It looks as if somebody at Apple has realized that perhaps too much mystery is a bad thing. We all know that the Cupertino megagiant’s marketing strategy for years has been to tease the public with images, glances and hints at a new product, without giving away too much, and keeping people guessing at the rest.
The strategy has worked for Apple because they know there is a pent-up demand for their products, and that many people would line up to buy an Apple Pooper Scooper if the company made one. Secondly, the mystery created by the partial reveal tantalizes some people, and the ensuing speculation about what the product will look like in reality keeps the product constantly in the news.
Too Much Negative Speculation About the Apple Watch So Far?
But we are now seeing Apple revealing a lot more information about the Apple Watch in dribs and drabs, long before its expected March 2015 release. I realize there is an irony inherent in speculating about speculation. But the truth is that a lot of the chatter about the Apple Watch in recent weeks has been negative. Tech reviewers are saying there is not enough that is truly new and innovative about the Apple Watch. Plenty of observers continue to harangue Apple about the apparent pricing scale for the Apple Watch line. And many doubts remain about the Apple Watch battery life.
So it looks as if Apple wants to pre-empt the negativity by doing some more marketing about the strengths about the Apple Watch. Last week more details emerged in the Apple WatchKit SDK. This week they beefed up the Apple Watch website with more info and video about the device, and it’s all pretty interesting.
New Emphasis on Apple Watch Accuracy as a Timepiece
For one thing, the company wants to boost the device’s bona fides as an actual watch: “Apple Watch is first and foremost an incredibly accurate timepiece. Working with iPhone, Apple Watch continually checks against the definitive global time standard with the same precision found in GPS satellites. If you move from one time zone to another, Apple Watch automatically adjusts. And when daylight saving time begins, Apple Watch simply changes to the new time. So you never once have to set it yourself.”
Nothing too ground-breaking there, except to note that accuracy is one of the things that high-end watchmakers emphasize in trying to sell their multi-thousand dollar watches. And guess how much the high-end Apple Watch models are going to go for?
More Details About Apple Watch Watchfaces
The Apple Watch website reveals more details about the different watch faces available, and they do look awfully nice. The Chronograph face is modeled on early analog stopwatches, but measures time in “incredibly precise” increments. It uses two hands, for total time and lap time, plus a customizable timescale for long and short time periods. For better or for worse, the Apple Watch is offering a Mickey Mouse watchface, and not only do Mickey’s arms move, but his foot taps every second and “he might even wiggle or blink”. Insert your own joke here.
There’s a Solar watchface that, based on your current location, shows you the sun’s position in the sky. You can follow the solar path over time as you rotate the Digital Crown. And the Modular watchface looks to be the most practical, offering a flexible grid design that offers the greatest number of “complications”.
“Complications” and Other Apple Watch Functions
Complications are what watchmakers call specialized functions, and here is where the Apple Watch has a genuine edge over competitors, because of its advanced tap screen. Some of the complications are traditional, such as moon phases or sunrises and sunsets. But some of them are unique to the Apple Watch, like stock quotes, weather reports, your next calendar event, and a daily activity tracker. No matter what watchface you use, you can crowd as many of these complications on the screen as you can. And when you tap any one of them, it opens up the corresponding app.
No other smartwatch offers such a simple way to open multiple apps. It’s a nice detail to know, and we hope Apple reveals more about this device moving forward, because we’re as tired as you guys are of all the speculation.