Apple Watch Estimated to Reach 100 Million Lifetime Shipments Soon Despite Weaker Demand Last Quarter

[CarlJ]

Why hasn’t Apple come up with a round version yet? The design language of the watch is fine as it is, but the square shape makes it bulky at least in my eyes (same reason I never got a square mechanical watch). ... Until then I’ll stick with my mechanical watches and cross my fingers Apple eventually releases a round Apple Watch!

Cross your fingers all you want, but don’t hold your breath, you’ll turn blue. Apple no doubt has prototype round Apple Watches in the lab, but it’s a much less useful shape. The information we want to look at is not round. Putting it on a round face wastes space. The only reason watches were round, historically, is that the display, with fixed-length hands circling a central pivot, necessitated a circular display. Now that’s all history, the display doesn’t have to be round to show the time, so the watch needn’t be round, and can go to a more useful shape. Seeing round as more fashionable is just because of familiarity - circles are not innately better. They’re not going to abandon rectangular watches, and, given that, they’re highly unlikely to offer circular ones too, since that would just be twice as much work, reworking everything that goes on the display. Imagine if they started offering round phones: every app would have to accommodate round displays as well as rectangular. For no particular benefit.

 

[mtrm]

Cross your fingers all you want, but don’t hold your breath, you’ll turn blue. Apple no doubt has prototype round Apple Watches in the lab, but it’s a much less useful shape. The information we want to look at is not round. Putting it on a round face wastes space. The only reason watches were round, historically, is that the display, with fixed-length hands circling a central pivot, necessitated a circular display. Now that’s all history, the display doesn’t have to be round to show the time, so the watch needn’t be round, and can go to a more useful shape. Seeing round as more fashionable is just because of familiarity - circles are not innately better. They’re not going to abandon rectangular watches, and, given that, they’re highly unlikely to offer circular ones too, since that would just be twice as much work, reworking everything that goes on the display. Imagine if they started offering round phones: every app would have to accommodate round displays as well as rectangular. For no particular benefit.

I know a round shape would be less optimal from a practicality standpoint, as information is usually better shown on square displays. I was just hoping there could be a round version for those people who’d prefer something that is form over function or who’d prefer a more traditional shape (after all the Apple Watch is also supposed to be a fashion accessory). I’d love something that looks like a regular watch and would be subtle. For instance, like the new Motorola 360. It’s a long shot, I know, and the fact Apple and developers would need to rewrite software alone makes it highly unlikely to happen! But hey, I can always dream! 😉

 

[trusso]

i am reacting to exactly what you wrote. You are speculating that by the time the battery needs servicing it may be declared vintage or obsolete and thus no battery replacement can happen. My point is that this must not be the case, because so many apple watches have had their batteries replaced (thus they were not on apple’s vintage or obsolete list).

I was providing evidence that your thesis is wrong. You seem to be the one deliberately misunderstanding.

Not a deliberate misunderstanding, but I see what you're saying. I don't know what's worse - the watch being too old for service (as I've wondered), or the battery needing to be replaced within the few short years the watch has been around. Neither is great news if we're looking at things from an environmental or longevity perspective.

 

[CarlJ]

I was just hoping there could be a round version for those people who’d prefer something that is form over function or who’d prefer a more traditional shape (after all the Apple Watch is also supposed to be a fashion accessory). I’d love something that looks like a regular watch and would be subtle.

I understand where you’re coming from (I have a couple of nice analog watches), but I wonder how much longer the words “traditional” and “regular watch” will mean what you and I think they mean. My nieces only think of smartphones when the phrase “phone” is used, despite how we explain that phones had to be attached to a wall in a house by a cord, not that long ago. I suspect that it’ll be surprisingly soon that round watches with mechanical hands (whether quartz or automatic workings) will be considered odd curios by many. And “traditional” will mean one of those earlier models of the Apple Watch.

 

[57004]

Cross your fingers all you want, but don’t hold your breath, you’ll turn blue. Apple no doubt has prototype round Apple Watches in the lab, but it’s a much less useful shape. The information we want to look at is not round. Putting it on a round face wastes space. The only reason watches were round, historically, is that the display, with fixed-length hands circling a central pivot, necessitated a circular display. Now that’s all history, the display doesn’t have to be round to show the time, so the watch needn’t be round, and can go to a more useful shape. Seeing round as more fashionable is just because of familiarity - circles are not innately better. They’re not going to abandon rectangular watches, and, given that, they’re highly unlikely to offer circular ones too, since that would just be twice as much work, reworking everything that goes on the display. Imagine if they started offering round phones: every app would have to accommodate round displays as well as rectangular. For no particular benefit.

I can confirm a round watch is not as handy as a smart watch. I have a Samsung Watch Active and it's a pain to read text when you can only use the middle part (it doesn't use smart word-wrapping so the top and bottom lines are incomplete)

The devicecasing itself feels lovely on the wrist and analog watchfaces look cool. But it's not as useful.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

He crows in sarcastic triumph, ignoring that nobody, including this analyst, actually knows what Apple’s Apple Watch shipments are, and this particular analyst has been wrong many times in the past.

Then why are you crowing in triumph at all if nobody knows?

 

[bwillwall]

Still a disposable watch as no way to replace battery.
Some years of use and it becomes a piece of trash.

I mean yeah, same as an iPhone?

 

[cmaier]

Then why are you crowing in triumph at all if nobody knows?

Where am i crowing in anything, let alone triumph?