#20 • First Impressions: Apple Watch

Apple just shipped their first wearable, which has huge implications for the consumer-facing Internet of Things.

In this episode we talk about Apple Watch after spending some time with it, and ultimately recommend whether or not you should buy one.

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Topics

  • The “stand up” problem, and how to fix it
  • Apple Watch is Apple’s MVP (minimum viable product) wearable
    • 20 million units of a 1.0 product
  • Launching with 3,500 not-very-good apps
  • Incredible scale: 885 million iTunes accounts as of fall 2014 (source: Bono)
  • Apple Watch is to Fitbit, Jawbone, etc. as iPhone was to Palm OS phones — a different species
    • Compared to Apple, none of the other players has an ecosystem
  • Fashion
  • Close to 40 models, confusing naming
  • “It’s called Apple Watch, but it’s not a watch.”
    • It’s really not for people who buy watches for the time
    • “Take your phone, take notifications and messaging, put it on my wrist.”
  • Apple watch as a needy extension of your phone
  • We are Pavlov’s Dogs, but with notifications
  • Health and HealthKit
  • Siri sucks less (!?)
    • Related to Siri 3rd generation?
    • Hypothesis: Apple deployed to Apple Watch first
  • Payments and security
  • Water and scratch resistance
  • Will traditional high-end watch buyers buy Apple Watch?
  • Price means not a wearable for “the rest of us”
  • The near and far future of Apple Watch
  • Apple’s App Store schizophrenia
  • Should you buy one?

Stuff we learned after recording

  • Apple Watch measures your heart rate every 10 minutes while at rest unless you go to the Heart Rate glance. [Apple Support] It measures your heart rate more often (every 5 seconds when running, for example) when you exercise. [@bradlarson]

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