iWatch - why do I want this...

[decay]

iTouch, iWatch

two non-existent Apple products.

[Speedy]

Steve is spinning in his grave.

[vision63]

DavidS wrote:
It does everything that I want from the next FitBit device (replacement for the recalled Force), but at 3x the price. Hopefully, it will help FitBit and the other, similar device makers to step up their game.

I use RunKeeper on my iPhone with an armband. However, while exercising, I don't have an easy way to find out speed, distance, pace, etc. I'm sure this will allow me to do that. I'd also like to be able to control my music while I run. Again, I bet that will be part of the new RunKeeper app.

I'll probably get a Version 2 of this next year, though.

I use RunKeeper too. I keep the phone in my left hand (wrapped in a baggie). So a watch might be the ticket.

[RAMd®d]

Tim said you need the 'Phone with the Watch.

But I'd like to think that it would at least tell time without the 'Phone.

[Speedy]

Good luck with that.

RAMd®d wrote:
Tim said you need the 'Phone with the Watch.

But I'd like to think that it would at least tell time without the 'Phone.

[graylocks]

rgG wrote:
Do you have to have the phone with you whenever you want to use the watch?
If I want to use the watch as a walking tracker, I don't necessarily want to be carrying my phone with me, too.

i was wondering this myself. does it need bluetooth like proximity to an iphone to function? hope not.

interesting. i want one and the fact that it works with a IP5 makes it all the more tempting. yet, my eyes would also like a larger screen so why do i lust for a smaller faced watch. we are fickle creatures, aren't we...

[davester]

I'm trying to figure this out. When Steve introduced the iPhone, he spent most of the keynote playing with it, demonstrating uses that blew me (and many others) away and expressing delight at all these cool and surprising tricks he was showing us. There were soooo many killer apps, like integrated maps, contacts, phone, mail, calendar, etc, etc. I had to have one, just as the first person I showed my new iPhone to instantly had to have one when I showed him what it could do.

The Watch certainly seems like an interesting device, but what does it do? Is it really anything more than a remote display and crude controller for the iPhone? Where is the killer app that makes this thing indispensable? How would Steve sell it to us? I'm definitely not getting any clues from this keynote. The keynote seemed to focus much more on what it is, rather than what it can do for someone.

[jdc]

thanks all (especially Joe!) for proving RAM right

[N-OS X-tasy!]

I love watches - analog watches, specifically. I don't own an unreasonable number of watches, but I probably own more than the average Joe does.

One nice thing about watches: Assuming one purchases high-quality watches, they last for years. Decades, even. And they perform exactly as well on the last day you own them as on the first day.

Which brings me to my primary issue with the AppleWatch (really? Steve really is spinning in his grave): I don't want to buy a watch that will become obsolete in a few short years.

It is unclear from today's presentation whether the software that runs this device is upgradable; whether it is or it isn't, however, obsolescence is guaranteed:

• If the software is upgradable, than eventually the computing power required to run the upgraded software will outstrip the ability of the hardware built into the watch to run the software, just as it has with every PC, Mac, iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad ever sold
  
• If the software is not upgradable, than eventually the watch will be rendered obsolete as advances in technology and standards leave the watch and its capabilities behind
  

EIther way, this translates into the purchase of a new AppleWatch every few years if you want to use it for anything more than telling time - good for Apple's bottom line, expensive for the collective bottom line of its customers. Obsolescence may even be "hard-coded" into the device, depending on whether its battery is replacable. Given Apple's historical tendency to not provide its mobile devices with user-replacable batteries, I believe it is likely this device will share that trait.

Beyond that, I share davester's concerns regarding the device's functionality. To wit, it's not clear to me based on today's presentation why I need or even want this device.

I will admit that I held exactly the same opinion about the iPad as I do about the AppleWatch, yet I have gone on to own three iPads in four years. In other words, I've been wrong before and am willing to give Apple the benefit of the doubt on this for now. But from where I sit, I'm not seeing it.

[Bimwad]

I don't understand why some people have problems accepting that the knob on the side of the watch is called the crown. Not a dial, not the adjusto-thingy. It's called a crown.

For a watch enthusiast, $350 isn't a lot, even if it's "disposable."

Apple has obviously carefully studied the market before entering it, so hopefully it will have adapted to a life cycle different than the rest of their products.