An Apple Watch Meta-Review Reimagined

Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note:

These initial reviews say more about the Product Review genre than they do about the Apple Watch. As the word genre implies, there are rules. One is that you have to provide quotable fragments that support your view — think of how movie posters and trailers quote reviews. Second, write what you want but remember you still need to eat in this town. In the case of tech reviewers, “lunch” is being among the select few invited to do the next “under embargo” product review — you don’t want to go hungry. Third, you have to be “fair and balanced”: You must provide at least a hint of negativity, no matter what, so you won’t be perceived as having “sold out”. Lastly, you have to write quickly, steamroll annoying counter-narrative trifles, and use strong words.

I still can’t wrap my head around how you can fully judge a new, never before seen product in just a few days when you don’t have all the apps and almost nobody in your circle of friends and family have this product.

Products like the iPhone, iPad, and now Apple Watch require time to fully understand. I’d argue that you’d need to go a full month before you could truly make a judgement call on whether the device is worth buying or not. I don’t know how any of these reviewers had time to fully experience this product given that they had to write thousands of words and do movie-like videos too. That, in addition to editing and retakes, tends to make me believe that this was less about understanding the product and more about getting as much attention as possible.