Apple Watch: A Giant Leap for Apple. A Small Step for Wearables
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| Apple Watch |
Beautiful is not the
word that comes to mind when you look at the new Apple Watch (AW). You don’t think
of cool, edgy, or sophisticated either.The AW, formerly rumored as the iWatch, is out or,
at least, we have an idea of what it is. Well, it looks like a watch and does
a lot of other stuff. It blows away anything else that is in the market in the
wearable/smartwatch/fitness-tracker/health-monitor category. Google Android Wear and Samsung Gear look ancient in comparison.
However, it fails to evoke the emotion that Apple's other successful products
like the iPhone evoked. Surprisingly, Apple failed to create an elegant design
that is sophisticated, inviting, and moving. The AW looks like a
giant screen on your wrist.The AW comes in two sizes. The bigger one is for men
and the smaller one is for women. Apple does not state that
explicitly, though. Some men may like it but I cannot imagine a fashion-conscious
woman wearing an AW. I understand that
it is very, very hard to do a universal design that is personal. But that is
what we have come to expect from Apple.
There have been attempts in the past to make a watch more than a
watch but no one has tried to pack so many features in the watch before.
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| Who wouldn't want a watch that does other things? (1980s) |
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| Microsoft SPOT Smartwatch: Why don't you like me? (2004) |
The AW performs five distinct functions:
1. Watch
2. Secondary Screen and Notifications for your iPhone
3. Health and Fitness
4. Payment
5. New Form of Communication
Let's look at these five functions one by one:
1. Watch: The AW is an engineering marvel. It is full of functions and
digital personality. The watch tells you a very precise time i.e. within
50ms of the most definitive known time. Digital Crown as a User Interface (UI) is a
good idea. The ability to customize the watch with different straps easily is
nice. Apple shows a lot of innovation in strap design. Inductive charging with
magnetic alignment is also a good idea. What the AW has in digital function and
mechanics, it lacks in physical appeal. People buy things they wear based on
how they look and how they make them feel. The AW does not look very
appealing.
Getting in the watch business is a bold move by Apple. In the
past, when Apple launched a new product, it launched the best product: iPod,
iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air. People have loved Apple and Apple products became successful because
there was nothing better available. The AW is not the best watch. There are years
of history, craftsmanship, brand, and emotional attachment people have for their watches. I am not replacing my Hermès watch for an AW.
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| There is something about Hermès |
For the first time, Apple is playing in the mid-tier of the
market. The high-end luxury watch will not be impacted by the AW and neither
will the low-end category of watches. Also, for the first time, Apple is
launching six products at the same time. The AW comes in three styles - Watch,
Sport, and Edition. Each comes in two sizes (38mm and 42mm). Hence, six
products. This is very different than an iPhone being available in three
different memory sizes (or in three different colors in its 5th
edition).
Being on the advisory board of Crimson Mim, a high-end fashion
retailer, I have a learned a few things about fashion from its CEO, Christine Campbell. And, I don't see women wearing the AW. That takes away half the AW
target market.
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| Do you really want me to wear a gadget on my wrist? |
Apple is also not positioning the watch as a product
to test the market like they did with Apple TV. It has not been a widely
adopted product and Apple positioned Apple TV as a “hobby” at the time
of launch. The AW is positioned as the next big thing. I predicted that Apple TV services will have limited adoption and had to face the wrath of Apple
fans in the comment section of my blog. Hence, you can no longer comment on my blog.
The AW comes in three editions. The Edition version of AW is “gold
plated”. Is Apple’s idea of making a product more luxurious to put gold
around it?
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| This is luxury |
Watches can last for generations. Will
people change watches every year now just like they upgrade their phones every
year? Apple is trying to change human behavior which is always a tough thing to do. Not only you may have to change your watch every year but also you may have to charge it every night. Will people get used to the idea of charging their
watches every night?
2. Secondary Screen and Notifications for your iPhone: The basic idea is that you don't
have to take your phone out of your pocket/purse when you get a
message/notification. And, you can respond directly from your wrist. I think the
AW does a good job here. The AW requires an iPhone to work. The UI on the AW may be
good but I have the iPhone right here with abetter UI. Why wouldn't I just use
that for Apps/messages, etc?
On one hand, Apple is launching bigger iPhones based on people’s
feedback and on the other hand, Apple is
launching a very small “iPhone” for the
wrist. Is there a market for both? Will people change their habit of looking at
their phones 150+ times a day and start enjoying the physical surroundings more
because of the AW? Or, will people start looking at their wrists all the time
now? Will people feel comfortable talking to their wrists in public à la Dick Tracy?
3. Health and Fitness: The AW will tell you how many calories you are burning,
how intense your workout is, how many miles you have walked/run, etc. The AW
shows progress here. It tells people what to do. This was my key learning
during the field trial of the world's first
multi-sensor, consumer-fitness, cloud-connected, wearable device. Most of the other wearable fitness
device makers have failed in this area. People want the fitness device to act
more like a personal fitness coach. The AW presents results in a simple form of
three physical activities 1) Move 2) Exercise 3) Stand.
Are the reminders and notifications good enough for people to
change their behavior? Many people are lazy. Many people do not like to exercise
and it is really hard to make people do things they do not want to
do. People who like to workout will like the AW but those who don't may get
annoyed with the reminders and turn them off. Actually, can you turn them off?
There are practical challenges with the Health and Fitness
function. Am I supposed to change my watch strap (from steel to sport) when I go
running? Data visualization is still not personalized i.e. I am still seeing
charts and graphs. Why can’t I see my avatar changing shape based on my
activity level. I am baffled that none of the companies are using
gamification and social pressure to break people's habits. The
real benefits of Health and Fitness devices will come from connecting personal vital statistics data to the healthcare system. Does the AW do that?
4. Payment: I am not clear if I need to do fingerprint authentication on
the iPhone before I use the AW to pay at a retail store. For now, let's assume
that I can use the AW without the fingerprint authentication for payments.
There are certainly some advantages in using the AW for payment but in
this case it is tricky to predict if people will change their behavior because
credit cards seems to work fine. How many merchants have the NFC terminals,
devices that will allow merchants to accept Apple payments? And the location of
the NFC terminal on the retail counter will play a big role on how people adopt
payments using the AW.
5. New Form of Communication: The AW enables you to send taps (vibrations), sketches,
and your heartbeat to other AW users. I am super-excited about this
category. Last year, I worked on an idea, Swedee, where my vision was to create
a new vibration-based language because the subtleties and complexities of
communicating emotions are lost in SMS. You can see the rough plan here. I worked with industrial,
jewelry, and apparel designers but I could not find a design that was
universal, inexpensive, and personal. Without the right design, I did not move
forward with the idea.
This new form of communication will happen eventually because people have a fundamental
desire to express emotions. Language is not evolved
enough to communicate emotions completely. There are
trillions of SMSes sent every day. Younger people express emotions in these
short messages with emoticons and stickers and they are not used to long-form
writing. A “vibration” message brings you much closer to a physical hug or kiss
than an emoticon. Hence, younger people are more likely to adopt this new form
of communication but can they afford to spend $349 on the AW?
The AW is a very complex product. It is a triumph of function over
form. This may not make sense to my fellow engineers but people buy things they
wear based on how they look and feel and not how they function. Maybe people
will be so fascinated with the functions that they will accept the form. I
doubt it. We shall see...
