Happy New Year, everyone! Here we are, already fifteen years into the new century, and we’re on the cusp of a technology story that could well have implications that will carry over all the way into the start of the next century: the Apple Watch.
No matter how the story of the Apple Watch plays out this year, the repercussions will be significant. If the Apple Watch turns out to to be a huge success, it will transform the way we all interact with our personal devices, and with the technology all around us. It will make new millionaires out of new app developers, and it will go a long way towards putting the traditional watch industry out of business.
Their Fate Hangs in the Balance with the Apple Watch
On the other hand, if the Apple Watch turns out to be a massive flop, it could bring the largest and most influential technology company in history to its knees, opening up the door to new players, new approaches and new ideas.
Either way, it is going to be huge.
For Apple, the future of the company hangs in the balance. Its thirty-year drive to the top of the tech world was captained by products conceived and realized though the genius of company founder Steve Jobs. We will soon find out how much of the Apple ascendancy was due to one man’s genius, and how much the company culture he created can generate brilliant products without him.
Expect to Be Bombarded with Apple Watch Publicity
One thing is sure: There will be no way to avoid awareness of the Apple Watch. In and around the expected launch of the device this spring, you can expected to be bombarded with Apple Watch advertising and publicity at a volume that none of us have ever seen before.
Apple already has a reputation for innovative high-quality advertising delivered at saturation levels. Well we ain’t seen nothing yet. Seeing as the nature of the Apple Watch is part technology, part jewelry, expect a lot more “bling”-style promotions featuring celebrities from Hollywood, the music business, the fashion world and popular culture in general. Cross-promotions, product placement, red carpet revelations — expect the Apple Watch to show up everywhere over the next few months.
What’s It Gonna Be? A Hit or a Miss for the Apple Watch?
So how is it all going to pan out? Is the Apple Watch going to be a massive success or disastrous failure?
Well, our crystal ball is currently in the shop having its motherboard replaced. But we here at smartwatches.org are going to spend the next few weeks before the Apple Watch unveiling bringing you a roundup of expert opinion, the pros and the cons, thumbs up and thumbs down on the Apple Watch.
We will start with industry analyst Rene Ritchie, who is unabashedly bullish on the Apple Watch. He said that for the Apple Watch to succeed, it would need to excel at five things:
- Logging: Collecting sensor-derived health and fitness data
- Controlling: Serving as an interface for accessories, especially home automation
- Authenticating: Making mobile payments or remote ID, as for an airline boarding pass
- Alerting: Relaying priority notifications
- Communicating: Family, friends, business
Make That One Vote for the Apple Watch Being a “Hit”
Ritchie said that “these are all important things. They’re things we need and want. But they’re also brief things. They’re intermittent and unpredictable things. They’re things that the Apple Watch will be able to do more efficiently — maybe even better.” He argued that the Apple Watch represents a continuum, from the Mac to the iPad to the iPhone and now the Apple Watch:
Smaller, more personal things don’t have to be as powerful or functional as bigger, less personal things. The iPad doesn’t have to do as much as the Mac. The iPhone doesn’t have to do as much as the iPad. The Watch…
When the iPhone launched in 2007 it wasn’t fully independent. It required a computer but also enabled us to do things without going running back to our computer. Over time, it gained its independence and now we can do so many things some of us don’t need to go running back to our computer at all any more.
The computer remains bigger and more powerful, but the iPhone is more personal and more portable. It’s the best device there is for what it does because it’s the device we have with us.
The Apple Watch will be the same. It will depend on the iPhone at first, but it will let us do just enough of just the right things that we won’t need to go reaching back to our iPhones as much. And over time, who knows?
Who knows, indeed. All the small, short repetitive tasks that the Apple Watch will be able to do may add up to something indispensable in our lives. That glance at your Apple Watch during that important meeting, bringing that crucial bit of information at the right time — an incident like this might be worth the price of admission all by itself. All that reaching and digging for your iPhone will be a thing of the past.Welcome to the future.