The Apple Watch Trainer
About eight months in, the Apple Watch started to have a bit of a problem: people stopped wearing it. John Gruber of Daring Fireball was probably the most prominent person in the Apple community who said it was no longer an everyday device. A research firm found enough former Apple Watch wearers that it could start to put together figures on why people stopped wearing them. But if you read Gruber’s take, the Wristly research, or a similar post from Justin Blanton, the groups that get frustrated fall into at least one of two camps: people who want the Apple Watch to replace a nice mechanical watch and people ready for the Apple Watch to replace their phones.
For the mechanical watch set, the Apple Watch does too much, so it fails at the one thing a mechanical watch is designed to do: reliably tell you the time instantly every time you look at it with minimal intervention. For the phone set, the Apple Watch does too little, hampered by first generation hardware that makes the third party app experience a very hit or miss affair.
But this article by TechCrunch’s John Biggs about why he is still wearing the Apple Watch sheds light on who is finding it indispensible:
As I mentioned, the Apple Watch replaces my Fitbit. While many would argue having a step tracker on your body is wishful thinking, I like to know that I’m moving and grooving during the day. Furthermore, having my notifications and health data show up on my wrist rather than on my phone is an amazing benefit.
The same sentiment shows up in Gruber’s comments, that breaking his streak of filling the activity rings ended the compulsion to wear the Apple Watch every day. Blanton now finds himself in the same fitness tracker hell that I was in pre-Apple Watch:
Since offloading the Apple Watch I’ve bought a number of activity trackers, including the Misfit Shine 2, the Jawbone UP3, and the Fitbit Charge HR, so I guess I’m not completely over the activity-tracking features of the watch. That said, I haven’t worn any of these in the last few weeks — I just don’t think I like having something strapped to both wrists. But, that new Misfit Ray looksnice…and so I pre-ordered one. Ugh.
If you primarily wanted the Apple Watch to replace a wrist-based activity tracker, I’ll bet you’re a lot happier than the mechanical watch and/or phone replacement crowd. That’s because Apple has put together a best-in-class activity tracking system. It’s nicely designed, easily understood, and a more complete picture of health than just about any of the other major activity trackers. All it’s missing is a social aspect, which Game Center can (and let’s be honest, probably already should have) solved.
So how does Apple increase the Apple Watch’s stickiness? It needs to get people addicted to its fitness and activity tracking capabilities. That could mean an Apple Watch Mini (or Nano) or a theoretical Apple Band, a fitness tracker in the mold of the Jawbone Up line, Misfit Shine, or the new Fitbit Alta. Something that primarily shows the activity rings, maybe lets you start a workout, maybe lets you receive some basic notifications.
But the easiest way is to open up the Activity app to all iPhones with the motion co-processor. Let the Activity app use the data from the motion coprocessor to fill the rings. Frequency of steps will have to substitute for heart rate when it comes to the exercise ring. And the Workout app on the watch will have to be ported to the phone, perhaps as an independent app or maybe as part of the Activity app.
It’s just good enough to get people hooked on closing the rings, but as anyone who has used both phone-based activity tracking and a wearable device, the wearable is far superior. Not only do you not forget to pick it up (assuming you remember to put it on), but a wearable can also track other metrics beyond motion like heart rate, skin temperature, and perspiration. Plus doing sleep tracking with just a phone is clunky compared to something you wear.
As the price of the Apple Watch comes down in the next couple years, another smaller and cheaper device might not be necessary (although a plastic Apple Watch seems like a no-brainer). But getting people on board with the idea that they need to wear something to track their activity is the best way to make sure Apple Watches are worn and not returned or stuck in drawers.
