Tim Cook: Our Objective With Apple Watch Is to Change the Way People Live Their Lives

MacRumors · Feb 10, 2015

Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke at the annual Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference today, where he covered a range of topics from Apple's dedication to the environment, the major products the company launched in 2014, and his thoughts on the Apple Watch.

When asked by Goldman Sachs COO Gary Cohn what makes the Apple Watch different from other smart watches on the market, Cook recalled the MP3 industry.

If you think about the MP3 industry, we weren't the first company to make an MP3 player, there were lots of companies in this. They weren't used very much. They were fundamentally hard to use -- the user interface was bad and you almost needed a PhD to use them. They're not memorable. [...]

I see the smart watch category very much like that. There are several things that are called smart watches, but I'm not sure you could name any. There hasn't been one that changed the way people live their lives. At Apple, that's our objective. We want to change the way you live your life.

Cook went on to say that he believes the Apple Watch will do just that, impact people's lives in a meaningful way. He says that one of the major surprises will be the breadth of what the Apple Watch can do, and he expects that everyone will find something in the Apple Watch that they can't live without.

Cook highlighted the many design options for the Apple Watch, its "fantastic" look, and the innovative ways of communication that it will enable. Cook says that he "constantly" uses Siri on his Apple Watch, and that he uses it when working out to measure activity.

He also pointed out the feature that pings people when they've been sitting for too long, which he sees in use on a daily basis at Apple. During meetings, he says, towards the end of the hour, people will begin standing up as their Apple Watch alerts them to do so. "A lot of doctors believe sitting is the new cancer," he said. "Arguably, activity is good for all of us." Cook says that he is "super excited" about third-party apps that are being developed for the Apple Watch.

I think everyone's going to have their favorite thing, just like when the App Store came out. Remember the saying 'there's an app for that? There's an enormous number of things it will do.

Earlier this month, Tim Cook confirmed that the Apple Watch is still on track to launch in early 2015, with shipments that will begin in the month of April. Pricing will start at $349 for the lower-end version of the device.

Article Link: Tim Cook: Our Objective With Apple Watch Is to Change the Way People Live Their Lives

farewelwilliams · Feb 10, 2015

Flappy Bird for Apple Watch

life-changer

Crosscreek · Feb 10, 2015

I guess my life is over since I won't own one.

needfx · Feb 10, 2015

that's a bold statement

Karma*Police · Feb 10, 2015

Can't wait to get my hands on the Apple Watch.

YegorH · Feb 10, 2015

This smart watch trend is BS!

Art0fLife · Feb 10, 2015

Change the way people live their lives at $349 STARTING price? That's a good top of the line price, but starting price, entry level? Not on your rich life sir.

Nah, it's not going to change anything for me. It's not that much effort to pull my phone out of my pocket if I need to do "smart" tasks. I mean, this is at the end of the day, an accessory to the iPhone. It can't stand alone even. Not only that, if it requires bluetooth connectivity or anything like that, it will be an accessory that just depletes the battery faster. And I'm not even about to try typing on my wrist, or reading extensive work emails on it.

Nice novelty for people who have the definition of disposable/unwanted income, but this isn't the "iPod" of today. At best this is the iPod Hi-Fi of today.

Edit: And "Can't live without"? That's a bit strong. I mean, I love my iPhone 6 Plus. Thoroughly enjoy it, as well as my iPad Mini 3 and my MacBook Pro, and all my past Apple devices. But I could certainly live without it. And it's far more useful than the watch will be. Hyping something too much can actually be damaging too. It builds excitement in ignorant folks who will be let down when they realize it's not only something they could live without, but also something that adds little if anything to the Apple experience they already had.

tkermit · Feb 10, 2015

Art0fLife said:
Change the way people live their lives at $349 STARTING price? That's a good top of the line price, but starting price, entry level? Not on your rich life sir. [...]

Nice novelty for people who have the definition of disposable/unwanted income, but this isn't the "iPod" of today.

People (myself among them) gladly paid $399 for an MP3 player in 2001. Why wouldn't they spend less than that for something that does a lot more today?

LizKat · Feb 10, 2015

During meetings, he says, towards the end of the hour, people will begin standing up as their Apple Watch alerts them to do so.

They have meetings that last an hour??? I'd die before my watch could meet its obligation to alert me to stand up!

Aniseedvan said:
Advertising the hour prompt to move as one of those life changing items doesn't sell this to me. My fitness band already does this...

My attention span does this. I still want the watch though!

appleguy123 · Feb 10, 2015

The rumored battery life is too low even for a gen 1 product. I have no doubt that Apple will sell a lot of them, but there will probably be complaints when people realize that it has to be charged every day.

I know no one else is doing any better on the battery life, but it seems like a computer this small isn't feasible without significant drawbacks right now.

Personally, I'm interested in it, but I don't think I can bring myself to pay $349 for it until it can get at least 3 or 4 days on a charge (with sleep tracking) or can charge wirelessly while on my wrist.

Rigby · Feb 10, 2015

I really hope they still have some surprises up their sleeves. The use cases he mentioned aren't novel at all.

Aniseedvan · Feb 10, 2015

Advertising the hour prompt to move as one of those life changing items doesn't sell this to me. My fitness band already does this...

IJ Reilly · Feb 10, 2015

Art0fLife said:
Change the way people live their lives at $349 STARTING price? That's a good top of the line price, but starting price, entry level? Not on your rich life sir.

With comments like this it's difficult to know who is more guilty of pure, unmitigated hyperbole: you or Tim Cook.

Rogifan · Feb 10, 2015

I'm not sure why Cook even does these events because he's never going
to disclose anything about new products. You never get a sense of what's next because Apple keeps everything close to the vest. If there's some really cool feature or killer thing we don't know about the Watch Cook isn't going to announce it at a Goldman Sachs technology conference.

IJ Reilly · Feb 10, 2015

Rogifan said:
I'm not sure why Cook even does these events because he's never going
to disclose anything about new products. You never get a sense of what's next because Apple keeps everything close to the vest. If there's some really cool feature or killer thing we don't know about the Watch Cook isn't going to announce it at a Goldman Sachs technology conference.

But they give people with nothing to say something to talk about. Isn't that purpose enough?

MacVidCards · Feb 10, 2015

Imagine knowing that every word you utter is being evaluated by 10,000 people with their cursor drifting between the "buy" and "sell" buttons on their Apple stock.

Everything always has to be "the best of all possible worlds" or the stock could start an avalanche. Poor Tim.

I thought iPad was a dumb idea, now I can't imagine not having one. The watch sounds extra dumb but we'll just have to see.

fitshaced · Feb 10, 2015

The iPhone 3GS didn't last very long battery wise and you had to ration your use in order for it to stay alive for the day. It's true of this watch but the iPhone not only survived but prospered in spite of the poor battery. Other phones lasted much longer for their main purpose of being a phone. The iPhone had been critters on its battery life up to the 5S but still sold in the millions and people didn't just use them, think them as gimmicky and throw them away.

The benefit of an iPhone was more apparent when it was first announced than the Apple Watch is today. However, the iPhone didn't have a physical keyboard which people thought ridiculous and a deal breaker. It also didn't do 3G when most top of the line phones did at the time. It was successful amongst it's limitations. That's what the Apple Watch will be.

It is a new device that offers something people won't have an immediate use. But as Tim Cook said, the iPod wasn't a requirement. Mini disk didn't skip, you could carry a large collection of music around without being limited to the disk capacity on an MP3 (which usually only held about 1-2gb). The iPod offered more as does the Apple Watch over the other smart watches.

Version 2 should be called Apple Watch Marathon if it can last the distance of a slow marathon runner without a tether to an iPhone. I'm talking about my own needs here as I will be running a slow marathon this year and would prefer to not bring my massive iPhone 6 plus with me.

farmkittie · Feb 10, 2015

LizKat said:
They have meetings that last an hour??? I'd die before my watch could meet its obligation to alert me to stand up!

I need this kind of excuse for our dreaded, lame-o Monday morning status meetings that last for 2 hrs plus. Blows the whole morning and sucks the productivity out of me. What a start to the week. Even when the buzz-word spouting boss is on vacation or out of town for business we STILL have to have this with him on Skype or he gets his chief minion to lead it. *retch*

He's an Android luddite who loves that he's director over IT but clueless-dependent-on-Geek-Squad to-load-Excel-on-his-home-PC-type.

Wow, I got off on a rant there but I may get this watch just to have it beep for me to stand up. I'll tell him it's doctor's order, he'll tell me I'm not 'fit for duty' because I'm older than him - maybe. We'll see. Seriously I'm not at all sure that I'm going to get the Apple Watch but I'm very interested to see what-all it will be able to do that we may not know about yet....

nksing · Feb 10, 2015

to change it needs to stand alone

I love my 6+ but I find it too bulky to run with. I can see spending $350+ for the Apple watch if it could track my run without carrying the 6+ along too, but I'm not reading anything about addressing this issue.

KnighsTalker · Feb 10, 2015

Art0fLife said:
And "Can't live without"? That's a bit strong. I mean, I love my iPhone 6 Plus. Thoroughly enjoy it, as well as my iPad Mini 3 and my MacBook Pro, and all my past Apple devices. But I could certainly live without it. And it's far more useful than the watch will be. Hyping something too much can actually be damaging too. It builds excitement in ignorant folks who will be let down when they realize it's not only something they could live without, but also something that adds little if anything to the Apple experience they already had.

I for one, having diabetes, look forward to monitoring my blood sugar level unobtrusively and on the fly. Yeah sure you can do that now if have a receiver dangling from your iPhone but that's not very convenient is it? This will be just one of a myriad of uses that exemplify the Apple Watch and it's symbiotic relationship with the iPhone. So, in a sense, I literally won't be able to live without it!

aicul · Feb 10, 2015

appleguy123 said:
there will probably be complaints when people realize that it has to be charged every day.

Actually if I think about the iPhone6 battery life - it does 36hours for me. This is a pain as there is no way I can sit tethered to a charging cable about lunch time every second day. So I reload the phone every night.

So my concern is more if the watch can actually do a 0600-2400 shift without reload.

And as the start of your post suggests, it might not.

This would be a big pain.

fitshaced · Feb 10, 2015

Knighstalker said:
I for one, having diabetes, look forward to monitoring my blood sugar level unobtrusively and on the fly. Yeah sure you can do that now if have a receiver dangling from your iPhone but that's not very convenient is it? This will be just one of a myriad of uses that exemplify the Apple Watch and it's symbiotic relationship with the iPhone. So, in a sense, I literally won't be able to live without it!

Not true and that's not what Tim Cook was saying. It will change the way you live, it's not something you can't live without. You've been surviving up to now.

KPOM · Feb 10, 2015

Rigby said:
I really hope they still have some surprises up their sleeves. The use cases he mentioned aren't novel at all.

Since it wasn't a formal launch event and it is still about 2 months from release he wasn't going to say much. I'm sure there will be some surprises. We'll see whether they are compelling.

pdaholic · Feb 10, 2015

nksing said:
I love my 6+ but I find it too bulky to run with. I can see spending $350+ for the Apple watch if it could track my run without carrying the 6+ along too, but I'm not reading anything about addressing this issue.

I just did a half marathon in pouring rain with a waterproof Pebble watch on my wrist and my iPhone strapped to me in a plastic bag. The Pebble was really helpful. The Apple Watch isn't waterproof and I even wonder if having the screen lit up that long (especially for a full marathon) would drain the battery too quickly.

fitshaced · Feb 10, 2015

pdaholic said:
I just did a half marathon in pouring rain with a waterproof Pebble watch on my wrist and my iPhone strapped to me in a plastic bag. The Pebble was really helpful. The Apple Watch isn't waterproof and I even wonder if having the screen lit up that long (especially for a full marathon) would drain the battery too quickly.

I share your full marathon concerns but the Apple Watch will survive in the rain. Just don't jump into the sea after your run as is tradition for some marathons.

Tim Cook: Our Objective With Apple Watch Is to Change the Way People Live Their Lives

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