - Again, nope. Amazon Echo devices and Google Home devices are HUGE. Headphones and earbugs come with Alexa and google Assistant integration. Apple tries with Siri but it's consistently far behind Amazon and Google there.…

I was with you until #5.

The Apple Watch is very useful. That’s why people keep buying it.

It’s nice to get notifications on your wrist if you don’t have your phone out 100% of the time. The alarms are silent and dead simple to set, and it can function as your wake up alarm in the morning, and sync with your phone as a backup alarm. It lets you unlock your phone while wearing a mask. It lets you pay for things instantly without taking your phone or wallet out.

If you are someone who exercises, the utility goes up even more. It’s great to control your podcast or music while out walking or running without digging around in your phone. It’s perfect for tracking your workouts, because it’s always on your arm and it tracks your heart rate.

I agree that the EKG & O2 level features are pretty much a gimmick. But the watch generally is an exceptional piece of technology.

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#102

Post by CharlesW »

D13Fd wrote: post #101
burnte wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole article is viewing things through some heavily tinted glasses. 1. Apple was early - Nope, Apple came late to the party, years after first movers were there. 2. Voice computing distraction - Again, nope. Amazon Echo devices and Google Home devices are HUGE. Headphones and earbugs come with Alexa and google Assistant integration. Apple tries with Siri but it's consistently far behind Amazon and Google there.…

I was with you until #5. The Apple Watch is very useful. That’s why people keep buying it. It’s nice to get notifications on your wrist if you don’t have your phone out 100% of the time. The alarms are silent and dead simple to set, and it can function as your wake up alarm in the morning, and sync with your phone as a backup alarm. It lets you unlock your phone while wearing a mask. It lets you pay for things instan…

> I agree that the EKG & O2 level features are pretty much a gimmick. But the watch generally is an exceptional piece of technology.

They are until they aren't, you know? https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-watch-lifesaving-health-feat...

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#103

Post by modeless »

gnicholas wrote: post #89
modeless wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently replaced the battery in my Pebble Time Round. Replacements are on iFixIt. It's not easy, but not impossible either. For me, it's well worth another 5+ years of use while I wait for someone, anyone, to make a decent competitor.

Awesome. How does it affect water resistance?

I re-sealed mine with Sugru. It is as waterproof as it was before, as far as I can tell. Unfortunately I used too much and some of it got squashed under the glass so it's slightly visible. It's really hard to use the correct (very small) amount. There are other adhesive options that I haven't tried.

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#104

Post by dariusj18 »

D13Fd wrote: post #101
burnte wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole article is viewing things through some heavily tinted glasses. 1. Apple was early - Nope, Apple came late to the party, years after first movers were there. 2. Voice computing distraction - Again, nope. Amazon Echo devices and Google Home devices are HUGE. Headphones and earbugs come with Alexa and google Assistant integration. Apple tries with Siri but it's consistently far behind Amazon and Google there.…

I was with you until #5. The Apple Watch is very useful. That’s why people keep buying it. It’s nice to get notifications on your wrist if you don’t have your phone out 100% of the time. The alarms are silent and dead simple to set, and it can function as your wake up alarm in the morning, and sync with your phone as a backup alarm. It lets you unlock your phone while wearing a mask. It lets you pay for things instan…

But aren't those features (notifications, alarms, exercise tools, music controls) in a bunch of other smart watches?

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#105

Post by D13Fd »

dariusj18 wrote: post #104
D13Fd wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was with you until #5. The Apple Watch is very useful. That’s why people keep buying it. It’s nice to get notifications on your wrist if you don’t have your phone out 100% of the time. The alarms are silent and dead simple to set, and it can function as your wake up alarm in the morning, and sync with your phone as a backup alarm. It lets you unlock your phone while wearing a mask. It lets you pay for things instan…

But aren't those features (notifications, alarms, exercise tools, music controls) in a bunch of other smart watches?

> But aren't those features (notifications, alarms, exercise tools, music controls) in a bunch of other smart watches?

Yes, definitely. I was replying to:

> I personally stuggle to see the point of smart watches.

I do think the Apple execution and hardware is generally better, but really I was just comparing the benefits of wearing a smart watch vs. not wearing one.

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#106

Post by D13Fd »

CharlesW wrote: post #102
D13Fd wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was with you until #5. The Apple Watch is very useful. That’s why people keep buying it. It’s nice to get notifications on your wrist if you don’t have your phone out 100% of the time. The alarms are silent and dead simple to set, and it can function as your wake up alarm in the morning, and sync with your phone as a backup alarm. It lets you unlock your phone while wearing a mask. It lets you pay for things instan…

> I agree that the EKG & O2 level features are pretty much a gimmick. But the watch generally is an exceptional piece of technology. They are until they aren't, you know? https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-watch-lifesaving-health-feat...

None of those people were saved by the EKG or O2 features (other than that one person noticed a slow heartbeat while playing with the EKG feature). They are talking about the "fall detection feature, heart rate notifications, exercise tracking and even the ability to make a call from your wrist."

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#107

Post by krrrh »

jayd16 wrote: post #70
krrrh wrote: post #38

I think people underestimate how big of a factor weight is going to be when it comes to face wearables. Apple’s lead in terms of performance/watt is so massive at this point, they’re going to have a few years where no other AR solution can even compete.

They can't even make a pair of headphones under 300 grams.

AirPods must outsell AirPod Pros by what, 100 to 1?

Each AirPod weighs only 4g.

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#108

Post by orev »

sQL_inject wrote: post #100
least wrote: post #17

I'm pretty skeptical that Apple has a decade-long lead on any of the other big players in the market. Any innovations that one company can make can be more quickly adopted than new innovations occur and there's nothing as far as software goes that Apple is uniquely positioned to create. The other factors mentioned such as silicon tech being years ahead of the competition is one that is hardly a factor for the smart w…

I'm have to sort of disagree, not a decade but easily half a decade lead. Source: I worked in this space years ago with what was, at the time, the leader in the space, and remember how many of my coworkers laughed at the Apple Watch unveil. Now Apple is the one laughing with a girthy, multibillion dollar schadenfreude. Apple has leads in silicon and cross-platform integration which is inarguably led to a better user…

I’m glad you highlighted the materials/manufacturing component, which I think is frequently overlooked by tech people (who mostly focus on the chips and software). Apple’s ability to build millions of devices with such precision and tight tolerances is really a huge accomplishment.

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#109

Post by newscracker »

Pertinent point, IMO:

> Google I/O 2021. At its 2021 developers conference, Google showed signs of finally taking wrist wearables seriously by ditching Wear OS and partnering with Samsung on a new OS. While it is fair to be skeptical that the effort will end up being successful, the announcement was a marked change from prior Google I/Os when wearables were all but ignored. Diving a bit deeper into Google’s announcement, it’s easy to see how far behind Google truly is in wearables.

Google completely dropped the ball on Wear OS. To add to this, Qualcomm’s wearable SoCs have also been lagging. Samsung is generally good at keeping pace with hardware, but has been hobbled by Tizen and a weak ecosystem. These things cannot change overnight, and Google’s stewardship track record is something that doesn’t improve drastically, regardless of any announcements it makes.

For wearables as a whole, I don’t believe Apple has a decade-long lead though. We’ll have to wait and practically see what it does for AR wearables before concluding on a number.

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#110

Post by JohnTHaller »

D13Fd wrote: post #101
burnte wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole article is viewing things through some heavily tinted glasses. 1. Apple was early - Nope, Apple came late to the party, years after first movers were there. 2. Voice computing distraction - Again, nope. Amazon Echo devices and Google Home devices are HUGE. Headphones and earbugs come with Alexa and google Assistant integration. Apple tries with Siri but it's consistently far behind Amazon and Google there.…

I was with you until #5. The Apple Watch is very useful. That’s why people keep buying it. It’s nice to get notifications on your wrist if you don’t have your phone out 100% of the time. The alarms are silent and dead simple to set, and it can function as your wake up alarm in the morning, and sync with your phone as a backup alarm. It lets you unlock your phone while wearing a mask. It lets you pay for things instan…

> It lets you unlock your phone while wearing a mask.

I'm really glad I passed on the Pixel 4, mainly because I hated the concept of face unlock on a phone (slower and less reliable? sounds great!). And this was before the age of masks. I love having a fingerprint reader on the back. The phone is unlocked as it's coming out of my pocket. Google switched back with the 4a and 5 so I picked up a 4a 5G. It's a shame Apple won't stick a fingerprint reader on the back, too.

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