I have not found a use for a VR headset or the Apple Watch, beyond as a toy, or fashion accessory. Even then, it's been so long since I've worn a watch that wearing a watch is awkward. Yet apparently Apple sells a lot of them, and it is the smart watch with the highest number of global sales.
Particularly as it didn't show the time. (Initial versions didn't have enough power to keep the display on all the time).
Apple finally got me by fixing that and by making their phones too large to carry around while running. Grrr. But glad they did.
It's been eye-opening. The fitness and sleep tracking are fantastic, and if you are having issues in that area, potentially life-changing.
I was also resisting contactless payment, being a typical German "cash is good" guy. And I still think cash is good. But during the pandemic everything went contactless, and Apply Pay with the watch is just super convenient. Always there, no PIN to enter or signature to verify, ever.
Life-saver when my wallet got stolen on holiday.
And of course super-comfy listening to podcasts, books or music while exercising or on public transport.
Since I got it with the cell radio, I nowadays often just leave my phone at home. Who needs to carry that around? And no phone, no social media :-)
It was only once I started using it for its health tracking capabilities and turned off many of the annoying notifications that I started regularly wearing it.
Is it as essentially as having my phone with me when I leave the house? Ultimately, no, and it does require more thought about how to squeeze the most utility out of it (when compared to a smartphone) but I think the reason it’s so popular is the flexibility it affords:
- Sport tracking watches are great at tracking everything down to a fine detail BUT you wouldn’t want to be seen wearing them out to a dinner
- Traditional (non-smart) watches look very nice as a fashion accessory BUT are useless for fitness and integrating other data into the faster-to-read watch form factor