Michal Ždanský In just a week, we will probably learn everything we wanted to know about the Apple Watch, and about which Apple has been silent so far, for various reasons. Upcoming keynote it will reveal, among other things, availability, a complete price list or real battery life. Like all new Apple products, the smart watch has its own story, fragments of which we gradually learn from the published interviews.
Journalist Brian X. Chen z New York Times has now brought a few more tidbits about the watch from the development period, as well as some previously undisclosed information about the watch's features.
Chen had the opportunity to speak with three Apple employees who were involved in the development of the watch and who, under the promise of anonymity, revealed some interesting details that we have not yet had the opportunity to hear. There is always a great deal of secrecy around Apple's unannounced products, so that information does not get to the surface before it should.
The most risky period is when Apple has to test products in the field. In the case of the Apple Watch, the company created a special case for the watch that resembled the device Samsung Galaxy Gear, thereby masking their true design to field engineers.
Internally at Apple, the watch was called "Project Gizmo" and involved some of the most talented people at Apple, often the watch team was referred to as the "All-Star Team". It featured engineers and designers who worked on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Among the top officials who are part of the team developing the Watch are, for example, chief operating officer Jeff Williams, Kevin Lynch, who moved to Apple from Adobe, and, of course, chief designer Jony Ive.
The team actually wanted to launch the watch much earlier, but some unspecified obstacles held up development. The loss of several key employees also contributed to the delay. Some of the best engineers have been pulled from Nest Labs (maker of Nest thermostats) under Google, where a large number of former Apple employees are already working under the leadership of Tony Fadell, the father of the iPod.
The Apple Watch was originally supposed to have more emphasis on tracking biometric features. Engineers experimented with various sensors for things like blood pressure and stress, but ended up ditching most of them early in development because the sensors proved to be unreliable and cumbersome. There are only a few of them left in the watch – a sensor for measuring heart rate and a gyroscope.
It has been speculated that the Apple Watch could also have a barometer, but its presence has not yet been confirmed. However, the barometer appeared in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and the phone is thus able to measure the altitude and measure, for example, how many stairs the user has climbed.
Battery life was one of the biggest issues during development. Engineers considered various methods of recharging the battery, including solar power, but eventually settled on wireless charging using induction. Apple employees have confirmed that the watch will indeed only last a day and will need to be charged overnight.
The device should at least have a special energy-saving mode called "Power Reserve", which should significantly extend the life of the watch, but in this mode the Apple Watch will only display the time.
However, the most difficult part of the development of the Apple Watch is still waiting for the company, because it has to convince consumers of their usefulness, who have not been interested in such a device until now. Adoption of smartwatches in general has been lukewarm so far among users. Last year, according to Canalys analysis, only 720 Android Wear watches were sold, Pebble also recently celebrated a million watches sold of their brand.
Still, analysts estimate that Apple will sell 5-10 million watches by the end of the year. In the past, the company was able to convince consumers of a product that was otherwise received very coldly. It was a tablet. So Apple just needs to repeat the successful launch of the iPad and will probably have another billion-dollar business in hand.
We'll all buy them anyway even if they don't even show the time :)))
Exactly!!!! :-D best post and I agree
I am convinced of myself that yes. I bought a Withings Activite in the same way :-) and I don't see a problem with buying an Apple Watch ;-) well, if I didn't have the opportunity to test watches from Samsung, I would buy at least one of the 4-5 that they have already come up with :-) Buy however, it is not meant to be worn actively :)
But the success of the iPad cannot be compared to a watch. That tablet succeeded mainly thanks to the iPhone phenomenon. Watches still lack a general sense of mass, those geeks who are happy to measure anything and connected with the iPhone are fewer than those who use the iPad. In addition, there is one moment that few people have thought of yet: a certain block for buying more and more gadgets is the necessity of daily charging of all devices: in our case, iPhone, iPad, MacBook, in addition to watches, then various other home devices (most of them still have the second mobile, and I'm not even talking about the partners' mobiles and tablets at home…….thinking everyday that I have to put 3, 4, 6 devices on the charger is crazy…….
Personally, I would not dare to say that the iPad succeeded because of the iPhone, rather because of the technology that turned out to be breakthrough on the iPhone, ie. touch and its implementation in a device that enabled easy sharing of the content of the meat (e.g. even one that could not do it on other devices).
The watch has a clear logic, apart from clothing, it is another widespread device that people carry with them, which gives a company like Apple an economic logic. The marketability of the watch in the short term will of course be determined by the "hurray something new from Apple" effect, however, it is the practical usability, viz. the charging you mention will be the most important thing in the long term. Apart from practical usability, the biggest problem for watches will be individualization. That's why Apple deals with so many customization options, because if they put 5-10 million watches on the market, they'll all be pretty much the same. Ladies and gentlemen choose watches as "jewelry", and watches that everyone will have are low-cost, not high-end. I'm really looking forward to how they will look, but I don't know if I'll buy them even because of the daily charging....
Well, maybe I could survive the charging. What bothers me the most is that they are completely dependent on the iPhone. In the case of navigation or event notification from the phone, etc. I wouldn't mind, the dependence makes sense there. However, with fitness functions in general, their at least temporary independence from the phone would be useful here. I would like to run or swim with just a watch, without a big and intrusive phone. They wouldn't have to show me all the things - just a few basic ones, time, distance, temperature. the rest they could only record and analyze after connecting to the phone, or the phone would do it for them. Another thing that bothers me is the design. From my point of view, they should be more like a regular watch, give me a reason to wear it all day, plus let it show the time all the time - just like a classic watch.
In its current state, which is still known to us, I consider the apple watch to be nonsense - for me. It's just a useless notification tool that can't do without a phone and won't bring me anything new (except for heart rate measurement).
Apple Watch can be taken for a run even without an iPhone - it shows the distance, heart rate, calories burned and many other data in real time.
Apple shows this in their advertisement – http://youtu.be/CPpMeRCG1WQ
I, on the other hand, see the fundamental and current problem of smartwatches in the fact that they are electronic devices. There is no other way, but after a few years they are hopelessly out of date. Imagine that you buy perhaps a GOLD version, it really doesn't matter how soft the materials of the body of the watch are, after two years it is outdated. When I look at ordinary watches in the price category above 1000 euros, each owner expects them to serve him for more than ten years. The only trick that would make it better is the option to select the core of the watch and replace it when a new version comes out. That way, investing in a smooth body can be effective.
Of course, this applies to people who also consider watches to be a piece of jewelry. However, there is a problem with this, that these people have a _collection_ of watches (say, at least 2-3 pieces) and the smartwatch has more than one tendency to stick to them continuously, literally 24 hours a day, which no owner of a watch collection does.
It follows that the fit version of the Apple Watch can be successful, there is no reason to doubt it (price and charging do not play a role there). I'm going to buy the medium version to try out the others (including me) and the gold version, it's probably just a way to show off ;-)
The fact that the watch lasts all day is simply the smallest possible acceptable endurance. Less is simply not possible, because if you put your watch on your wrist in the morning and at 15 pm you have to put it on the charger, it's probably not even worth buying. Plus it's like a mobile phone. When you use it, you can use it in less than a day. If you use the watch properly, it will not last the day. And also daily charging means 365 charging cycles per year. We can probably imagine what state the battery will be in after 500 or 1000 cycles. Measuring heart rate without a chest strap is pointless. For example, when spinning, I have a heart rate monitor attached to the handlebars so that I don't have to keep raising my hand. And also the accuracy without the chest strap is not good. My Polar has had a flashlight since July, I use heart rate measurement 5 times a week for about an hour each time. He's still going. I can say for myself that certainly not. But it will be successful. Frikulíní are already looking forward to the next stylish thing.
You wrote something about which you hardly wrote anything, knock it down. That's what I call an open mind...