As I do every year, I watched the Apply keynote speech to see what new tech was coming out soon. It’s a ritual that gets more attention on alternating years when I know that I’ll be buying the new iPhone, no matter what it is.
The iPhone 6 was a nice upgrade, but I agree that the days of enormous leaps in new features and huge improvements are probably waning, and I have been less and less captured by the hype that surrounds these events, which has been refreshing. I’m not much of a capitalist, but I have long been a fan of the iPhone, because it helps me out in so many aspects of my daily, and business, life, so that I’m seeing it as more of a tool than a toy is very welcome to me.
When Tim Cook breezed through the iPhone announcement, it was becoming apparent that he was making room for the rumoured “iWatch” announcement, and sure enough, he devoted the second half of his keynote to just that.
As his presentation went on, I was getting less and less impressed, and more and more angry by how they were trying to hype up ridiculous features.
I concede that there is a market for wearables like the FitBit, JawBone and Nike+, but it lays predominantly in the fitness market and not in the general technology market. Beyond tracking metrics while you’re exercising, the fact that they can track your walking throughout the day is helpful, but hell, my iPhone already does that, so I’m not as convinced by their application beyond exercising.
I have long been an admirer of Apple, but I feel like they’re trying to make the Apple Watch something that it just isn’t. It does not look good, the interface is fiddly, and no one wants to send their heartbeat to anyone except their doctor when they’re having a heart attack. It wouldn’t have surprised me if Tim Cook jumped out and shouted “April Fool’s!” at the end of the announcement.
In my opinion, the only market for this product is for the fan boys who are still like puppets for Apple, opening their wallets whenever they’re told that there’s a new product that they must have. Can the rest of us just admit that this is ridiculous and isn’t going to catch on? I’ll gladly continue buying iPhones because they serve a real purpose, but count me out of the Apple Watch herd.
