Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Half a year later, the Apple Watch feels like a stalled platform

qz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 107 posts

Re: Half a year later, the Apple Watch feels like a stalled platform

#41

Post by nilkn »

jbob2000 wrote: post #14
lemevi wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think my pebble time is a gimmick. Not having to fumble through my bag to pull out my phone on every other notification or to check the time makes the pebble worth it. It's not a gimmick, it's a time saver. I also no longer have notification noises on, I just have a thing on my wrist that vibrates. Again, a not insignificant quality of life improvement. If I used iOS instead of Android I'd probably have an Ap…

Perhaps this is where you and I differ, but I can honestly say there is no notification I have received in the last week, even month, that required my immediate attention. Every single one could have waited 5-10 minutes until I was able to pull out my phone. And my phone is generally on the desk in front of me, so I can see the notifications anyways. I have to ask, what are you doing that it is so important for you t…

For me, it's not about notifications being so urgent. It's about convenience. I definitely do get very important notifications sometimes, but probably very few that need to be responded to faster than 5-10 minutes.

The thing is that I never have to even remember to check. That's why it's so convenient. I've completely eliminated "check phone for notifications" from my mental to-do list. That's a task I simply never have to do again. That might not count for much for you, but in my case I like just being able to place my phone down, forget about it for potentially hours, and still not have to worry about missing anything.

Re: Half a year later, the Apple Watch feels like a stalled platform

#42

Post by rstupek »

jbob2000 wrote: post #14
lemevi wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think my pebble time is a gimmick. Not having to fumble through my bag to pull out my phone on every other notification or to check the time makes the pebble worth it. It's not a gimmick, it's a time saver. I also no longer have notification noises on, I just have a thing on my wrist that vibrates. Again, a not insignificant quality of life improvement. If I used iOS instead of Android I'd probably have an Ap…

Perhaps this is where you and I differ, but I can honestly say there is no notification I have received in the last week, even month, that required my immediate attention. Every single one could have waited 5-10 minutes until I was able to pull out my phone. And my phone is generally on the desk in front of me, so I can see the notifications anyways. I have to ask, what are you doing that it is so important for you t…

Well then clearly you have no need of one while he does. Can't both situations be valid?

Re: Half a year later, the Apple Watch feels like a stalled platform

#43

Post by scholia »

meesterdude wrote: post #15
DarkTree wrote: post #11

I assume smart watches are still way too early in their development life-cycle to analyze whether or not they are useful as a product. Remember the original iPhone? It didn't have the app store. The first day I got my iPhone 6, I didn't have an internet connection and couldn't connect to anything. It felt almost useless. I think the difference with smart watches is that we already have the power/versatility of smart…

> I don't see myself buying a smart watch anytime soon, but I said the same thing about buying a smartphone years ago. But a smartphone solves problems. lots of problems. GPS, camera, email... it does a lot. A smartwatch has to solve different problems, or current problems better, to be useful. Whereas right now it's more fashion than function.

There are many problems to be solved in health monitoring and sleep- and fitness-tracking. And there is a real market for fitness bands, even if it's not a huge one.

There's also a designer watch/fashion market, which is the one that seems to be of more interest to Apple. However, it doesn't appear to be winning in that one.

The current Apple Watch market appears to be "geeks with iPhones who live in Silicon Valley, or wannabees". How is it doing there?

Re: Half a year later, the Apple Watch feels like a stalled platform

#44

Post by roymurdock »

The Apple Watch is not a seriously compelling product, nor will it ever be as (a) useful or (b) revolutionary as the iPhone. Apple knows this, and despite what pundits and analysts might think, it doesn’t care.

Tim Cook and Johnny Ive may present the Apple Watch as an incredibly novel, sexy-as-hell product in a nascent, high-value market, but they do that with every new Apple product line because it’s their job. They know very well that the Apple Watch will not see iPhone-like, extreme revenue generation.

Apple Watch was not designed to be a high-growth, standalone product. It was designed to be a companion to the iPhone. As such, Apple Watch success will be a direct function of iPhone success. As long as the iPhone continues to sell in mind-boggling quantities with a mind-boggling growth rate, the Apple Watch will enjoy a growing market as a complementary product with recurring revenues every 2 years or so, in line with the iPhone.

While sales of the iPhone and the Apple Watch will not match up 1:1, the ratio will still be high enough for Apple to make a decently profitable side business out of selling watches to a growing subset of consumers who will find some set of tenuous and borderline-indescribable reasons to purchase one. [1]

[1] http://roymurdock.com/essays/2015/07/apple-watch-form-factor...

Re: Half a year later, the Apple Watch feels like a stalled platform

#45

Post by endemic »

DarkTree wrote: post #11

I assume smart watches are still way too early in their development life-cycle to analyze whether or not they are useful as a product. Remember the original iPhone? It didn't have the app store. The first day I got my iPhone 6, I didn't have an internet connection and couldn't connect to anything. It felt almost useless. I think the difference with smart watches is that we already have the power/versatility of smart…

I want to have an open mind about the smartwatch platform, but when I look back and compare my thoughts about the Apple Watch to my thoughts about the original iPhone, I find a few differences. Even in its v.1 state, the iPhone offered lots of value: maps, web browser, nice touch-optimized calendar/ email/photo apps. People were excited by that. I'm just not getting that same sense of immediate value from the Apple Watch.

Re: Half a year later, the Apple Watch feels like a stalled platform

#46

Post by dgellow »

sirmiller wrote: post #23
sirmiller wrote: post #17

Looks like you have been living under a rock. I constantly add new stuff to my watch. Ranging from simple apps to complete workflow solutions. Give me 2 more month and I can replace one of my DevOps with my watch.

To elaborate a little with one example: 1) One of our server goes down. 2) My watch tells me about it. 3) I can decide a) Reboot it b) Replace it c) Send a callout to my Ops team. All in less than 10 seconds ... used to take 10 minutes, including taking out my laptop, checking what's going on, finding out who's on call. We have a few dozen of these.

Wouldn't be more pertinent to compare the watch against a smartphone?

1. Server goes down

2. Smartphone tells you about it

3. You can decide

3-a. Reboot

3-b. Replace

3-c. Call ops team

Conclusion: Same same, and you still need the smartphone to use the watch. So not really that interesting.

Re: Half a year later, the Apple Watch feels like a stalled platform

#47

Post by carsongross »

untog wrote: post #29
carsongross wrote: post #2

I really think apple missed on the aesthetics with this one: they should have gone with a round watch and used the rotating bezel (either physical or touch) for input, rather than a tiny crown. Even if it remained a niche product, which always seemed the most likely outcome, at least there would be some interesting design work to do with a circular UX. I think that Ressence Watches (which are, ironically, mechanical)…

They should have made the watch round so that it creates design busywork? I'm not sure that's a strategy for product success.

Well, as I said initially, I don't think that this product was ever going to be a home run.

Regarding busywork, it's worth recalling that "the enemy of art is the absence of limitations."

A circular UI would introduce some very interesting constraints and give Apples designers a chance to work in a new problem space. The tension and interplay there could lead to more interesting innovation than the scaled down mobile screen they are currently have.

And using the bezel, rather than a tiny crown, as the rotational input, which a circular watch allows, is an obvious usability win.

Re: Half a year later, the Apple Watch feels like a stalled platform

#48

Post by danso »

zer0defex wrote: post #28
danso wrote: post #4

Whew! I'm pretty sure I armchaired-critiqued the Watch when it first came out (basically, my reasoning was that unlike the iphone, ipod, and ipad -- there is not as much inherently appealing on paper about having a watch, because of its physical form factor, among other things)...so now I can be a little relieved that maybe I won't be a CmdrTaco/iPod meme 10 years from now :)

Have to disagree on this one. The 6th gen iPod nano ( https://support.apple.com/library/content/dam/edam/applecare... ) is my absolute favorite, so if they made the Apple Watch able to be an iPod without accompanying iphone AND able to support bluetooth wireless headphones, I'm sold. Perfect fitness form factor.

Would it be successful today, though? I say that as someone who bought and loved the iPod touch...but quickly abandoned it since it can't load any of the modern music apps...I've pretty much abandoned not just my physical CD collection, but iTunes as well, for Spotify. I'm not saying the old iPod touch is useless...it's just I'm not going to bother to turn it on and maintain it when I have an iPhone 6, even though the phone is much bigger and not quite as nice for working out with. I'm hypothesizing that such tradeoffs in software usability will outweigh the form factor.

I thought the problems with the Watch were bigger than just its physical limitations, though...Even if the iPod lacked wireless and cost more and had less HD space than competing MP3 players, you don't have to "sell* the concept that a portable music player is going to be just awesome...sure, you may not be able to afford it, but at least you can aspire to it, because virtually everyone loves music, and before the iPod or any mp3 player had come along, they had Walkmans. Or they plugged their headphones into their laptops.

But that universal appeal didn't seem to apply to the Watch. I don't have a watch because I don't see it as a necessary fashion accessory (I think it goes without saying that a watch is no longer necessary for telling time). So whatever non-obvious features the Watch has...Apple can't rely as much on my consumerism-fueled imagination to aspire to buy it...even if I'm not falling into the mindset of "well my phone, which I already carry with me all the time, does everything the watch does".

I don't think I'm underestimating the appeal of the form factor. The original iPad has been the only thing that I've ever waited in line for an Apple opening (OK, that and the first Apple Store in Iowa)...yeah, you can call it a "big iPhone"...but I already know that I don't really enjoy reading/writing things on my iPhone...or, at least I can imagine such activities being much better if only I had a bigger screen -- and if I didn't have to pop-open a laptop.

I don't have the same imagination for the fact that I can look at my watch without pulling it from my pocket. I already hate that I pull out my phone almost reflexively to check it while I'm idling around in real life, so being able to do that on a tiny screen on my wrist has very little appeal to me, certainly not enough to pay hundreds for.

Re: Half a year later, the Apple Watch feels like a stalled platform

#49

Post by scholia »

zer0defex wrote: post #28
danso wrote: post #4

Whew! I'm pretty sure I armchaired-critiqued the Watch when it first came out (basically, my reasoning was that unlike the iphone, ipod, and ipad -- there is not as much inherently appealing on paper about having a watch, because of its physical form factor, among other things)...so now I can be a little relieved that maybe I won't be a CmdrTaco/iPod meme 10 years from now :)

Have to disagree on this one. The 6th gen iPod nano ( https://support.apple.com/library/content/dam/edam/applecare... ) is my absolute favorite, so if they made the Apple Watch able to be an iPod without accompanying iphone AND able to support bluetooth wireless headphones, I'm sold. Perfect fitness form factor.

Yep. In fact, some people did wear iPod Nanos as watches, and there's a CNET video that compares them side by side.

http://www.cnet.com/uk/videos/apple-watch-vs-ipod-nano-watch...

Re: Half a year later, the Apple Watch feels like a stalled platform

#50

Post by mdorazio »

nilkn wrote: post #18
mdorazio wrote: post #6

I'm still trying to figure out what an Apple Watch does that my iPhone doesn't do better. Notifications might be nice, but if I'm sitting down my phone is generally on the table/desk in front of me, and if I'm on the go I probably have my phone out anyway, or can pull it out in about a second. Fitbit-type functions would be nice, I suppose, but I'd rather just get a Fitbit for a fraction of the cost. A smart watch ju…

The watch is a pretty decent fitness tracker. Certainly better than an iPhone. It's more expensive than a FitBit, though the FitBit Surge is not cheap at $250. Notifications are actually really nice. My phone has been on silent for months. When I'm at home, I never, ever have my phone with me anymore. Basically wherever I go I just put my phone down and forget about it because the watch is a sufficient proxy. Is it l…

Great points. I think I'm just not a smart watch person in general. The added convenience factor just doesn't seem worth wearing a bulky device on my wrist that I can't use to get work done. I still have an iPhone 5s because I like being able to easily carry my phone in a pocket everywhere, and still have full-fledged input/output and connectivity capabilities. If I had a phablet things might be different.
Post reply on HN