They gave no indication that the SOS function that would call 911, send messages and your location to an emergency contact would work without the phone. I believe the phone was prominently mentioned in this regard. And unless they prominently state that such a function was independent of any phone no such lawsuits would occur.
Anyone would assume that a 911 call, which I've made on my watch(through my phone) and/or a message to a contact would occur through the phone just as they do now. Again unless you see massive ads touting such phone-less function which no manufacturer has even hinted at, no lawsuits are likely
Youre giving the consumer a lot of credit. There's a reason they sell coffee in cups with the disclaimer "caution contents are hot".
Apple also often demonstrates features at WWDC that don't support all of the products that can technically run the OS update. I also would have to go back and look at the portion about SOS to see what was actually said, though it wouldn't be the first time Apple demonstrated technology in a preview that turned out not to work the same way in the final release.
Don't see why GPS would have much to do with cellular use at all. GPS can be implemented with little cost to battery as they do with Fitbit's & Garmin sat nav watches and they have no reliance whatsoever on cellular connectivity. In fact I'm surprised this was not added to the watch in the original version given one of the main features was for fitness tracking.
The problem would be with the cellular function itself. If this were built in to the next gen of Apple Watch I would expect the logical reason for this would be to provide a connection for phone calls, messaging, e-mails & data usage to keep apps up to date, all those combined would put a huge strain on battery. Right now the Apple Watch gets this data from low power bluetooth connection with the iPhone which is far more economical with power consumption than a cellular connection would be.
It makes sense for the watch to hand off these functions to the iPhone as that's what it does anyway as part of it's day to day routine, and don't forget since the first day the iPhone launched the biggest criticism has been battery life (Unjustly given all an iPhone can do) imagine the criticism levelled at a device the size of a watch trying to do all these things, it was already bad enough that people were critical that the Apple Watch's battery would not last more than a couple of days before it was launched.
Of course the watch would hand off all cellular functions via the iPhone when in range. Its only when a customer uses the watch without an iPhone that it would rely on internal cellular connection. And just like the iPhone, settings could be adjusted to minimize cellular data use, and therefore battery. In fact, I'd expect Apple to limit the functions of the cellular radio initially for 911 calls, and GPS location assist, or other minimal and infrequent data updates. My dog has a GPS tracking collar, which uses GPS and cellular radio to track and report my dogs location, and fitness data. I do not have access to that radio except as allowed by the manufacturer. That tracking collar is about the same size as the watch and lasts well over a week in standard tracking mode. Closer to home, the iPad can have a cellular radio in it, but I can't use it to make voice calls, except as Voice over LTE, and even then I don't have a number ... People can't call me directly on the iPad.
The GPS "assist" part is my understanding of how GPS benefits from cellular radios. I'm aware that GPS does not need a cellular radio, but it is my understanding that it helps provide quicker location data, and therefore takes less power.
Again, Apple really intended the first watch to be used tethered to the iPhone at all times. Now they need to start moving it away. Cellular radio allows them to do that, and eventually make it accessible to a wider audience outside the iPhone. They moved the iPad rapidly away from the requirement to connect to a Mac, and for the watch to be truly successful, they will likely need to do the same thing.
