"iWatch" - The Apple Watch Thread

x3no · Mar 10, 2015

"Investor concern over the threat of new technologies is overstated." —Blockbuster analyst report, 1999

Everything in this radioshack ad from 1991 exists in your smartphone.

The Apple watch will do "something" the question is what. Will it replace watches in the future? We will see. I hope not, as I enjoy the many complications and features of a watch made mechanically. But if they can make them cheaper and more accurate then who's to say the current watchmakers won't go out of business [eventually]. It is interesting and will be interesting to see 10-20 yrs from now where things stand. I imagine when I go to give my son (who isn't born yet) my rolex, he might say... "Daddy, what the heck is this old thing?"

Hopefully there will always be a vintage market out there, maybe even making vintage watches more valuable, who knows. We shall see, I'm open to both sides of the convo..

Maximus84 · Mar 10, 2015

Pvt-Public
WOW, That's all I can say, I just don't know how I managed to survive these last 50+ years with out having all this BS strapped to my ass at all times. Sorry,as far as "functions that will prove more valuable", like what? Getting distracted while doing something like driving? Don't have enough of that yet. Walking into traffic, off subway platforms, falling down stairs, because you staring at you wrist, not paying attention to where you are going? Yep, need more of that, too.

I don't think that's where it's meant to go ;-)

Maximus84 · Mar 10, 2015

Shem
...Consider also that a wearable like a watch might actually reduce distraction by providing less distracting ways to get the same information. It's a lot easier to glance at or talk to a watch than to whip out a giant phone and type on it, and notifications can now tap your wrist instead of blaring a distracting alert tone (and maybe even give custom taps for different types, so you don't have to look at a screen at all).

Actually, there was an article in last weeks Sunday Times that had a study comparing different types of distraction while driving, such as using a mobile, a hands free phone, operating the Sat Nav and using a 'smart' watch. It fond that using the watch was actually far more distracting overall. Of course, this was done in the context of driving; in general I can see your point.

Shem · Mar 10, 2015

Maximus84
Actually, there was an article in last weeks Sunday Times that had a study comparing different types of distraction while driving, such as using a mobile, a hands free phone, operating the Sat Nav and using a 'smart' watch. It fond that using the watch was actually far more distracting overall. Of course, this was done in the context of driving; in general I can see your point.

It will be interesting to see if the same conclusions about distraction apply to the Apple Watch, the use flow and interface paradigms of which will be different from what has come before.

Also, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't distracted by staring at the dial of my mechanicals when driving sometimes... 😜

nlogax · Mar 10, 2015

Some great discussion chaps, thanks for the read! I particularly agree with the sentiment that smartwatches want to be your only arm-mounted device, and thanks to the whole notifications and tracking concept, they won't sit well in a rotation. Say you wear something special for a Sunday afternoon in the pub but then go for a long stroll - now your Apple Watch missed out on tracking your steps and you've removed a good chunk of the point of the thing.

Looking outside our watch-nerd bubble for a second though, there's a huge number of people either oblivious or passive to watches in general, who might start wearing an Apple thingy for the tech features and because it's a brand they trust with a formidable marketing strategy and omnipresence. Compare your average snooty AD with the cheery hubbub of an Apple Store - I reckon they'll sell a LOT of the sport models since people will be able to pick them up and try them on without having to talk to any staff and be judged for their existing watch or the size of their wallet.

Sgt_Bilko · Mar 10, 2015

Some watches are just a really good match for certain drivers and their cars.

djmusicman · Mar 10, 2015

alam · Mar 12, 2015

I guess am required to buy the watch as the new IOS has the app ready! 😀

cicindela · Mar 12, 2015

Easy to delete that 😀

dsio · Mar 12, 2015

cicindela
Easy to delete that 😀

Noop, undeletable

msp1518 · Mar 12, 2015

Sapientia Cordis
i just hate it. its that simple.

What he said. Hate it. With a passion. But that doesn't mean it won't be a game changer. The fact is, we can't predict the future. Sometimes things go boom and sometimes things go bust. Who would have predicted CD's and high quality music being replaced by low quality MP3 sh!t played via cheap speakers? I just don't get it.

Watching movies and TV on your little phone instead of a 65" screen? WTF?

Steve Jobs thought a large phone would never happen. Whoops.

Meanwhile I'm wearing a watch made in 1993 and it's every bit as relevant today as it was 22 years ago. I can't imagine buying something that is obsolete in a year or two. I can't wrap my head around it.

An iPhone is not equatable to an Apple Watch. Mobile phones are built to be short term disposable devices. Watches never have been.

Maybe I am just too damned old.

Nobel Prize · Mar 12, 2015

I mean...as for notifications being more discreet? maybe the tactic feedback will, just like the vibrate on the pocket does, but once someone sees you glancing at a glowing screen it's clear you're reading a message...and to reply will be a nightmare without a keyboard and using the rotating button...then again you can verbally dictate...even less discreet...or take your phone out and then reply.

And wait for the movie theaters saying..."please turn your phones off, as well as those damn glowing watches!!!"...and the board meetings "okay everyone phones AND watches on silent on the table...we need to focus here...

oh wait, let's listen to music and have a cord attached to your wrist...discreetly tangling itself with everything...no chord, use bluetooth....but then one more thing to keep charged..now it's the phone, the watch and the BT!!

The best feature to me and the more useful is health information, which in the future could be warning of heart attacks, diabetic imbalances, etc etc...but that could be achieved with a bracelet, or even better a leather fashionable strap we can have our watches on. No need to be looking at it, when the alert goes off you look at the screen of your phone/computer...and it can still integrate communications to doctors and emergency services if need be like those alarm necklaces. No need for an Iwatch for the technology.

I love apple, and I like the design, but ultimately It's useless to me.

pitpro · Mar 12, 2015

Does it fit in a NATO. ? Lol

cicindela · Mar 12, 2015

dsio
Noop, undeletable

Well into the util-junk folder it goes.

Pvt-Public · Mar 12, 2015

Hmmm the watch is almost useless without the phone, and if you have the phone, you already have all (except some of the fitness stuff) available, so I think it is un-needed. Except for Apple profits. Just my 2 cents worth.

alam · Mar 12, 2015

Pvt-Public
Hmmm the watch is almost useless without the phone, and if you have the phone, you already have all (except some of the fitness stuff) available, so I think it is un-needed. Except for Apple profits. Just my 2 cents worth.

Having 35 watches is also "un-needed" 😁

pitpro · Mar 12, 2015

alam
Having 35 watches is also "un-needed" 😁

I agree, you have too many watches!

Nobel Prize · Mar 12, 2015

Nobody should have only 35 watches... That's just wrong

flyingout · Mar 12, 2015

Pvt-Public
Hmmm the watch is almost useless without the phone, and if you have the phone, you already have all (except some of the fitness stuff) available, so I think it is un-needed. Except for Apple profits. Just my 2 cents worth.

There's Apple Pay, for those with older phones. I had dismissed phone payment systems as solutions without a problem. But I am now looking forward to merchants not even having access to my card number and info.

I'll almost certainly wait for a new phone rather than getting the watch, however. There are cases where I see a fairly significant advantage to getting alerts on a watch rather than unpocketing or retrieving a phone, but not enough to displace my watches.

gatorcpa · Mar 12, 2015

iWatch is to wristwatch as iPhone is to pocketwatch.

All can tell you the time, but the two Apple products can do so much more.

A friend was telling me all the plans that Apple has for the iWatch as a telemedicine instrument that can send real time health information to doctors. My reaction was, then why isn't Apple marketing it that way? If it's that valuable of a tool, get FDA to approve it. Then private health insurance and Medicare will have to pay for them.

This may be the next big thing, or it might be the next iPod Nano.

Time will tell.
gatorcpa

"iWatch" - The Apple Watch Thread

x3no

Maximus84

Maximus84

Shem

nlogax

Sgt_Bilko

djmusicman

alam

cicindela

dsio

msp1518

Nobel Prize

pitpro

cicindela

Pvt-Public

alam

pitpro

Nobel Prize

flyingout

gatorcpa

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