We Will Learn to Love the Apple Watch

Mano ten Napel | @Mano10Napel

With the first batch going out today, Apple have sold an estimated 2.3 million in Apple Watch pre-orders so far. With the Wearable Tech Space still in its incubation period, surely the first Apple Watch, a device that has been made “to the best of ‘our’ abilities” by Apple, will play a key role in the growing wearable tech industry?

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David Pierce published a great piece on the history and development of the Apple Watch. Riece gives us an insight into the journey that started in 2011 with what looked like an ‘iPhone on a velcro-strap’  with a button that spins. It is this journey that has seen Apple come leaps and bounds from drawing board to what we now know as the end product.

“The Watch is Simply a Device That Has Been Made to the Best of ‘Our’ Abilities”.

Although we are still yet to put it on, we have known for a while now what the Apple Watch is capable of. It seems that none of the features created really have the wow factor. To be honest, no wearable tech device really has yet. I can’t help but compare the first Apple Watch to the first iPod. If you take a closer look at an iPod’s design timeline then it’s safe to conclude that we are going to be in for a design treat in the not so distant future with what will be the ‘new and improved’ Apple Watch. You can definitely argue that the improvements from first generation iPod to the next, it got better. It set trends, upped the ante and became the toast of fashion.

It is these inevitable improvements that will work in the Apple Watch’s favor.  As technology improves we can look forward to the  Apple Watch bragging better features designed to fashionably fit into the relatively small wrist device. Therefore, we can confidently say that from here on out the Apple Watch will only get better.

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The downside of the Watch, is that everyone will know how much your time piece cost. This is a downside, because usually when one adorns a luxury watch, those who admire it never truly know exactly how much you paid for it. With the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Sport and the Apple Watch Edition we know exactly what someone has paid for it.

Knowing what someone has paid for their luxury watch might not be a downside for some, but that has not been the only con made about the Apple Watch. The critics of the Watch have not been shy when it comes to voicing their opinion and an argument often heard is that the Apple Watch is just another solution searching for a problem. An example of this is the iPad. Like the Apple Watch, the iPad was a device that was also a solution searching for a problem. It created a need that we did not know we had and after its initial negative reception, it became the convenient device that consumers fell in love with. Following this the iPad dominated the tablet market for almost 2 years. Apple’s success in the past will never guarantee success in the future.

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With the first batch of Apple Watches going out today, I am sure that the excitement is palpable. The new Apple Watch will be in great company because as of yesterday, 23 April 2015,  Apple launched the Apple Watch App Store. It is an app store dedicated to iPhone apps including the much talked about WatchKit apps. Now all you have to do when you receive it is synchronize your Apple Watch with your iPhone and you can then you can spend the day indulging. Which brings us to the most asked question, what can this smart watch offer us that will make our lives more convenient? Besides Apple Pay, the first thing that comes to mind is that the Apple Watch will take away our need to constantly look at our smartphone, we can now instead just simply glance at our wrist.

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SOURCEPhoto Credit: Apple Inc.