That aside, I can see benefits to connected devices such as this. I'm just not sure I'd call them watches.
> Who still wears a watch?
I do. (I'm young, too.) It's nice to be able to tell time by glancing at your wrist rather than fishing through your pockets for your cell phone. Especially if you're at a meeting that's dragging on—you can surreptitiously glance at a watch without being rude; it's significantly more obvious when you pull out your cell phone.
>have to charge daily
I don't sleep with my watch; I imagine most people don't. I'd honestly much prefer a watch that I throw on a charging stand each night. Finding a damn screwdriver that's the right size and hunting down the correct watch battery (if only they'd all just take CR2032s...) is a huge pain, even if it's only once every few months.
Maybe you're right that they're not watches in the traditional sense. But might as well capitalize on the customer familiarity. It is a device on your wrist that tells time.
Edit: ofcourse such an app already exists: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=at.idsoftware.... ;)
But I'll admit (slightly off from my first post) there's an obvious market, and that yes - plenty of folks do still wear watches. This whole thing just seems odd.
I've been longing for a bluetooth (or similar) watch that had deep iPhone integration, looked stylish, and wasn't too expensive. The ones I've been able to find can't match all three.
I'd love:
* tell me what song is playing, allow me to change tracks
* show me the text message I just received
* show me who is calling me, with a button to ignore / send canned response
That said, I always thought the watch market was pretty small. It seems an odd thing that Apple would even be considering it.
But, apparently it's a $46B global market: http://www.prweb.com/releases/watches/clocks/prweb8358884.ht...
Then again, I could totally see some of the high-end watch companies creating exceptionally nice bands for the Apple watch to meet the need for style and showing off.
Whatever they make though, it better be waterproof. A watch that isn't waterproof simply isn't that practical for most people. No one wants to have to fiddle with taking it off their wrist and stuffing it in their pocket at the first sign of rain.
breakdown being:
"Mass-Priced Watches (Under $50), Middle-Priced Watches ($50-$299), Upper-Priced Watches ($300 - $999), and Luxury Watches ($1000 - $5000)."
Somehow I don't see Apple making a watch that's either mass-priced (<$50) or Luxury (>$1,000).
For them to have a sufficient umbrella and make high-end profits (that they are used to) they'd have to be in the "Middle-priced watches" which, at least according to that article, is neither a big pie nor growing.
Then again, Apple's strategy is to disrupt markets by creating new segments, so my guess is if they do release a "watch" (whatever form that takes) it won't fit into one of those buckets above. They'll create their own.
Unless Apple manages to build a Bluetooth complication. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complication_(horology)
Well, there's always aesthetics/fashion. I wear a (very attractive, IMHO) self-winding watch. As someone else has mentioned, it's actually really convenient compared to getting my phone out of my pocket, but mostly I like the way it looks -- I guess it's a form of functional jewelry.
I think watches are also status markers. Witness the wide variety of vastly overpriced -- for the actual functionality you get -- watches on the market. A 100$ watch probably performs 99.999% as well as a 10000$ watch, but people will buy the latter, because of the Cartier label or whatnot.
I'd love to say that I'm immune from that, but I'm not. A nice watch makes me feel subtly more powerful. Manly. Strong. In control. Etc... I feel a little awkward without it. This is difficult to explain and may be generational.
A 100$ watch probably performs 99.999% as well as a 10000$ watch
Hell, a fifteen dollar quartz watch will outperform a $20000 Patek Philippe.
This is difficult to explain and may be generational.
It probably is generational. I'm Gen-Y and watches seem like an irrelevance nowadays. I can't think of one of my similarly aged friends who wears a watch.
To be fair I used to wear one, and felt naked without it for a while after the band broke but by that time I was carrying a phone everywhere and I soon forgot about it.
[0]http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper...
As for the power issue people used to wind their watch every day. Alternately, if they gave it a low enough power screen (like Pebble[1] or something) they might be able to charge it from the motion of the users wrist.
[1] Yes I know pebble uses an e-ink screen and Apple is unlikely to follow suit.
I'd actually be thrilled if Apple started using eInk screens in things, especially something like the iPad Mini. I know they won't too, but if this device is anything like the latest iPod Nano, it /might/ get a few days on one battery charge. Assuming it's real to begin with.
I haven't taken it off since. I use it for everything from taking a shower to giving my son a few minutes to finish playing with whatever he is playing with[1]. On the other hand, pulling your phone from your pocket, reaching for it from the desk/counter, and especially "where the hell is my phone" is far too taxing when all you want to do is tell time.
[1] Before the watch, I'd give him the "Alright, it's time for bed — how about you play for 5 more minutes," and just lose track of time which lead to inconsistency, which usually leads to frustration in children. Giving him 5 minutes and then saying "ok time's up" in 1 minute has to be frustrating. Conversely, giving him 5 minutes and letting him keep playing for 15 minutes results in future "I know you're bluffing," attitude.
Granted, sometimes a simple "once you're done playing with x, then it's time for bed," suffices. No need to go all-out Pavlov.
In short, nothing will ever beat the fine art of mechanic movements, i really prefer wearing that to a plain electronic watch: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Russian-...
P.S.: Of course i would never ever wear the smart watch this post is about. I kind of feel ashamed that i did wear casio "calculator" watches as a kid.. horrible :P
The fact that you can instantly see what the time is means that you're always aware of the time. It's improved my timekeepings so much, and I'm rarely late to things any more.
It's really hard to explain but I think an analog clock is far more intuitive than digital.
Maybe it's a personality thing, but I felt I looked at my watch too often and that it was symptomatic of a general sense of being a 'slave' to time to an unnecessary degree.
So I got rid of my watch as part of a general de-hasting exercise, and started to be more... flexible, when possible of course. I feel it greatly increased my happiness.