Why I’m Breaking Up With the Apple Watch

Vanessa Friedman, NYT:

When I told a colleague about the breakup, he observed that perhaps I wasn’t the target for the Apple Watch. That I should be sure to tell the Siri on my wrist, “It’s not you, it’s me.” He may be right.

Except I don’t think so, and not just because often, opposites do attract. But because I actually think I am the intended: a nontech person who wouldn’t otherwise have too many gadgets (a phone, an iPad, a laptop), but who could be seduced into buying another because of its desirability.

That’s the way Apple increases market share and owns a category, after all: by sucking in those who are not Apple addicts. It’s why the company worked so hard to get close to the fashion flock.

But here’s the thing: The watch isn’t actually a fashion accessory for the tech-happy. It’s a tech accessory pretending to be a fashion accessory. I just couldn’t fall for it.

Friedman’s position is not a position of a tech pundit, or it would be pretty easy to criticize her lack of seeing the future potential of this product. Instead, she writes from the perspective of a regular ‘nontech person’ which poses some interesting insight. One I tend to agree with.

I still love the idea of technology on my wrist, but I can also understand why some people still don’t see its value. With that said, I still deeply believe that as the Watches capability increases, people will start to gravitate towards it. Again, it’s new. Native apps aren’t even here yet and there are already improvements in sensors that could be made.

This is absolutely no different than the iPhone in 2007 in my opinion. It was cool, but lacked so many things that eventually came in future versions. Now, here we are and most of us can’t live without our smartphones. I’m not sure if the Watch will ever be like that, but I feel confident in saying that I think there’s a lot of upside. We truly haven’t even scratched the surface on what this product will be capable of in the next few years and I think regular nontech folks like Friedman will eventually be convinced to go back to the Watch.