Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Does anyone else wonder why watchos3 wasn't os1?

thadoggfather

thadoggfather

macrumors P6
Original poster
Oct 1, 2007
16,173
17,098
Aside from first gen, watchOS 1 and 2 have deplorable load times

And ability to write is smart for individual characters instead of Siri , and side button to multitask

Did this really take that long in Dev to get it right? They know it too since they started wwdc with watch updates.

Sucks a lot of people felt it was the hardware being slow and incompetent when it really was sloppy software to plague the Ux

I use mine for fitness notifications and as a watch. Anything else stinks including settings app cold start

Also might nerf gen2 sales if it's just slimmer slightly real world faster and better battery For people to pick up gen 1 secondhand or on sale (buying a sweated up watch sounds more gross than a phone or any other device to me)
 
Videomanmac said:
Should iOS 10 be iOS 1?

Apple gave us what they had at the time. They had to release something because if not, the smart watch industry would die. Or, the Apple Watch would have no chance.
Click to expand...

But thats what I'm curious of, and comparing iPhone OS 1 to iOS 10 is spanning a 9 year timeframe, not 1 year and change onto third iteration.

The horrible app loading, who said that would go down well for people? What technological ability took that long to do basic app launching?

iPhone OS 1 was still zippy for the software and hardware, and no loading wheels at all. so minus having edge and not 3g, things were very usable especially on a good wifi connection,

so i dont think even thats fair,
 
  • Like
Reactions: Arran
I wanted to enjoy OS1 and it was fine but when I need Siri most it failed. Didn't bother me since I get gen 1 products but more gen 1 software. Never made me think I need to return the POS because I love getting email and messages and the lack of watch faces yes 3rd party faces makes me a little crazy. Nothing I can't wait for. I'm looking forward to OS3. My son is jumping first so I'll check out his watch them maybe I'll join him.
 
That's software development plus real world usage and user feedback. The first version of iOS couldn't be what it is without time, tech and feedback. I'm glad that Apple are adapting and making it better and not abandoning it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Arran
watchOS 1 was fine as Apple had made it very clear about its features. It's watchOS 2 that disappointed us, since Apple made a huge fuss last year on the advantage of native apps which turned out to be as slow as OS 1 apps.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Arran
haruhiko said:
watchOS 1 was fine as Apple had made it very clear about its features. It's watchOS 2 that disappointed us, since Apple made a huge fuss last year on the advantage of native apps which turned out to be as slow as OS 1 apps.
Click to expand...

I disagree. I noticed a big improvement with OS2 when it comes to my favorite apps. But not all apps are created equal. I have third party apps that consistently load and update in 2 or 3 seconds. Other apps are dreadfully slow... Often it's the apps the developer never updated to run native, but even some that do are slow.

With the current OS I almost never get frustrated with slowness, and Siri works much more consistently for me than before. Of course I will welcome instant apps, the dock, scribble and some new faces though!
 
Apple's hope that the developers would write great apps for the AW never happened. The money, just was not there.

Maybe with Apple loosening things up a bit and offering some incentives will help but I highly doubt it. Time will tell.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Arran
At some point you have to roll out a product, instead of constantly tweaking and updating it.

In the case of the apple watch, Apple gained useful intel on user habits and found they can use some of the tiny amount of ram for caching instead of using it for the app(s).

I don't think watchOS3 should have been 1. Like any version 1 of something, its going to have some rough edges. Apple is really good at fixing those, and improving the OS.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chabig, gwhizkids, Arran and 1 other person
thadoggfather said:
The horrible app loading, who said that would go down well for people? ...

iPhone OS 1 was still zippy for the software and hardware, and no loading wheels at all...
Click to expand...

I'm inclined to agree with you when you put it like that (particularly the part I bolded).

And I know it's cliched to say this, but I doubt Steve - perfectionist that he was - would've been happy releasing the watch with painfully slow app loading. This is the guy, after all, who famously freaked-out over an iPhone icon having the wrong shade of yellow! I'm guessing he would've dropped 3rd party app support until it could be done right (much like the original iPhone)

Of course it's Tim's Apple now - and he does things differently.

And I'm glad he does. I've had a sport from day 1 and mostly avoid 3rd party apps. The built-in ones, however, still make make it entirely worthwhile. So much so, in fact, that I just bought myself a 2nd watch. Looking forward to OS3 :)
 
I agree that the first product/version was rushed and only slightly improved for version 2, but why bother wasting time thinking about what should or shouldn't have been...

Not meant as a rip for the thread or OP, but why ask what could have or should have been. It is what it is... iOS 2 should have been iOS 1.

The Apple watch in theory, maybe shouldn't have been released without GPS or thinner or longer battery life. Hindsight...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Arran
I remember before the Watch launched last year there were stories about abysmal battery life. Mark Gurman had a story about some people only getting 2.5 hours battery life. I don't know where these stories came from or what they were based on but they turned out to be complete garbage. It's obvious Apple was obsessed about battery life over all else. And now after a year of real world usage from consumers they've realized they don't have to be so conservative about battery life.
 
I have to agree to a point. The time it took to load even native apps was simply unacceptable and made the watch almost useless for anything other than a watch and notification tool. I don't understand how they released it with that problem to begin with but further don't understand how they made it now an amazingly fast product just through software updates and I am only referring to apple apps for this as 3rd party apps have a lot to do with their coding and such.
 
tgara said:
It had nothing to do with rushing the product out before it was ready. On the other hand, it had everything to do with conserving battery life.
Click to expand...

Apple has accomplished it with AWOS3.

It seems that it will satisfy more people.

Just think, we could have been using a Pebble or worse, an AW with W95 running it.

I'm still amazed that I can talk to people with the AW and send messages to my other devices.

So I wait a few seconds when I'm out and about? Yup.

I'm waiting for the app that I can control my MP directly.

I'll be buying the next gen because it continues to get better.

For the price.

➰
 
tgara said:
It had nothing to do with rushing the product out before it was ready. On the other hand, it had everything to do with conserving battery life.

http://www.imore.com/how-apple-maki...=slider&utm_campaign=navigation&utm_source=im
Click to expand...

That makes sense. With a device like this the battery is going to be a major limiting factor. Apple had to figure out what trades offs to make when it comes to conserving the battery. It's better to add performance or features than to take them away or throttle them. A year of data about how the battery would last in real-world usage helps them make more informed decisions on performance vs battery.

It would actually be sweet if you could choose between a few different power profiles rather than just low power mode. A performance mode for daily use, and perhaps a more conservative mode for long days or when you are short on battery for some reason... But not enough to go to low power mode. Then again most of us would just want performance mode all the time, except for those odd times when we can't charge at night (camping is the only thing that comes to mind).

Sean
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: gwhizkids, heathpitts and tgara
I'm not concerned about the why. Its almost the same type of question as when a watch 2 is going to come out; nobody knows the answer.

What I am happy about is they had the integrity to fix that now, for their early adopters, instead of trying to use a faster watch as a selling point for a new model.


Still don't understand how people just matter-of-factly came to the conclusion that its the hardware.
 
No. watchOS 3 does not feel like it should have been watchOS 1.

It was a brand new product with a brand new OS. No way to predict how people would use the device in its first year. watchOS 3 is the result of getting that first year worth of feedback of real world use and making changes.

watchOS had to start somewhere. No way could have nailed it perfectly from a lab on something no one (not even themselves) know/knew would be best used and interacted with in day to day life. This first year of data was crucial.

watchOS 3 had made a lot of massive usability changes all over that place and takes a giant leap forward. Something that could not have been achieved without the "weak" watchOS 1-2 (I wouldn't even consider watchOS 2 a proper "2" either. It's more like watchOS 2.2.2 is in reality watchOS 1.3.2 (or would it be 1.4.2? I forget is watchOS 1 went to 1.1 or 1.2) but for whatever reason they decided to do 6 month life cycles on watchOS 1 and then "2" for the first year.)

Would it have been nice if watchOS 3 is what we got from the get go? Sure, of course. But again brand new everything there was no way to really predict a lot of this stuff.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Arran, heathpitts and JayLenochiniMac
The launch was rocky. It was pretty wretched actually. But the watch itself and the watch OS worked about like I expected a first generation product to work. I liked it well enough to buy a second Apple Watch, myself.

I did fill out two or three surveys and questionnaires that Apple sent me. Judging from the questions they asked they didn't seem to know exactly what they were dealing with and what we wanted to do with this product category. Oh they had their idea, their core concept of it and spiel of course, but they didn't seem confident we were buying into their concepts so they wanted to solicit our opinions on the matter. And we are all used to Steve Jobs doing all the work of imagining the product concept from start to finish in painfully meticulous pdetail and telling us why we were going to need his products. But in this case it's clear they made something they were basically throwing at the wall to see what sticks. So yeah it all seems a bit awkward.

But I kind of don't mind that too much. It was fun to be a part of this journey into a new and uncharted product category. It reminds me of the good old days when the first home computers were, well, coming into our homes. Some people dismissed them as glorified word processors. Others saw the potential for so much more. But in the beginning home computing was awkward and ugly at times. And expensive.
 
yeah its been fun , and its still a nice watch/new device to be certain,

i just wonder why didnt mean to get anyone riled up
 
thadoggfather said:
Aside from first gen, watchOS 1 and 2 have deplorable load times

And ability to write is smart for individual characters instead of Siri , and side button to multitask

Did this really take that long in Dev to get it right? They know it too since they started wwdc with watch updates.

Sucks a lot of people felt it was the hardware being slow and incompetent when it really was sloppy software to plague the Ux

I use mine for fitness notifications and as a watch. Anything else stinks including settings app cold start

Also might nerf gen2 sales if it's just slimmer slightly real world faster and better battery For people to pick up gen 1 secondhand or on sale (buying a sweated up watch sounds more gross than a phone or any other device to me)
Click to expand...

Craig Federici said in an interview that they overestimated how much battery people would drain throughout the day. Now they know most people have plenty to spare, they can use it for something useful.
 
Last edited:
ManicMarc said:
Craig Federici said in an interview that they overestimated how much battery people would drain throughout the day. Now they know most people have plenty to spare, they can use it something thing useful.
Click to expand...

This!

The reason app will load so quick is they keep them in RAM and background refresh a hell lot, which in turn will kill battery life more but form their data battery life is fine enough so they're just more adventurous that's all.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ManicMarc
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back