Walt Mossberg: Smartwatches Need To Get Smarter

Walt Mossberg writing for The Verge:

Well, for me, having no smartphone would be the worst. I’d feel cut off from other people. Losing my laptop would be a close second, since it’s my main work tool and my best display for browsing and video viewing. I’m a big tablet guy, so I’d hate to lose my iPad, which I now use for many things, including work tasks.

But my $700, stainless steel Apple Watch? If that somehow went away, I expect I’d stop missing it after a few days. Sure, it does just enough for me that I don’t feel terrible about buying it, or wish to get rid of it. But since I started wearing one after it launched last April, it just hasn’t become an integral part of my life. Unlike my phone, if I left it at home one day, I wouldn’t drive back to get it.

What I don’t understand is how a veteran technology reporter can write such an article. “Smartwatches need to get smarter” couldn’t be more obvious. It’s like writing “Internet speeds need to get faster” in 1995. Of course they do, and of course they will.

If I left my Apple Watch at home, I wouldn’t turn around to get it either. Why? Because it’s not essential. Not yet anyways. I just can’t seem to wrap my head around the fact that those who have been covering this industry for decades don’t understand that and have to write about it. Products start out as infants and then grow to be mature over many years. Complaining that the smartwatch isn’t smart enough is like complaining that an infant can’t walk or feed itself, even after you’ve seen 100 newborns. It’s ridiculous.

I don’t think the smartwatch needs one “killer app”, but I do believe it needs a capability more compelling than what’s out there so far. It needs to do something, all on its own, that’s useful, quick, secure and cool.

I have no crystal ball on this question, but I believe that one way to make the smartwatch indispensable is to make it a sort of digital token that represents you to the environment around you.

The “digital token” is something I’ve been saying for a while. If the Watch can replace your keys, membership cards and such, then that to me is the killer feature. To me, the concept of “apps” is totally wrong. Where I think the Apple Watch will succeed is in keys and Watch faces.

Maybe this idea isn’t the one that will give the smartwatch the bond you now feel for your other gadgets. There certainly are smarter people than me looking at the problem. But something has to change. If the smartwatch can’t eventually do something smarter and more useful than it does now, it risks becoming a footnote.

The smartwatch is truly in its early days, and its important that we all understand that. Those of us who insist on comparing it to the iPhone or iPad are going down the wrong path. We need to view this product as something entirely new. Something that wasn’t built on the backbone of anything. Something that we don’t fully understand yet.

The smartwatch will get smarter. But we’re not going to leap there. It’s a path that make take some time.