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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

#121

Post by amelius »

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…

> Apple's weakness is now their precarious position in bed with China, which will take decades to undo.

But this holds for the entire world economy.

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#122

Post by alpaca128 »

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…

> Apple has (last I checked) the highest revenue/sq. foot retail space in the world

Does this also correctly count the area of all Apple partner stores? In some countries they sell Apple devices but don't operate a single store themselves.

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#123

Post by whynotminot »

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…

> silicon tech being years ahead of the competition is one that is hardly a factor for the smart watch category.

What? This doesn't even make sense. This is by far the most important lead Apple has.

Their ability to put performant and efficient chips into tiny devices is why they have such a software edge. Other Android wearables suck because the underlying hardware is not able to power the experience without significant compromises.

It's not an accident that WatchOS is vastly better than competing Android offerings. It's hardware driving software possibilities.

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#124

Post by gnu8 »

The article seems to be saying that Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables over a list of companies that don't even make wearables. That is a clever trick for giving the article a bold title, but the result is a fairly uninteresting and uninformative Apple jerk-off piece. It is akin to saying "Quaker Oats has a 150-year lead in edibles" where Apple doesn't even make food.

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#126

Post by usaphp »

amatecha wrote: post #31
emsy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had several pebbles (2 b/w and the colored one) and now have an apple watch. You don’t know what you’re talking about, the tech in the apple watch is years ahead. There’s much to criticize about the apple watch but it does the important things just so much better than the competition. I also never understood the focus on battery life. I put my watch on the charger whenever I go to sleep. If I forget it either still…

I mean, sure the Apple Watch is "years ahead". It not only came out two years later, but is developed by one of the most wealthy consumer tech/software companies in the world. Pebble was acquired by FitBit right around the time the second iteration of the Apple Watch was out, so there's really not much point in comparing the two in terms of technology. Despite Apple Watch's merits over the Pebble, I still miss my Peb…

> can switch the currently-playing song with my watch without having to look at it

Why would you need to look at your watch? If you are listening to music on your Apple Watch - you are probably using headphones, all of which have next/prev buttons or gestures.

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#128

Post by vbezhenar »

nickbauman wrote: post #72
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…

Agree on all counts. It's very hard to put time horizons on anything. But I started wearing a Series 3 watch (3 generations old now) when I started a project my client in 2019 insisted I wear it as I was writing code that utilized HealthKit data from the Apple Watch. Check my past posts I'm NOT an Apple fan boi at all. But compared to the competition, there's nothing coming close to the integration and the UX out the…

Apple Watch might be the best smartwatches but for me the concept or smartwatch is still novel and I'm not sure if I want to switch. I wear ordinary watches and they're good enough for me. The only killer feature that I need is waking me up in a smart way (monitoring sleep phases and boozing on my hand between 08:00 - 09:00, for example) but Apple Watch does not have that feature. Other features are just not interesting for me. And, honestly, for most other people around me. May be I'm in a bubble, but so far I saw Apple Watch only once in my life.

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#129

Post by stephc_int13 »

I strongly disagree.

Apple is selling a ton of watches because the brand is currently so strong that it's a no brainer for most people.

Also, the product is actually not bad.

But, I don't find it attractive, I think the rectangular design was an early mistake that will hinder their design for a long time.

The software look good mostly because Google did a really poor job when porting Android to this form factor.

This is not the end of the story, and it won't need 10 years for competitors to catch up.

Re: Apple has a decade-long lead in wearables

#130

Post by abawany »

usaphp wrote: post #9
cozzyd wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to track your sleep that doesn't work so well

I never understood the point of tracking your sleep or even steps. It’s not like knowing that I had N hours of deep sleep will somehow change my sleep the following night. Same with steps, it’s pretty easy to understand without a tracker when you were active and when you weren’t.

For me, it's the nags (e.g. Garmin's 'time to be active') that make it worthwhile to get me out of my groove. Also, the sleep tracking includes things such as SpO2 measurement, which can help one see if changing sleep positions makes a difference. I feel somewhat confident in saying that my Garmins have likely extended my life by a few years.
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