Smart Apple or Loyal End Users (or both)

[JBuck]

There is no hiding from the fact that apple have created something really neat and cool with the Apple watch. Its been a massive success in its short time already and in its current form. Now my view is, are apple merely living of the success of previous products and apple customer loyalty in the watch being as successful as it is, in its current specification and form?

Or are they, as they have done before taking advantage of their position (i don't blame them) with the fan base, that they can leave out features on the watch (which people daily moan it doesn't have) which are not in this first gen.

Now don't get me wrong, i love the watch, i don't have one yet, i prowl this forum daily reading all things good and bad. Does it stop me wanting to own one. No. Does it bother me it doesn't have some 'Killer' features. No. Guess i don't care apple are using their position on me as a loyal customer and not packing a first gen product with all the tech they can (its available, they can do it).

I guess what i'm trying to ask is do people feel they purchased the watch because they love apple and the products and like to stay loyal to an 'ecosystem'?

Or do peoples views change once they have purchased and realise its not quite up to what they expected of a smart watch, whilst knowing apple as tech savvy company they are, have the technology to produce something even more superior??

Thoughts?......

 

[Twyntub]

Okay, I'll bite

They've created a piece of wrist-worn hardware that contains enough power and storage to rival a small business server from not much more than 15 years ago. They've created software which is completely new - totally uncharted territory.

From a production point of view, both had to be frozen at some point. Features left out. Things missed off - no matter how obvious or cool or gorgeous they might be. Otherwise they wouldn't have met the deadline. Or produced something with so few serious bugs.

I already have my killer feature - silent alerts. Getting updates on the world around me without anyone else knowing. Everything else is gravy.

I predict versions 2/3/4 of the OS and versions 2/3/4 of the hardware will be incredible.

 

[JBuck]

Okay, I'll bite

They've created a piece of wrist-worn hardware that contains enough power and storage to rival a small business server from not much more than 15 years ago. They've created software which is completely new - totally uncharted territory.

From a production point of view, both had to be frozen at some point. Features left out. Things missed off - no matter how obvious or cool or gorgeous they might be. Otherwise they wouldn't have met the deadline. Or produced something with so few serious bugs.

I already have my killer feature - silent alerts. Getting updates on the world around me without anyone else knowing. Everything else is gravy.

I predict versions 2/3/4 of the OS and versions 2/3/4 of the hardware will be incredible.

wasnt intending on bites to defend peoples purchases, just wondered on peoples views. Everyone has their own view on killer features and reasons they purchase apple products, hell ive been a victim of being an apple fanboy and purchasing products that turn out to be under developed for apples long term gain (phones being 1), it didnt stop me though.

The small business server on a wrist has no weight, the minimum standard in todays tech world put most small computers/gagdets etc into that category imho. We all expect it.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Every Apple Watch buyer has 14 days to decide if the Watch is worth the price of admission.

The choice is always theirs.

 

[wchigo]

For me, I knew what I was getting into. I had a Pebble watch for the better part of a year prior to the Apple Watch being released, so I already had experience with a smartwatch. The Pebble was great because it made sure I wouldn't miss important messages, mails and calls that I may miss with my phone being in my suit pocket, but it was lacking in some other areas.

All of the interaction was one-way. I would receive texts and messages through WeChat (a chat application similar to WhatsApp) but had no way to interact with them, even if all I wanted to do was reply with a simple 'yes.' It also could not display any Chinese characters, which is a feature I know they are adding soon / have added already by this time and the largest annoyance was the constant Bluetooth issues. Many times it would lose sync somehow and I would stop getting alerts on the watch, or it would suddenly look like some kind of bluetooth speaker to the phone so whenever I made/received calls I'd have to tap the menu and choose between speaker, phone or Pebble...

Honestly, there aren't a whole lot of things I want more out of the Apple Watch then is currently available. I suppose being able to reply to emails and having native app support for third party apps would be nice (to speed them up), and those are both coming in WatchOS 2. Other small quirks to be worked out would be screen time-out when apps are loading data or waiting for Siri to figure out your dictation only for the screen to time-out and having to start again, but overall I've been quite satisfied with my purchase. For me, it's been a significant upgrade over my Pebble and I can definitely see myself using this until gen 3 or 4 comes out, which is more than I can say for my yearly phone upgrade.

 

[Twyntub]

hell ive been a victim of being an apple fanboy and purchasing products that turn out to be under developed for apples long term gain (phones being 1)

Interesting you mention the phone... I remember how completely sh*te mobile phones were in the years before iPhone. I think I used to get a new phone every 6-12 months, often there would be some minor new feature but the phone would take weeks to figure out (remember Symbian, and the ridiculous manufacturer 'branding'?!) and you'd lose other stuff along the way.

The bizarre thing was iPhone wasn't 3G - that came later. Didn't make sense in Europe but lots of Europeans bought it, me included. Using web or e-mail on an original iPhone at 2.5G was 10 million times more rewarding than any other phone using 3G.

Then there was the tablet. It had been done to death. No-one was going to produce a tablet that anyone actually wanted to buy. What was the point. But we still 'got it'.

Incremental things along the way got 're-invented'. I remember Steve Jobs announcing FaceTime. Us Europeans had video calling on mobiles for YEARS before that - he spoke like it was something amazing and new. Reality, though... the phones with video calling were rubbish, and seeing a low resolution image of someone the size of a postage stamp for £££ a minute was never going to take off.