We All Bought Beta Apple Watches

After watching the WWDC keynote yesterday for a second time, paying special attention to the Apple Watch portion, I have come to one conclusion: We all bought beta Apple Watches.

It’s not a bad thing, but Apple moving so quickly suggests that watchOS 2 is really watchOS 1. It’s the OS that should have shipped with the watch from the beginning, but of course didn’t because Apple wanted to get this device on people’s wrists as soon as possible.

This also makes me realize that hardware is still Apple’s strength and software is still their weakness. My guess is that the Apple Watch hardware was probably ready to go towards the end of 2014 and it was software that really held it back. As Kevin Lynch stood on stage demoing third-party complications, Time Travel, and what native apps would be capable of doing, I couldn’t help but think “Man, my Apple Watch is great and all, but this is what everyone wanted from the start!”

So what happens from here? Well, developers will get to work on making better apps for the Apple Watch, especially since most of them probably have one in hand at this point. Not only will they build apps that will run natively, but now that they have a physical Watch to test with, you can expect apps to be much faster and just overall better.

Of course, it will take a few months to get right, but between now and September (most likely), developers will have rigorously tested their native-running apps. By the time watchOS 2 hits, Apple will once again push the Watch as a must-have product going into the holiday season. A product that is much more realized in terms of software and hardware together. I’m also betting we’ll see new Watch bands in the fall too. Maybe even a few more Watch faces.

This is why I say we all bought a beta product. It’s not that the Watch is bad now. I still really enjoy wearing mine. But it wasn’t a fully realized V1 product when they started selling them in late April. We will see that in the Fall.

And that can’t come soon enough.