Apple Watch is such a flop it's the world's top-selling wearable Apple's Watch was slow to reach stores, needed a patch for the FREAK bug, has given users a nasty rash, sparked a lawsuit and may not be notably better than Android Wear, but none of those travails have stopped it from becoming the world's number one wearable. So say the folks at analyst outfit Canalys, who reckon Apple …
Won't be out until Wall St has closed for the day. At least that's what http://9to5mac.com/2015/06/29/apple-schedules-q3-2015-earnings-call-livestream-for-july-21/
says.
That means 10pm for us here in Blighty.
Regarding the Apple Watch... Not seen one in the wild yet so as far a I'm concerned it rated a 'Meh' reaction but I won't be buying one no matter how great it might be. I just hate things on my wrist.
I've got one for my app development. Very simply if you buy it thinking it is something you go to to use, pass time, or for a source of entertainment, you will be disappointed. If you just put it on your wrist, try to forget it is there and wait for it to do what it does, then it's actually pretty good.
I do a lot of training, so the fitness tracking aspects are good. Being able to reply to messages easily whilst on the move is also good. Using Siri (for e.g. messages) when on the move is convenient (and being able to do that without problem whilst cycling has been a revelation). Controlling music/media is handy.
The thing I've been surprised about, is that being able to switch of sound on my phone as well as on the watch and get alerted to events with a tap on the wrist, a small thing but I like that a lot.
It's an incremental improvement in my connectedness that means my face is buried in my handset a bit less when I'm on the move, when I'm at a restaurant table and I'm less likely to miss the latrine if a message comes while I'm going to the loo in the pub - probably not worth £399 though - unless your the person next to me.
My wife and I both got one in May. So far she's had to reset it once (touch screen became unresponsive) and I've never had to reset it. Strange that yours is having these connectivity issues. Maybe you fiddle with it a lot more than we do - we mostly let it be and use it as an activity tracker and notifier and occasionally to answer calls. Don't use any third-party apps.
Suspect you'd find you've a pretty good idea of the time even without a watch. The human brain seems to have an innate ability to make a reasonable approximation and assuming you've always got a phone on you there's an accurate source when you need precision.
Haven't felt the need for a watch in years and wearables haven't yet changed that for me.
I have a Pebble (the old black and white one).
I wear it because if you are seen with an expensive item (such as a phone) in some of the places I travel through, you are likely to be attacked.
The Pebble enables me to see the time, and notifications from my phone while I keep the phone securely elsewhere.
Not sure I'd feel the same way about an Apple Watch though..
Partly because I always did.
But mostly I do as it lasts for years on one battery (in fact, mine also solar charges) so I can tell the time without having to keep charging my phone every day or two. That matters if you are in the middle on nowhere as far as power points are concerned. It is also "waterproof" (they say 50m depth but reality is a strong shower) and won't fall out of pockets, etc, depending on activities.
I do. Glancing at my wrist is much quicker than fishing my phone out of my pocket.
And because I've been wearing a watch since long before mobile phones were a thing and it's a convenience I don't want to be rid of. The "phone as watch" thing is basically a regression to a particularly large, ugly and annoying form of pocket watch. Not for me.
This question seems seriously out of character for you, Jake.
Normally, you come across as a very conservative, relatively backward-looking person, so as a result, it's quite a surprise to read it, unless you've either dropped out to the extent of living by the sun, or have a pocket watch!
Even though I carry my phone around with me, having a watch (a relatively simple one, time, date, chronograph, alarm and dual time zones) allows me to read the time with a relatively simple and consistent twist of the wrist, any time, day or night (I very rarely take my watch off except to make sure I don't scratch the wife when, oh - you know. This means that it's not been taken off for a while!)
If I had to rely on other devices around me, I would have to first of all remember where the closest clock is where I happen to be or get my phone out of it's belt holster and unlock it, and then hope that the home screen is showing, and has the correct time, as it comes on showing the time that it was locked, and then updates about a second later. I run with the status bars hidden on my computer screen (It's only 64 pixels of vertical space, but I want to use it for content), so I don't even see that unless I move the mouse.
And on top of that, I've been wearing a watch since I was about 10, so it's perfectly natural to me, and it would take some time to adapt to not wearing one.
"unless you've either dropped out to the extent of living by the sun"
Exactly. Since the late 1980s. The critters tell me when it's time to be a farmer. The closest thing to a clock that I need (for the most part) is if the shadow is getting smaller, it's morning. If it's getting longer, it's afternoon. I'm usually pretty accurate +/- 5 minutes Zulu. I don't have time for idiots who insist on more precise timing, day to day ... People who constantly look at their wrist tend to be tedious.
That said, the computers are all synced to ntp.org ;-)
@Jake ". I don't have time for idiots who insist on more precise timing, day to day ... People who constantly look at their wrist tend to be tedious."
Now that's the Jake we all know and don't love. Criticising others in the most odious manner just because they differ in some trivial way from your own opinion or behaviour. Very boorish.
It's all relative, and electronic watches can have all of these features without becoming complex. They're commodity items now. Standard quartz movement plus one chip, a display and a battery in a case. Not complex in this day and age. Most mechanical watches are far more complex than any with a quartz movement, and designer analogue watches, while beautiful to look at, are often so stylized to be deliberately complex, for no real benefit in function.
I wonder how many of the readers here have Breitling, Tag Heuer, Rolex or other luxury or artisan watches that make my 12 year old £40 Sekonda or my £25 Zeon tech backup look positively ordinary!
> I wonder how many of the readers here have Breitling, Tag Heuer, Rolex or other luxury or artisan watches that make my 12 year old £40 Sekonda or my £25 Zeon tech backup look positively ordinary!
Well, I've got my dad's Jaeger leCoultre but that's 60 years old and probably makes your Sekonda look like rocket science.
Nice watch, though. Never loses time.
I said relatively.
It's a dual digital/analogue watch, so the 'extras' are not so special for a digital watch. It looks like an analogue watch with a simple digital display (6 characters plus a couple of indicators) set as the face.
Complex is an Apple Watch or an Android, or something with lots of dials, big obtrusive buttons, more than two timezones or multiple timers/alarms, or pulse/blood pressure monitors.
Yours is a very simple one. Only to be more simple if it doesn't even have a sweep second hand.
I think the world consists of people who don't wear a watch, and cannot conceive that anyone else would, and people who do wear a watch, and cannot conceive that anyone else wouldn't, actually.
I think techies tend more to be the second category (I haven't worn a watch in decades), but that smart watches are more easy to sell to the second category. Which means they are possibly easier to sell to non-techies. However, techies are more likely to be early adopters,, making it an interesting challenge.
I have several times heard people say that a watch is an easier sell than Google Glass or other smart glasses, because people are used to wearing something on their wrist all the time, but smart glasses are something extra to wear. I find this a little strange - I don't wear a watch but I do wear glasses - but I have to believe that there are a lot of people like that.
>I think the world consists of people who don't wear a watch, and cannot conceive that anyone else would, and people who do wear a watch, and cannot conceive that anyone else wouldn't, actually.
I disagree. I think the divide is "people who don't wear a watch and cannot conceive that anyone else would" and "people who do wear a watch".
I don't much care if you prefer to go for the pocketwatch phone option. That's your business. My watch is my business and you don't get to criticize it.
I wear mine but it's no quicker than any other time-telling method.
It's a wind-up model, 1980's cold-war model from USSR sent to some of the 'liquidators' who were first on the ground to try to contain the Chernobyl incident. I figure as a bit of living history it's important, and as a reminder that people might do heroic things, even unwillingly, and a reminder to find the better part of myself when I see it.
Last one I wore was about 15 years ago now. I bought a Swatch at an airport somewhere, wore it for about 6 months. One day I stopped wearing it for some reason and never wore another again. There's always clocks everywhere, clock on the phone, clocks on buildings, on train notice boards and even when I'm out with my camera, there's a clock on that too. I can see that watches are very useful but I've personally not found a reason to wear one in the last few years.
Not me. I used to be obsessive about the time. Constantly glancing at it every minute or so, for no good reason at all. Then one day in 1982 I was using the stopwatch function to time some film development and drop the thing into a bowl of photographic fixer. It never worked after that, and I never replaced it.
Knowing the time at any instant can never make you early for an appointment you either are or your not. It depends on when you started out. Other than appointments you rarely need accurate time. 30 minutes either way is good enough. We have become slaves to some clockwork cycles, that isn't how humans should be living, and it causes stress.
Besides everything around you has a time function, the camera, the DT computer, your mp3 player, the oven, the fridge, the video player, the car dashboard has at least two, the GPS ...
I wear a watch because I was given one for 15 years of not-being-fired. Sentimental value.
It turned out to be quite an expensive one, with a perpetual battery charged by a solar cell behind the face, and the "atomic clock" function that uses the local standard time signal to set it every night at 2am. It's also smart enough to do DST.
So basically I will never need to set it (unless I change timezones) or change the battery.
Plus it's got an aviation theme (Blue Angels Skyhawk chronograph, with the Blue Angels logo on the back) and I'm a space/plane nut, so I like it.
Plus after wearing nasty Casios in high school and hating the feel of them, it's actually a comfortable band that fits for the first time in 40 years.
Sad Fact: I wasn't able to read the time off the face for a YEAR. I had to cheat by looking at the little digital display. Very sad.
I wear a normal watch. It takes me barely a second to flick my wrist around to see the time. Far, far easier than rummaging around in my pocket for my phone, pulling it out, waking it up etc. etc.
I think a smart watch might be pushing it a bit though...
I wear a watch because it's useful for double checking my decompression stop after I've been at a depth of 30 m for a while. Sure, the dive computer makes it redundant unless there's a failure.
Besides, if I'm stuck in a conversation with a long winded bore it's only a quick flick of the wrist and an "oh! I'm sorry, time really does flash by. I've got to rush off and pick up a package of sporks to stab in my ears and hopefully perforate my eardrums." As I smartly shuffle off I usually hear them list their four or five favorite recaleminder apps that I should try.
Jake - I tried asking that question before with the same basic voting results %.
He did say "Serious question ...", you down-voting *nutters!
My simple (to me) explanation is that alot of people have developed a Stockholm syndrome with *time. It explains every person who down-voted you.
"...because people are used to wearing something on their wrist all the time, but smart glasses are something extra to wear." It must be a British thing. (certainly not seen here in the US). Or, perhaps, an Apple investor thing.<snicker>
BTW, dogged. Yes, I do get to criticize anything I want. That's why we are here. Handle it!
Congratulations to Apple on becoming the market leader in a market nobody cares about. :)
Seriously though, I do not see any point to smart watches. At the level of simple functionality there are plenty of devices that tell the time and are a hell of a lot cheaper. As a piece of jewellery or a status symbol a mechanical Swiss timepiece from Rolex or Omega has a lot more credibility. All you've got left as a unique selling point is that it can work as a remote control for your smart phone, and that's just not worth the kind of price the smartwatch manufacturers are asking.
I guess Apple were hoping to rule the market by doing for smartwatches what they did for smartphones with the iPhone, but the sad fact they just haven't. Their watch may be much better than the competition but just doing the same thing better than everybody else isn't enough in this case. You need a killer app, something that demonstrates the worth of smartwatches as a product category as a whole, otherwise they'll remain expensive geek toys with one day battery lives.
"Congratulations to Apple on becoming the market leader in a market nobody cares about. :)"
You mean that you don't care about.
"Seriously though, I do not see any point to smart watches."
Seriously, don't buy one.
"At the level of simple functionality there are plenty of devices that tell the time and are a hell of a lot cheaper."
Of course. But this is a completely false comparison as you know*.
"As a piece of jewellery or a status symbol a mechanical Swiss timepiece from Rolex or Omega has a lot more credibility."
If by credibility you are meaning cost, then yes. But again, a completely false comparison*.
"All you've got left as a unique selling point is that it can work as a remote control for your smart phone, and that's just not worth the kind of price the smartwatch manufacturers are asking."
Well, that's the only USP you see. But even if we assume you're correct, you mean it's not worth it to you. And again, false comparison* / assumption.
* Because it's not any one of these things, it's all of them, depending on who's buying it and why.
"I guess Apple were hoping to rule the market by doing for smartwatches what they did for smartphones with the iPhone, but the sad fact they just haven't."
You guess that, do you? I guess that Apple never had any such hopes, and just wanted to make a watch that was nicer than all the other brands and build an initially small but loyal fanbase for it and grow slowly from there. With all the money in the world they can wait and see, and design something they love.
"Their watch may be much better than the competition but just doing the same thing better than everybody else isn't enough in this case."
Why not? Seems likely to me that if you have the best product in a category (which for the iPhone is after all just the Apple Watch and the Pebble) then you're most likely to be the more successful.
"You need a killer app, something that demonstrates the worth of smartwatches as a product category as a whole, otherwise they'll remain expensive geek toys with one day battery lives."
No you don't, and no they won't.
There is something about smartwatches that compel people to post on web discussions and declare how they don't see the point of them. It's like it's important for the world to know that they don't care for them.
I don't care for marzipan, cheap lager, golf, tattoos, skinny jeans, instant coffee, poolside holidays, nightclubs or felching. But I understand that some people do enjoy those things.
Does it make me feel any different having declared my preferences on El Reg?
No.
1. Speaker and microphone so It can genuinely work as a phone extender.
How would you funnel sound out from the wrist strap into a cupped hand over the ear.
2. The clasp\strap or the bezel of the device to incorporate a touch\mouse\track device of some sort. That way you can select options on the screen without obscuring the screen.
My 4yo HTC phone has a tiny little optical track sensor in the cente of a small push button on the phones bezel. The whole thing is 5mm dia.
3. Waterproof;
My 20yo Seiko is always on my wrist.
4. Self 'winding' the curent generators probably aren't man enough to make that much juice but if th device is sealed for life at least make it a decent life.
The Apple watch does have a microphone and a speaker. It also has a jog wheel on the side specifically for choosing things without obscuring the screen. And, while not "waterproof" (what does that actually mean?), it is resistant to IPX7. So you can wear it in the rain, while washing your hands, etc., with no problem.
Battery life on something like that is always going to be measured in days with current battery technology and the drain would be too much for a self-winding mechanism, but at least it's reasonably easy to charge.
(I don't have one. Can't see the point for me - I don't like wearing watches much, would lose it, and am already probably too well connected as it is)
1. The Apple watch has this facility
2. Can't see the real utility myself and the digital crown works very well. The screen being obsured isn't much of an issue in daily use.
3. See http://furbo.org/2015/07/14/a-watch-water-and-workouts/. Basically, it's waterproof.
4. A self-charging mechanism would be advantageous. That said, I get about 2 days charge wich ain't too bad for a first gen product.
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All "smart" watches are, as far as I can see. If they worked as a total replacement for your phone then perhaps just perhaps they would be more convenient than carrying that around, but they don't. Even in the rare cases where the android ones can be used to make phone calls, the inherent limitations of the screen size makes them a bloody pain to use.
Apple could have put a strap on a wooden block with a shiny Apple logo on the back and easily shifted a couple of million units.
The fact that the world's biggest (market cap) company which is also the "world's most powerful brand" could only muster support from die hard fanboys indicates the Apple Watch is struggling to gain traction.
I guess it's harder to make a market rather than capture one that is already in existence.
"Apple could have put a strap on a wooden block with a shiny Apple logo on the back and easily shifted a couple of million units."
Please explain to me how that would work. Seriously. What you claim is idiotic, you know it, and everyone else know it. The purpose of saying what you said is denigrating the real product, by claiming that for some unfathomable reason any Apple sales are not due to creating a good product, but are due to some weird attraction of the Apple logo. Do you think they hypnotise people? Hold a gun to their head to sell things? Or what?
I sometimes post the odd feeble little joke on another IT-related website and I get a response like "was that a joke?" I've realised that it is a straight question - there are people who simply have no sense of humour but are aware that such a thing exists and are trying to find out how it works. My jokes are obviously of such a feebleness that they come out marginal on the algorithm.
However, I think gnasher perhaps has other issues.
@twinlkins
true to that. Basically with the godlike status of Apple, as we were talking here at the office, they could enter the denim jeans market for example and easily outsell all current denim suppliers (Levi Strauss, Diesel, etc...) put together. The product doesn't matter any more it's all about fanboyism now.
@ Yamas You lot have been saying that since day one. We like our Apple stuff because its well made and reliable, and it has incredible customer service.
The Fanboys are the ones defending Window's stream of epic fails as proof of its innate superiority, and angry geeks telling us this year is the year of the Linux desktop, FOR REAL this time!
The people buying things that are badly made, (Microsoft) (Delll) or the ones pushing the things the general public does not care about at all, even if it IS functional (Linux), and telling us "Stop liking your Apple stuff dammit!! We TOLD you! Its trendy garbage! STOP LIKING IT! WAHHH!" These people are the real fanboys.
They can buy kit that falls apart, and software that is incredibly unfit for use, and then pat each other on the back and go, All least its not (cr)Apple! Those sheep! They need to use what we all use so they can be individuals too! And pat themselves on the back for their largely imaginary sense of superiority and entitlement. This should fix my recent trend of thumbs up.
These people are living proof that Stockholm Syndrome is not limited to kidnap victims.
CTRL + F "windows"... no results on page.
Nope, you're the first person to drag Microsoft to a discussion where it simply doesn't have a part. Is there a MS equivalent of Goldwin's Law?
I'm quite sure that MS, Dell and Linux "fanboys" can rationalize their preferences exactly in the same way as you did.
These people are living proof that insecurities can't be cured with iShinies.
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I bought it, tried it for a week and returned it to apple. They asked why when I called to cancel the apple care (I could not do that part online) - I had many reasons, but the main one was battery life. I have a garmin watch now, better for sport and battery lasts a week, even with around 50k of running per week with GPS and heart rate on. Apple needs to learn a thing or two from a company like Garmin with low-powered wearables that still have notifications etc but manage to have a battery that you need charge a lot less.
The only thing Garmin could improve on is having a HB Monitor in the watch itself - not for sport, but for monitoring the HB during sleep and during the day. For sport, it is better to wear a chest strap.
For me wearing a watch would be similar to Google Glass as it would create a sense of total immersion. People in certain professions could definitely use it. On line immersion would be very useful to people who do not work in cubicles, or have multiple meetings and do not have to constantly keep in touch or track multi parties. But for everyone else it means a total connection, a complete surrender to the online every waking hour, and when the battery improves, beyond.
apple halo effect. produce iThingy. sell lots of iThingys. easy. what do apple care that after a few months the majority of them with sit in a draw of other oddments never to be seen again.
shiney shiney brands sell. doesn't matter what it is... hence against all better judgement, I've just taken delivery of some Porsche design blackberry's. exactly the same as a Q10, just in a different body. ergh. it's almost on par with with iphone6 for cpu performance. only without the apps. and for a grand a piece. bargain.*sigh*
I used to wear a regular watch, but haven't for a decade or two. There are lots of clocks around. But then a friend demonstrated his Samsung Gear 2 Neo. Cool toy - I wanted one. I have no regrets. I use the pedometer quite a bit - it is telling me stuff about my daily walks. The ability to see texts (I mostly email on my desktop) and to reply to them is quite handy. I've even answered calls on it a couple of times. Downloaded a calculator app. Used the heart rate monitor to see how much climbing hills affects me. And, since my time sense can be almost 2 hours out, being able to tell time while out walking on the paths is handier than digging out my phone - especially in the winter, I hope.
I've upgraded my iwatch to the next level. I've strapped my phone to my wrist.
Now I too can tell the time with a mere 'flick of my wrist'. I get to tap on my 'phone-watch' without needing a second hand to hold it.. Further, I don't have to 'rummage' for my phone every time I need to tell the time...it's right where I need it!
Best of all, I still get the full smartwatch experience by having to take it off to recharge nightly.
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It won't sell that much more when word get's out that the back of the watch is glued on and the heat from wearing and charging the watch weakens the glue until one day you will reach to take the watch off the magnetic charger and the back of the watch will stay on the charger, there is a youtube video and a discussion in the apple forum about this.
"It won't sell that much more when word get's out that the back of the watch is glued on "
Unlike my cheap Chinese pedometer which has a back attached with 4 screws and an O ring gasket, so that when the time comes you can replace the rechargeable battery. How many years ago would it have been the expensive product with the screwed back and the cheap knockoff with the glue?
The trouble for me is that I really like the watch I've already got, and have had for years. If I replaced it with something else it would be - well - something else. I've actually got several watches... no idea why really, as I only ever wear this one!
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