Redditor Explains Apple Watch Perfectly
Apple has come under some criticism for their lack of what many people call a “killer feature”. Well that isn’t true. The Apple Watch “killer feature” is how personal it is, how personal it can be (in it’s myriad of customization options), and how much it will allow it’s users to be more personal with their surroundings.
You probably don’t think about the amount of time it takes to reach into your pocket (or purse for that matter), grab your phone, unlock it, and then do what you intended to do/see what you intended to see on it, but those instances take up time, and that time adds up. Having the information from your phone (in addition to who even knows what else) on your wrist opens up thousands of possibilities but more importantly saves you your valuable time.
[W]hen you think about it, in 3 or 5 years from now, when technology has finished it’s journey from our desks to our pockets to our wrists (just as actual clocks did in years past), people won’t question buying an Apple Watch any more than people question buying a new pair of shoes or a new iPhone.
That progression is an apt analogy, and there’s maybe no better historical analog for the evolution and advancement of personal computing than the miniaturization of the clock. I’d even take it a few steps back in origin, before it ever made it all the way to the desk. Grandfather clocks were big, space(time?)-hogging pieces of furniture, standing tall in dedicated spots on the floor. Home computer towers once required a similar setup. And before that, computers, like clocks, were an object of social attention in a space that sought the community’s attention. Think Big Ben and Deep Blue. These things both started prominent and public, and they both slowly withdrew into the unobtrusive nooks and crannies of our private homes. In name alone, “Apple Watch” is a literal and metaphorical triumph.
With the Apple Watch applications mostly being run on the iPhone, I don’t think we should expect to see increasing performance issues as the years pass by in the same way we do on iPhones. Expect to get between 3-5 years out of you Apple Watch (Apple could potentially even replace your battery for you). You may not want to upgrade your Watch that often but when these things hit mainstream, get used to it (after all, we replace our smartphones without little fuss every 2-3 years).
Behind the scenes at WatchAware (a.k.a. a Slack group chat window), we’ve been privately debating the consumer upgrade cycle for Apple Watch for some time, and I think this pretty well sums up our conclusions. I’m writing this, right now, on my third-generation iPad. I’ll upgrade this year to whatever comes out next, but my 36-month-old tablet is still going strong. I expect a similar end-user purchase pattern for Apple Watch, even as I suspect the device will have significant (if subtle) hardware revisions every two years, just like the rest of Apple’s mobile family.
[E]xpect your second purchase Apple Watch to much improved from your first, i.e. with countless biometric sensors and more.
[U]se your imagination. If you guys are happy with your faces tucked into your phones then so be it, but I will be happy to further blend my technological existence into my reality, and as stubborn as you all may be, that is where the future is headed. Smartwatch “believer” or not, technology is always headed somewhere new, and I can ASSURE you that it will not stay in your pocket anymore than PCs stayed on your desks.
All in all, Sky-Pala explains Apple Watch in one of the most concise and correct write-ups I’ve read so far. I agree with everything presented (save the potential for Edition subsidies), and I encourage you to head on over to /r/Apple to read and upvote this thing if you’re a registered Reddit user.
I just might sign up to do that, myself.
[Thanks to @Kiggle for the link.]