The Standard

International News
The Standard September 14 to 20 2014 23
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Clockwise (1) the Apple smartwatch; (2) Owners of the smartwatch will be able to make payments via Apple
Pay; (3) the Watch is also being marketed as a must-have accessory
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Does anyone need a smartwatch?
In his trademark black T-
shirt, blue jeans, and trainers,
Apple co-founder and
chief executive Steve Jobs
convinced consumers, time
and time again, that they desperately
desired a product for which
they had never previously felt a
need.
On Tuesday, his successor Tim
Cook took to the stage at an event
in California hoping to follow
suit, by unveiling a smartwatch
that Apple hopes will finally put a
wearable device on to the average
Joe’s wrist.
But does the Apple Watch do
enough to kick-start a hitherto
lacklustre market?
James McQuivey, an analyst at
the research firm Forrester who
has seen the iPhone and iPad
launches come and go, certainly
thinks so.
“I think it is very clearly one of
those moments,” he said.
“People know they need watches,
they know that they need
smartphones, and Apple has made
a combination of those things
that is better than each of them.”
However, he admits that there
is no “killer app” on the device.
Rather, the Apple Watch is a “collection
of benefits”, which will
appeal to those who already spend
an awful amount of time checking
their phones each day.
“This is not asking people who
are analogue to become digital,”
he explains.
“This is asking people who are
already digital to take it to the
next level.”
Indeed, Apple is not marketing
its watch at technophobes or novices.
For a start, the Watch works
only with an iPhone, and offers
little in terms of functionality
that cannot already be done by its
bigger sister.
Additionally, few of the Watch’s
integrated technologies are particularly
revolutionary. A heart
monitor might enable more accurate
health readings, but several
apps on the iPhone already offer
similar capabilities.
Its contactless payments facility
replicates what many in Europe
can already do with credit
and debit cards.
It may be the case that the device’s
user interface is its biggest
innovation — thanks to the “digital
crown” control that lets users
navigate around apps and the
introduction of a “force touch”
pressure-sensitive display.
Even so, some may find the device
rather more cumbersome
for sending messages or reading
texts than a quick glance at their
smartphone.
That’s partly why Angela McIntyre,
an analyst at research firm
Gartner, believes the jury is still
APPlE Watch Selected tech
bloggers, other journalists and
celebrities were invited to Apple’s
launch.
Of course, that didn’t prevent
a flood of instant feedback before
U2 had a chance to round
off the press conference. Below
is a selection of what appeared
online in the hours after the announcement.
Vogue: From a fashion point
of view, the external aesthetic
seemed neutral: neither superstylish
nor repellent. I would imagine
that geeks would love it
more than aesthetes. Yet smartphones
have already transformed
the fashion world in a
way we never imagined.
Apple spent much of the
launch highlighting the Watch’s
fitness-tracking facilities.
Gizmodo: Maybe the cleverest
part of the Apple Watch’s design
out on whether the Apple Watch
is another landmark moment for
the firm.
“It’s still wait-and-see,” she
says, adding that the smartwatch
is likely to mainly appeal to early
adopters, or those who already
own many Apple devices.
Additionally, she argues, the
US$349 (£216) price tag could provide
a stumbling block, and it may
take a significant drop in cost to
bring the Watch to the mass market.
Indeed, research by Forrester
shows that just one in four adults
in the US is considering spending
money on a wearable device in the
next year.
But McQuivey believes Apple
has carefully considered the price
point of the Watch.
is how you control it. Instead of
relying on multi-touch gestures
designed for bigger screens, the
Apple Watch leans on the use
of the “digital crown,” aka “the
spinny knob” aka that thing you
typically use to adjust the time...
Think clickwheel 2.0.
Wired: An intriguing feature
is the Maps app, which in addition
to offering directions also
takes advantage of the haptic
vibration system inside the device.
In practice, this allows Apple’s
Maps app to not only plot
a journey from your current location,
but guide you using different
types of vibrations on the
wrist.
Reactions to the smartwatch
The Verge: Apple left out
some key details about the product,
such as screen resolution,
processing capabilities, and
most importantly, expected battery
life.... It also doesn’t bode
well that the display is not always
on and only lights up when
you move your wrist or interact
with the watch.
Financial Times: What’s
the psychology behind showing
your audience a rapid-fire demo
of your most important new
product for years, then blasting
them senseless with a deafening
rock band? Maybe it’s to bludgeon
us all into submission.
Techcrunch: It seems spectacular,
worlds better than other
solutions. no doubt there are
countless other consumer companies
gearing up to announce
their Android Wear devices.
And now, instead of simply competing
with the round-faced
Moto 360, they have to announce
their device in the face of the
Apple Watch.
“That’s why they invested in
making it beautiful,” he argues.
“That’s why you’ve got someone
from Burberry now working
at Apple — they wanted people to
say ‘I’d spend that money even if
it wasn’t digital’.”
The Watch, he says, is primarily
a “digital lifestyle enabler”, not a
piece of revolutionary tech.
“I still don’t think people who
buy it and love it will see themselves
as watch wearers.”
“In fact, it might have made
sense not to call it a watch.”
Time — if you’ll excuse the pun
— may yet prove the Watch a more
universally coveted tool, but the
device’s pioneers could find themselves
left behind.
“Early adopters tend to get penalised,”
says Tim Stevens, editor-at-large
at the news site Cnet.
“They pay the most and get
technology that is most rudimentary,
while a newer product comes
along that is thinner, has a better
battery life and is usually cheaper.”
Those who rushed out to buy
the first-generation iPad, for example,
were left to ponder quite
how wise that decision was when
the device became slow and prone
to crashes, because of its relatively
meagre RAM memory.
Subsequent models of the
Watch may address some of the
drawbacks of the current device,
such as the reliance on the iPhone
to provide GPS tracking, the lack
of sleep tech or the limited health
functions.
Some commentators, including
McIntyre, have noted that despite
the “limited” functionality
of the Watch at present, Apple is
inviting third-party developers to
create apps for the device, which
could result in a flood of new features
by the time it goes on sale
next year.
She highlights starting one’s
car using a smartwatch or controlling
a house’s thermostats as
examples.
But Apple will also have to
watch out for the competition.
When the iPhone and iPad
launched, there were few who
could claim to have any device
that came close to them.
Today, not only are there several
competitors in the smartwatch
arena — including Google, Samsung
and Sony — but there are
also many other devices fighting
to become the wearable of choice,
such as smart glasses and smart
clothing.
And watches may not appeal to
the younger generation of Apple
enthusiasts, many of whom have
given up wearing a timepiece altogether.
The clock, as they say, is ticking.
—BBC