Does Apple Watch Pass The Test Of Time?
As it does with its other products, especially new ones, I expect Apple to issue an updated operating system with more features and fixes for any known bugs sooner rather than later. I’m hoping that things like the email issue will be addressed. And there will be further OS updates over time.
Beyond that, Apple has said it plans to issue a software developer’s kit that will allow third-party apps to be written directly for the watch, instead of as slices of iPhone apps. That’s how Apple’s own core watch apps, like fitness and texting, are written. And it should make for much more interesting software. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that released at the company’s big developer conference next month.
Great review by Mossberg, who has now spent a month with the Apple Watch and has therefore learned the ins and outs of the product. I tend to agree with his overall assessment that the Apple watch is a good device with a chance (or, really, what feels like an inevitability) to be great. That greatness will come in two forms: hardware iteration and, more importantly, software updates.
Right now, the Apple Watch is clearly a newborn with a ton of potential. Those who are quick to dismiss it as a lackluster or pointless product are clearly not viewing the Watch for what it can be, but rather as it sits today. (And even then, they focus solely on the negatives instead of the many compelling positives.) Are there some quirks? Yes. But as with all new product categories, the only way you get to where you want to be is by taking that first step. Apple couldn’t have created the iPhone 6 without first creating the iPhone 1. And the iPhone 1, remember, lacked basic obvious necessities like 3G, copy and paste, and even an App Store. Fortunately, Apple has that entire backlog of evolution to guide them with Apple Watch, and it should let software iterations arrive to end users much more quickly than they did in the early days of iPhone OS.
This is why I’m so fascinated by this product. Of course it’s not perfect today, and truth be told, it will never be “perfect,” because nothing ever is. But months and years from now as developers begin to understand Apple Watch more and as Apple makes the device ever more capable, it obviously has the chance to be something we can truly enjoy.
Maybe even more than our iPhones.