Did pig faced patel ever get a mirror stable enough to show his reflection? Dateless, zit encrusted, and with a sense of style worthy of Jethro Bodine. LOL. Priceless
This is an excellent, insightful article... But, I disagree with one thing in it: The implication that the Apple Watch was pretty much complete and perfect coming out of the gate...
When that marketing ploy failed, they transitioned over into marketing it as a health, fitness and exercise tracker. And, they've done pretty well there. But, it still has not fulfilled its destiny there as it is still not on the same level as the dedicated exercise monitors. Instead, it has taken the Nike approach of primarily targeting casual, recreational exercisers and even non-exerisers with its rings and stand reminders.
* I don't see where the article claimed that the Apple Watch was "pretty much complete and perfect out of the gate". - After all, DED knows that the Series 2/3 and improvements to Watch OS exist. Therefore the claim that the article implied that the initial Apple Watch was pretty much a complete/perfect product which suggests it had no need for updates, is not an accurate view of the article. - Instead what DED has done is make comparisons to actual products. The influence of the Apple Watch design and the iPhone X. As well as the Apple Watch and the once main US Android Wear competitor, the now discontinued Moto 360.
* Second, there is the claim that the Apple Watch product line "has not fulfilled its destiny ... as it is still not on the same level as the dedicated exercise monitors". - Dedicated fitness devices for highest level competition athletes, like the Garmin wearables and chest straps (from Polar), are not the "destiny" of the Apple Watch. - Apple Watch is a mass market smartwatch. Its competition would be other mass market smartwatches. The RIZNOWS fitness YouTube channel has a video titled; "Best GPS Running Watches" which rated the Apple Watch as the best mass market smartwatch for fitness over the Samsung devices. - Also, Mashable has an article from May 05, 2017 titled; "Apple is now the world's top wearable company". - Imo Apple Watch has reached its destiny.
Sorry, but no... While it was an excellent article, it failed to point out how the original series was unable to compete (at least to media minds) with standalone high end fitness trackers. But, much to their credit, Apple recognized the limitations of their initial marketing campaign touting the watch as a competitor to high end traditional watches (such as Rolex) and shifted its hardware capabilities and their marketing campaign towards exercise. (But I also acknowledge that Apple may have initially intentionally targeted the glamour market just to break the ice so people would begin to not mind strapping a computer onto their wrist -- and then moved on when that goal was accomplished.)
And, while the capabilities of the Apple Watch are limited to mostly lower end mainstream type exercise tracking (because of deficiencies in its software) Apple is marketing it as a high end exercise tracker for serious and competitive athletes. But, for Apple, that is an unsustainable position: the watch cannot survive as a fat, expensive FitBit -- but unfortunately, the software it runs is not yet up to speed with the high end trackers such as Garmins. ... More than any other Apple product, the Watch is a work in progress. Hopefully, Apple either finds a qualified design team for its exercise tracking capabilities or supports third parties into bring their expertise (and their apps) to the watch. ... To quote a wise man: "This crap. Fix it!"
Perhaps the deficiencies in the design team for the watch were best illustrated in the Keynote -- where, instead of a serious athlete demonstrating the capabilities of the watch, they had a geek floundering around on a paddle board hoping to finish the video before she fell off. While I loved the video, it showed that they don't have any serious athletes on the design team. "Fix it!"
This is an excellent, insightful article... But, I disagree with one thing in it: The implication that the Apple Watch was pretty much complete and perfect coming out of the gate. I would argue that it -- particularly its marketing and target audience -- has been a work in progress.
Specifically, Apple originally marketed it primarily as a fashion accessory to compete with traditional luxury brands like Rolex, etc... They even put out an all gold edition for what? $10K?
When that marketing ploy failed, they transitioned over into marketing it as a health, fitness and exercise tracker. And, they've done pretty well there. But, it still has not fulfilled its destiny there as it is still not on the same level as the dedicated exercise monitors. Instead, it has taken the Nike approach of primarily targeting casual, recreational exercisers and even non-exerisers with its rings and stand reminders.
That's not to criticize Apple or their Watch. Rather it is praise: a quality organization plans carefully and then reevaluates and adjusts and improves things on an ongoing basis -- and that is what Apple has done with their Watch. It continues to be a work in progress that I am excited to see what the future will bring. ... But, in the meantime, it has clearly served as an inspiration for the iPhone X.
Where does DED say it came out of the clamshell fully formed and perfect?
Apple didn’t position it as fashion and then fail and pivot. The activity tracking features it does today were there on Day 1 and are exactly why i bought it (and marketed if you recall the videos and famous runner who tested for them)...for years it was rumored apple was doing a fitbit competitor, it didn’t disappoint. But they did indeed market it as a fashionable device *in addition*. This was to show non techies that this wearable computer, a gadget, was not to be feared, scorned, etc...that it was in fact nice looking and flexible with your style via the bands. And they accomplished this. In a big way. The gold also assisted in garnering attention, and from the keynote Cook said it wasn’t going to be around long.
"Where does DED say it came out of the clamshell fully formed and perfect?" ... Implied throughout the first part of his article
"Apple didn’t position it as fashion and then fail and pivot." ... You were apparently not paying attention.
'The activity tracking features it does today were there on Day 1" ... Damn! You should have told Tim Cook that so he didn't have to add a barometer, GPS, water proofing it to 50m -- and LTE...
1) OK so you can't say where and are attributing your own made up statements to DED. Got it.
2) To the contrary, I've apparently been following it closer than you. You apparently didn't even realize they worked with high profile athletes during its development. As for fashion, I explained my points clearly -- it's always been a fitbit-killer, and *in addition* they exposed its fashion appeal side; which, if you were paying attention, you'd know is still here -- Heremes editions? Fact: the AW is sole wearable computer gadget that normals (especially women) are comfortable wearing and accessorizing with. That's remarkable.
3) Adding features like LTE and waterproofing in no way supports your argument that it wasn't a fitbit-killer from Day 1. Activity tracking has always been a tentpole feature, dur. While it's gotten even better and added support for water activity, that in no way means it wasn't a major activity tracker at launch. It was. I and many others like me have been using the activity tracking for years now.
Thanks... The failure of your argument is pretty well summed up by your statement that the watch is a "FitBit-Killer"... Since when did Apple begin shooting for mediocre?
This is an excellent, insightful article... But, I disagree with one thing in it: The implication that the Apple Watch was pretty much complete and perfect coming out of the gate. I would argue that it -- particularly its marketing and target audience -- has been a work in progress.
Specifically, Apple originally marketed it primarily as a fashion accessory to compete with traditional luxury brands like Rolex, etc... They even put out an all gold edition for what? $10K?
When that marketing ploy failed, they transitioned over into marketing it as a health, fitness and exercise tracker. And, they've done pretty well there. But, it still has not fulfilled its destiny there as it is still not on the same level as the dedicated exercise monitors. Instead, it has taken the Nike approach of primarily targeting casual, recreational exercisers and even non-exerisers with its rings and stand reminders.
That's not to criticize Apple or their Watch. Rather it is praise: a quality organization plans carefully and then reevaluates and adjusts and improves things on an ongoing basis -- and that is what Apple has done with their Watch. It continues to be a work in progress that I am excited to see what the future will bring. ... But, in the meantime, it has clearly served as an inspiration for the iPhone X.
I agree it is a work in progress but I wouldn't push that idea to the point of claiming that previous product positionings have failed. The gold model apparently was a one time Edition which has still a market value (or more than that, collector's value) today. The Watch is primarily (and still) a fashion accessory by design. That location on human body is unique, you can not attach whatever trinket there. What you attach to your wrist is unique, very personal, very representative of your very own self. That makes the Watch necessarily a fashion accessory. Next they enhanced it with further health and exercise capabilities. Why? Not because of previous failure but because there were demand.
Those dedicated exercise monitors are vertical markets and Apple is not into vertical markets and cannot be, given its scale. As with many other Apple products, the Watch is ahead of its time, since we have yet to see a system integrator to come forward with a professional sports tracking device that would work in tandem with Apple Watch over Bluetooth LE. I don't see any reason for Apple to reject such proposals and just the opposite is true as seen with Nike and Hermes.
"The Watch is primarily (and still) a fashion accessory by design." ... I haven't seen an Apple ad touting it as a fashion accessory since the Series 2 with GPS came out. It's all about athletics -- even the latest one released with the keynote of the skateboarder listening to one of the 40 million tunes on his wrist...
"Apple is not into vertical markets and cannot be" ... Except for an 'always on' face and ultra long batter life (due to the otherwise exquisite OLED screen) the Apple Watch has all the components it needs to not only compete with the high end exercise trackers but beat them. What it lacks is the excellence of their software -- which is an easily fixed deficiency with proper software analysis and design. Apple can do better and, if they want, they will do better. Either that, or they could better support third parties to develop high end native applications for the watch -- which have been very slow in coming
There is nothing excellent in their software. This is mostly collected from publicly available open-source code then converted into embedded systems architecture.
How Apple supports third parties is appearant with thousands of developers making earnings on the AppStore. If some people are very slow Apple is not among them, those are 3d parties who are unable to evaluate the new market opportunities Apple Watch brings. There is nothing surprising in that, everything is “social” these days. If it is not “social” then no finances, it is not worth to develop or finance it. Apple’s job is not to fight with such narrow minds. Apple has already released three generations of Apple Watch whilst others were still struggling to figure out what a wearable is...
By the way no Apple ad positioned it as a fashion accessory, ever... To see a previous failure in recent Apple ads featuring fitness and alike you’d have to work very hard for building up a distopic mind.
"How Apple supports third parties is appearant with thousands of developers making earnings on the AppStore." That is true. Unfortunately, it did not carry over into high end exercise apps running natively on the AW. We can speculate why -- you blame the developers. I think Apple has kept things too close to their vest to make the AW a friendly environment for developers. Most are still running their original apps that run on the iPhone and interface with the watch.
"no Apple ad positioned it as a fashion accessory, ever..." False.
Remember when Steve strong-armed AT&T into improving their processes so that activating/using an iPhone on their network wouldn't be such a joke? Same needs to be done for Apple Watch. Remember the backlash when people got their first iPhone bills - massive printouts itemizing every last kilobyte of data access? AT&T hasn't learned - getting an Apple Watch ON AT&T was a nightmare, getting an Apple watch OFF AT&T was a nightmare, getting my first bill was a nightmare. Hours and hours dealing with incompetent people using incompetent processes to activate, de-activate and correct billing mistakes.
Remember when Steve strong-armed AT&T into improving their processes so that activating/using an iPhone on their network wouldn't be such a joke? Same needs to be done for Apple Watch. Remember the backlash when people got their first iPhone bills - massive printouts itemizing every last kilobyte of data access? AT&T hasn't learned - getting an Apple Watch ON AT&T was a nightmare, getting an Apple watch OFF AT&T was a nightmare, getting my first bill was a nightmare. Hours and hours dealing with incompetent people using incompetent processes to activate, de-activate and correct billing mistakes.
Sorry to hear... Well, not TOO sorry... At least AT&T knows what the Apple Watch w/LTE is... My carrier (Consumer Cellular) doesn't have the foggiest of ideas what it is or how to connect it to their network (even though they piggyback on the T-Mobile AT&T networks that support it).
“slow, flat tire of a wrist-worn tuna can” is only the most hilarious thing I’ve read in days... I do enjoy reading DED’s writing, and the fact that he drives the trolls crazy is such a delicious bonus
Comments
While it was an excellent article, it failed to point out how the original series was unable to compete (at least to media minds) with standalone high end fitness trackers. But, much to their credit, Apple recognized the limitations of their initial marketing campaign touting the watch as a competitor to high end traditional watches (such as Rolex) and shifted its hardware capabilities and their marketing campaign towards exercise.
(But I also acknowledge that Apple may have initially intentionally targeted the glamour market just to break the ice so people would begin to not mind strapping a computer onto their wrist -- and then moved on when that goal was accomplished.)
And, while the capabilities of the Apple Watch are limited to mostly lower end mainstream type exercise tracking (because of deficiencies in its software) Apple is marketing it as a high end exercise tracker for serious and competitive athletes. But, for Apple, that is an unsustainable position: the watch cannot survive as a fat, expensive FitBit -- but unfortunately, the software it runs is not yet up to speed with the high end trackers such as Garmins.
... More than any other Apple product, the Watch is a work in progress. Hopefully, Apple either finds a qualified design team for its exercise tracking capabilities or supports third parties into bring their expertise (and their apps) to the watch.
... To quote a wise man: "This crap. Fix it!"
Perhaps the deficiencies in the design team for the watch were best illustrated in the Keynote -- where, instead of a serious athlete demonstrating the capabilities of the watch, they had a geek floundering around on a paddle board hoping to finish the video before she fell off. While I loved the video, it showed that they don't have any serious athletes on the design team. "Fix it!"
Since when did Apple begin shooting for mediocre?
That is true. Unfortunately, it did not carry over into high end exercise apps running natively on the AW. We can speculate why -- you blame the developers. I think Apple has kept things too close to their vest to make the AW a friendly environment for developers. Most are still running their original apps that run on the iPhone and interface with the watch.
"no Apple ad positioned it as a fashion accessory, ever..."
False.
Remember when Steve strong-armed AT&T into improving their processes so that activating/using an iPhone on their network wouldn't be such a joke? Same needs to be done for Apple Watch. Remember the backlash when people got their first iPhone bills - massive printouts itemizing every last kilobyte of data access? AT&T hasn't learned - getting an Apple Watch ON AT&T was a nightmare, getting an Apple watch OFF AT&T was a nightmare, getting my first bill was a nightmare. Hours and hours dealing with incompetent people using incompetent processes to activate, de-activate and correct billing mistakes.
Now that is hilarious, well said!