As a mass-appeal device, I think the Apple Watch is the most attractive smartwatch out there despite its comparatively high “premium price” as compared to many other smartwatches. Even though the Apple Watch is easily a better product than most of the competition, mainstream consumers are still price-sensitive – especially when it comes to a fun device, versus something society has deemed is “necessary” at this point. Apple will continue to do well with those people who don’t currently have a watch fetish, but I think more time needs to go by before more enthusiast-type watch lovers adopt an Apple Watch for even occasional wear.
As I mentioned earlier, this is sort of ironic because the Apple Watch really does try to take the best of traditional watch appeal and make it modern for our “connected age.” As a digital device, the Apple Watch faithfully recreates so many beloved design elements of traditional watches in a way that only watch lovers can really appreciate and understand. Still, the artistic and fashion personality of traditional watches continues to beat smartwatches for the foreseeable future when it comes to people who currently refer to themselves as watch lovers. I don’t think this will significantly change until one major change occurs with the the Apple Watch – the screen.
Future Hopes For The Apple Watch
As I was saying, in my opinion, a pivotal change we have to look forward to is an always-on screen for the Apple Watch. TAG Heuer offered a low-power always-on state for their Connected watch, and while simple, the result was brilliant. The biggest weakness that the Apple Watch has is the fact that the screen is blank most of the time. Of course, there are very real and very unfixable reasons for this right now (battery life), but it prevents the “head” of the Apple Watch from having a face.
In the past, I have likened the face of a watch to a human face. Imagine looking at someone and seeing their face missing key elements like eyes, nose, and mouth. That is where all the personality and soul is conveyed, and a watch case without a face lacks a similar type of soul. The Apple Watch soul shines when the screen is activated, but I want more. I want the watch screen to be on all the time in some state, and I think that is at the heart of how to give the Apple Watch (and other smartwatches, for that matter) more personality. This is important not only for the wearer, but also other people seeing the watch on the wrist of the wearer. Above in this article, I talked about how I had a solution for giving the Apple Watch more personality. Well, it is this: not only offering an always-on state for the screen, but also allowing people to customize what you see on that screen. That is where a smartwatch can offer serious communicative value.
I’m actually not terribly upset about battery life. Charging the Apple Watch once a day isn’t per se welcome, but I don’t mind it. What it does do, however, is prevent the Apple Watch from being any type of sleep tracker. I’d prefer for Apple to keep boosting functionality versus extend battery life in the Apple Watch. What I think will be a technological development to come sooner than higher-capacity batteries is quick-charge batteries. Imagine if you needed to connect your Apple Watch to a power source for under a minute to get a full charge. That seems like something that might come a lot sooner than a vastly larger battery life capacity. If a quick-charge system like that were to be available, I think people would have many fewer complaints about the short battery life of today’s wireless devices.
I do, however, think that Apple should focus on making the Apple Watch useful in more environments. That means two things for now: increased water resistance and durability, as well as including the ability to connect with WiFi or other wireless communication networks without having to go through the host phone device.
Water resistance and durability are things that improve over time in bits and pieces, and I know that Apple wants the Apple Watch to be as physically robust as possible. I also know that they want the device to exist independently from a host phone. Again, we need to keep pushing forward with technology for that to happen. When it does happen, I think the Apple Watch and colleague devices will become appealing to whole new markets of people who still see smartwatches as mere accessories or peripherals to host smartphone devices. It is true that, for the most part, there is little real added functionality that a smartwatch gives you over a smartphone. What you gain is coolness and convenience. With that said, imagine the possibilities that open up when a smartwatch becomes independent of a host device, able to connect and interact with its environment and the internet by itself.
I feel the need to keep reminding people that we are still at the beginning of where smartwatches will go. The technology is still so young and has so much room to expand. As simple and primitive as some smartwatch devices today might seem, I truly believe that wearable technology (especially worn on the wrist) is the future of personal convenience, health, and connectivity. I urge people to be patient, and even if they aren’t keen on wearing a smartwatch now, they will be surprised by how they feel in a few years from now. I just hope that people like myself will find better ways of enjoying traditional watches along with high-technology watches at the same time, or as equally viable options in the course of one’s own daily or weekly routine.
It’s difficult to predict where Apple will go next with the Apple Watch, but I feel that I’ve laid out the core strengths as well as weaknesses of what I still feel is the most important smartwatch device to date. Technology is more an issue than marketing or financial considerations thus far, which makes it difficult to know what Apple has planned for its next Apple Watch product. With that said, given the immense investment and passion Apple put into the Apple Watch, I have high hopes for where they will take it next – and I still consider myself lucky to live in a time when smartwatches have the potential of surpassing my wildest dreams of what I thought could be available to mainstream consumers. apple.com/watch
