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I wonder if Apple will ever return again to disruptive innovation? These marginal enhancements are anything but exciting.
No, not in a product category where it absolutely dominates.

The exciting new product that has the potential to disrupt is Apple's VR/AR Glasses, or whatever that thing is going to actually be.

Stuff like iPhone, AirPods, and Watch have seen big changes initially until Apple found the right formula.

For those hit products, it's only going to be smooth sailing with iterative upgrades in perpetuity.

I can see Apple Watch 9 being literally a 1/1 copy of Series 8 just with a (genuinely) new and faster SiP this time around.

The biggest change in how you use your Watch is going to be the features and UI of WatchOS 10.
 
How is this important? And I mean that question 100% seriously. I have a series 8 watch. If it were 500% faster, how would that be noticeable to me? When I check a notification or a run distance or something else, would I see a difference between 5ms and 1ms?
Faster run-to-sleep, hopefully enough faster to offset the increased wattage usually associated with faster switching and so reduce the overall energy usage.
 
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It's not an A15, it'a a chip based on the A15. Likely it just is two of the A15's power saving cores.

Apple is not selling the AW4 any longer either, that was discontinued in September 2019.

Umm, they won’t be putting a full A15 in the Apple Watch. Most likely it will be a dual core chip based on the little (efficiency) cores of the A15 (the A15 is a 6 core chip with 2 big cores, and 4 little cores). It will also have a significantly cut down GPU and lack several other A15 components that aren’t needed for a watch (or HomePod) chip such as the ISP and neural engine.

New features are nice but it’s not really reasonable to expect big headline new features every year in what is now a mature product line. Apple is no doubt working on features like blood glucose monitoring and blood pressure measurement, but it will probably be a few years before they are ready for prime time. My series 5 still does everything I want it to, hence why I’ve just kept it for over 3 years now, but when the Series 9 comes out I’ll certainly contemplate whether it is finally time to upgrade or if I should just spring for a battery replacement for my Series 5.

Apple sits on almost 50% of the entire smart watch market -Nobody comes close in performance and build quality at the same price point, so they barely have to do anything to maintain sales.

Consumers are at fault for blindly buying what's essentially the same product, year after year -What company in their right mind would change a product if consumers keep buying and there's next to no competitors threatening your sales?

Profit margins is what companies strive for. You only need to put on a big show and impress consumers when sales are going down and they start looking to other brands.

Sales for Watch are still really market leading.

S8 is an improvement of S6, which was an improvement of S4. S4~S8 are the same family, cases and CPU are substantially identical, sensors evolved in generations. For me S8 is an S4 updated like S3 was OG Watch update.

I know Apple are not so interested in Watch, Fitness who run without Watch was the first step, obviously the point was the Fitness+, but not only that.

I know also Apple is not yet interested in upgrade (come on, car accident is ok, but it’s not daily use, I hope..) the Watch because it has destroyed it with its limitations, but until the product is here Apple should have the dignity to treat it as it deserves, even if it is not the first time that it has behaved like this (anyone who knows the history of the Mac mini, of the 15 years of MacBook Air, many of which have spent in oblivion knows that it is not the first time) but presenting products at the end of life (S8 and SE2) with so little desire to do them is too much for Apple too. It makes more effort, even if it doesn't care, because it makes the numbers in the financial sphere, not with watches.
 


The upcoming Apple Watch Series 9 will include a new processor based on the A15 chip that was first used in the iPhone 13 models, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman shared the information in the new Discord channel for his Power On newsletter subscribers.

apple-watch-series-8-trio.jpg

The Apple Watch Series 8, like the Series 7 before it, uses a chip that's essentially identical to the S6 chip that was used in the Apple Watch Series 6. Apple calls the Apple Watch Series 8 chip the "S8," but it is a two-year-old chip with no speed improvements.

Gurman says that the Series 9 chip will be a "new processor" rather than a rebranding of the prior-generation chip, and when asked whether the chip would be based on the A15 chip, he said that he believed that would be the case.

With an updated chip that's built using the A15 technology, the Apple Watch Series 9 could see speed and efficiency improvements, resulting in quicker load times and better battery life. The new chip could help power some of the updated features that Apple plans to introduce in watchOS 10. Apple is working on overhauling the watchOS interface in watchOS 10, with a specific focus on a new widget system.

While we are expecting some notable changes to watchOS this year, the Apple Watch Series 9 will be largely similar to the Series 8. No major design updates are expected, but we will see a modest speed boost due to the new chip.

Article Link: Apple Watch Series 9 to Feature Updated Processor Based on A15 Chip
It's just a myth, that the S8 is the same as S6.
I've just upgraded form a 6 to an 8 and the S8 unlocks twice as fast when using my iPhone or indeed manual unlock.
 
Sweet! Might be time to upgrade from my Series 6. Then again, I could probably get another two years out of it with a new battery...
I was thinking likewise, then I saw an opened never used series 8 SS on Ebay, for only £450, couldn't resist 🤣
The 8 loads faster and unlocks faster than my 6, bigger screen, fast charging and a keyboard.
Can't see how it's the same chip....
The 8 is a definite improvement on the 6, to my surprise 🫨
 
I predicted this in an earlier post of mine!

The S6, S7, and S8 processors were based on the A13 E-cores on the 7nm node while the A14, A15, and A16 moved to 5nm/4nm. My guess is that the S9 will be based on the A15 or A16 E-cores on the 5nm/4nm node now that the A17 will be on 3nm. This will likely net us some good battery life gains.

 
Apple should be held accountable for false marketing calling it an S8 chip when it is in fact the S6 in disguise.

Then they had the nerve to put prices up last year on the watch by over £100 here in the UK as well.
I'm no expert, however just upgraded from a 6 to an 8.....the 8 loads & unlocks substantially faster than the 6, so I can't se how it can be the same chip 🤔
 
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I'm gonna be a little salty if the Ultra I bought just a few months ago won't run the latest version of WatchOS with all the features.

I dropped close to $800 on this thing. And don't get me wrong, it's a great piece of tech, but if it can't run all the features of the latest version of the OS 6 months after I got it, I think I would have a right to be a little miffed.
There is usually some new feature on a new watch u can't get on an older version and I suspect there will be improvements to battery life with the new processor as well.
Doesn't mean u can't run the latest OS version on the older version 😊
 
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S8 is an improvement of S6, which was an improvement of S4. S4~S8 are the same family, cases and CPU are substantially identical, sensors evolved in generations. For me S8 is an S4 updated like S3 was OG Watch update.

I know Apple are not so interested in Watch, Fitness who run without Watch was the first step, obviously the point was the Fitness+, but not only that.

I know also Apple is not yet interested in upgrade (come on, car accident is ok, but it’s not daily use, I hope..) the Watch because it has destroyed it with its limitations, but until the product is here Apple should have the dignity to treat it as it deserves, even if it is not the first time that it has behaved like this (anyone who knows the history of the Mac mini, of the 15 years of MacBook Air, many of which have spent in oblivion knows that it is not the first time) but presenting products at the end of life (S8 and SE2) with so little desire to do them is too much for Apple too. It makes more effort, even if it doesn't care, because it makes the numbers in the financial sphere, not with watches.


Well then they’re all the same - S0 to Ultra - if you ignore the differences.

S4 was based on the A12. S6 based on the A13.
 
Apple sits on almost 50% of the entire smart watch market -Nobody comes close in performance and build quality at the same price point, so they barely have to do anything to maintain sales.

Consumers are at fault for blindly buying what's essentially the same product, year after year -What company in their right mind would change a product if consumers keep buying and there's next to no competitors threatening your sales?

Profit margins is what companies strive for. You only need to put on a big show and impress consumers when sales are going down and they start looking to other brands.

Sales for Watch are still really market leading.
It also saves the consumer money, by not having to upgrade every year 😊
 
Well then they’re all the same - S0 to Ultra - if you ignore the differences.

S4 was based on the A12. S6 based on the A13.
and the s8 is faster than the s6, I know because I've just upgraded, the battery seems to lasts a little longer as well....so it can't be the same processor.
That's on top of a larger face, smaller bezels, keyboard and fast charging, if you get the stainless steel version
People should stop being so heavily influenced by YouTubers
 
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This is so they can divert the left over dies to other Lower end things, they also need the battery life bump and the only way to get that is to upgrade the NM and then down clock it some. They will offer similar performance with now 30% longer battery life with a boost ability to load apps faster. This change will not be mind blowing, they have no need. This will however give the ultra even longer hyper battery life which is what every one wants in the gen2 .
 
I'm not certain but I believe right now the Apple Watch (S8, ultra) doesn't have enough computing power to do on-device Siri recognition/processing, unlike recent-model iPhones. So while a speedier chip might be pretty irrelevant for many simple applications (e.g. notifications, fitness tracking) it could be very useful for Siri (potentially more responsive). That could be meaningful for those who use Siri on their AW any more often than rarely.
This! I‘d really like to see the Apple Watch be able to start timers without needing an internet connection or a connection to my iPhone.
 
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and the s8 is faster than the s6, I know because I've just upgraded, the battery seems to lasts a little longer as well....so it can't be the same processor.
That's on top of a larger face, smaller bezels, keyboard and fast charging, if you get the stainless steel version
People should stop being so heavily influenced by YouTubers


Same CPU, different SOC.
 
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