The best comparison is the iPad with and without. It's about $100 difference. Most of that is markup because it's a desired feature. The fact the SP4 has it, when others don't, is literally what makes it a killer feature.
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Apple's Series Three Apple Watch to Include Cellular Connection
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What Apple Watch needs is the ablility to transfer playlists and podcasts from 3rd party apps. Oh and make transferring playlists a lot faster than how it is now.
Only scenario that would work for me would be to have the Apple Watch as the sole cellular device, tether it to an iPod Touch for the larger screen size when necessary, and Bluetooth to AirPods for making calls. That would give the maximum flexibility as far as what devices you needed to carry around while not having to pay an additional $120+ for a secondary data plan.
Don't know about the US, but in Europe some mobile networks will give you a SIM card to use on a second device but which is attached to and uses the data allowance of your main phone subscription. But of course if someone is already using it for an iPad than they're out of luck.
Optional celluar version = good.
Mandatory celluar connection = bad.
It would make sense to get the option like the iPad (and pretty much the iPhone, if you just consider the iPod Touch as a previous generation celluar-free iPhone).
But if you have to pay another plan, nah, nope, not happening in my world thanks.
I love my series 2 more than I ever thought I would and will happily have it joined by a later model one day, but I'll definitely not be getting this one unless it had some truly breakthrough tech like a blood glucose sensor that worked accurately or something, but I doubt that is coming yet.
Mandatory celluar connection = bad.
It would make sense to get the option like the iPad (and pretty much the iPhone, if you just consider the iPod Touch as a previous generation celluar-free iPhone).
But if you have to pay another plan, nah, nope, not happening in my world thanks.
I love my series 2 more than I ever thought I would and will happily have it joined by a later model one day, but I'll definitely not be getting this one unless it had some truly breakthrough tech like a blood glucose sensor that worked accurately or something, but I doubt that is coming yet.
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If done right, it will have a data-only plan, and will use the phone number you have, much like how a MacBook can for calling.
I think you miss my point. More telecoms is the least interesting thing I could imagine Apple doing with the watch. I don't want or need a cell modem in my watch.Why does a smart watch need LTE? Just for fitness geeks who want to run without their phone?
The Android OEMs who have added LTE...those watches are so bulky. I hope Apple Watch doesn’t get any thicker.
You can definitely use Apple Pay on the watch independently without the phone being in range.
Seriously dude, time to readjust your technology calendar. I've been using a portable cellphone since the late 1990's. Yeah, it was long ago. Quite long ago. They were much different than today, of course. But they worked fine for business.
WoW this could be big!!
If this is real it might actually cannibalise iPhone sales and might actually be a stepping stone towards the end of mobile phone era for many people.
Either through Skype, iChat or WhatsApp or any other call service. But this might actually serve as a real replacement for a phone for a number of people.
Classic Apple cannibalising its own product and in the process competing with itself. Simply Brilliant!!!
If this is real it might actually cannibalise iPhone sales and might actually be a stepping stone towards the end of mobile phone era for many people.
Either through Skype, iChat or WhatsApp or any other call service. But this might actually serve as a real replacement for a phone for a number of people.
Classic Apple cannibalising its own product and in the process competing with itself. Simply Brilliant!!!
Cannot imagine this hapening. Battery a Life! Hard to get an iPhone through a longday with LTE use. If anyone can pull it off, Apple has the best chance.
Um. No. The smartphone will remain. Screen size, power, speakers, battery life, you name it, a smartphone wins. The watch is useful for glanceable info and quick actions, and at some point, biometrics.
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Hope you aren't serious. Battery life. And that's useful literally only for exercising by leaving your phone. Every other time you'd want your phone with its innumerable unmatched features.
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People who want a camera on the watch tell me something about their reasoning skills.
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Face. Palm.
Think about that more.
It wouldn't take a single iPhone sale.
The iPhone has a large display which you can actually text and browse the internet and watch movies etc etc. the list goes on so long I'd need 10 hours to type it all.
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The smartphone will NOT be replaced by augmented reality wearables. I can guarantee you that. The smartphone will be around for at least 50+ years. It is the mobile supercomputer, and it is what billions of people will use. Billions of people will never put glasses on their heads.
Oh I'm totally in. It would be so freeing to be able to leave my phone at home but still have access to my entire streaming music library when I go for a walk. Or still have a way to stay connected to the world should I lose my phone.
Remember when texts used to cost 20¢ each way?
Ahaha, in 50 years?
Really, what is a smartphone?
A supercomputer you say and I agree. In 50 years, billions of people will take a super computer with them everywhere.
Today that “super computer” is a smartphone, nothing else but a touch screen rectangular slate interconnecting individuals of the entire world.
All you naysaeyrs are missing the point, the importance and the relavance of the smartphone in not in the form but in the function.
In those 50+ years, the supercomputer will remain with us, the form of that supercomputer won’t.
The smartphone has been perfected to its max potencial, but the function, the function of conecting the users, distributing, creating information and merging our virtual and real lives is a voyage that only just begon and already is living the smartphone form factor behind.
If this is true, I'm in. I'm mainly using my iPhone now for messaging and e-mails. Seven years ago, the iPhone was the only worthwhile mobile device that could do it all -- calls, mail, messages, Internet, games, music. But now I think I could get along fine with a cellular Watch and AirPods for when I'm on the go or at work, and then my iPad when I'm at home.
I'm surprised they didn't reach the logical conclusion of this feature:
Nobody's going to pay for a data plan for a watch. It hardly needs any data anyway. It can't ride on another device's plan, or there would be little point. And they can't keep tying devices to a single carrier forever. All their work on soft sims has lead up to this.
And if cellular data can be added to your Watch, it can be added to your iPad too, and maybe even phones. This is a way bigger deal than the watch itself.
Apple is going to have a cellular MVNO option as part of an "iCloud+"
Nobody's going to pay for a data plan for a watch. It hardly needs any data anyway. It can't ride on another device's plan, or there would be little point. And they can't keep tying devices to a single carrier forever. All their work on soft sims has lead up to this.
And if cellular data can be added to your Watch, it can be added to your iPad too, and maybe even phones. This is a way bigger deal than the watch itself.
Also, in relation to this absurd proposition.
There are people who like correction glasses, there are people who hate correction glasses, there are people that don’t really care and almost everybody loves sun glasses.
This being said, If you need correction glasses, like It or not you use them.
Seeing the world that surrounds us is of primal importance to human interaction, survival and information relay.
That is why everyone who needs correction glasses use them.
Augmented reality, is the first step of merging (mixed reality) the real world with the virtual world, augmented reality is the creation of a new information era.
An era where there is a new magical virtual world constructed on top of the real world.
A world where information envolves and revolves your body.
It doesn’t matter If you like glasses or not, everyone will want to see, (everyone will need to see, like they do in the real world) the augmented world.
In a sense the reason why people tend to think nobody wants augmented reality glasses is because in the past there wasn’t a good reason to, in the near future they will be the only why to really experiment the world around us, and that is reason more than enough because It will be a necessity.
Hate to break it to you but AR glasses won't change the world. Nothing that a human has to put on the face will change the world because humans don't want to put things on their faces if they do not have to. Both from a comfort, and social standpoint, AR glasses will never be more than niche.
Humans will continue to use smartphones because smartphones have large displays.
The thing that replaces smartphones is so far off its insane. I can tell you what it is which you have never thought of:
Manipulation of neurons in the human brain. Enabling a human to hear, feel, smell, and see things that aren't truly there, and think and get internet answers in their mind, communicate telepathically, among other things.
I would think you could include a cellular connection without too much of a hit to battery life. You wouldn't be streaming high quality video - just text (which is nothing), small pictures, small videos, and music. You could have the cellular antenna on for a second, download a few minutes of audio, and shut it off for a few minutes to save power while you play back that downloaded audio.