We’ve Always Wanted
an iWatch
I can’t remember how long now everyone’s been guessing that Apple would release an iWatch. Competitors like Google, Samsung, and startups haven’t stood idle this time either. These already released, competitive wrist worn products all but prove Apple will enter the newly created market with their own wearable.
Though for about as long as people have rumored the coming Apple product, many have argued it’s one that need not exist. A product dreamed up by nerds, with no mainstream audience. I’d argue we’ve always wanted one. And when the thing we’ve always dreamed of is finally here, we’ll buy them in droves.
First off, calling it a watch may not be the right idea at all. The watch has historically been a device designed to tell time on our wrist. The watch is very good at what it does. It could be improved in minor ways, but it’s not fundamentally flawed. Though an iWatch may also tell time.
The smart phone does most everything a supposed iWatch would do. So why make a smart watch? It’s a product in search of a purpose and audience, so goes the argument. But I’d contend the argument is at least slightly flawed.
Science fiction, we now know, almost always becomes a reality. It’s just a matter of time and market forces. This is especially true of hardware and software. It’s much easier to build the home of the future than find an intelligent alien species. And in science fiction, we’ve been dreaming of the wrist computer for years. Why? It makes sense. Why carry a telephone with us everywhere, when a small inconspicuous band can do the same, and be on us all the time? Many of the things we do everyday on our smartphones (make calls, get a calendar invite or reminder, set an alarm, track a run) are things that are actually a hassle on a phone. They are possible, and the smartphone will always play a role with those activities, but it’s not the best tool for these micro interactions.
The iPhone and its progeny is no longer much of a phone. The fact that we CAN make a phone call with one is not the reason we can’t live without it. Nor that it can send and receive texts or emails, check the weather, or tell us when to wake up. That was iPhone 1.0.
Today, the iPhone has proven invaluable to so much of the population because it’s their primary computer. It’s the hub that makes so may other things in our lives go. The more responsibilities it assumes in our lives, the more invaluable it becomes. It’s getting bigger. It’s getting more powerful. And it’s getting more bloated. But the original purpose (simple communication) is still a necessary part of our lives.
Much like the iPad created a market that barely existed before it, the iWatch will do the same. We could have gone on clothes shopping with our 4lb laptops or squinting at our tiny phone screens. We didn’t know for sure we needed a tablet in our lives. But look at us now. We could keep pulling our phones out of our pockets every time we hear a chime. We can keep getting pulled into the glow of our phones every time we see a notification. And we can strap our phones to our arms when we go on a run. But there is probably a better way to do these things.
Google took a big step in the right direction with Android Wear. They’ve also tried strapping it to our face. Motorola will make me want to wear it on my wrist with the Moto X. Withings has made the most beautiful activity tracker + time keeper with the Activité. Though none quite meet the dream.
Perhaps Apple can finally prove a wrist worn computer has a permanent place in our lives.
