Personally I don't think this will be enough and I'm just wondering if Apple will lose ground to a competitor if it takes until Gen 3 to see design changes/additions.
There is no direct Apple Watch competition, because Apple has made sure there cannot be, by pulling a trick that Microsoft used to do: keep some APIs to themselves.
So about the only device they could lose ground to is Pebble, and that seems unlikely this year. Well, except for people who cannot afford an Apple Watch.
1) how do you know the watch is struggling AND
2) how do you know it's because the watch isn't round.
He didn't say that adoption was slow because it wasn't round. He simply said that more style options might help, including a round choice. This should make sense to anyone. See next quote:
I think Apple should add a few more colors and a much lower price gold version - maybe platinum and titanium and bronze maybe?
Agreed. More choice, especially in a device promoted for "fashion", is always a good idea.
I can't count the number of people here, for example, who said they ordered an SS with Milanese bracelet. Not exactly something unique. More case colors and bands help, as Apple already knows.
Remember when every phone used to have a physical keyboard? Until Apple came up with/copied the idea to sport a fully functioning touchscreen. Round watches used to be the standard, but as Jony Ive said it's completely impractical to perform a task on a round display.
Many tasks are impractical on a tiny screen no matter what the shape. Ive of course is going to promote whatever shape he chose.
Moreover, it's as poor a claim now, as it was for Apple in the recent past to claim that smaller tablets and bigger phones were impractical. Apple always disses features they don't have, until they have them.
Menus, lists, apps, everything would look so cramped up that it'd be a hassle to even use it, only because people are more used to the idea of owning a circular watch.
As those of us with round smartwatches can attest, that's not true at all. Round is useful, fun and stylish.
The worst argument is the one where people claim that "text would be cut off". Well, duh. That happens with long lists no matter what the shape. Heck, the 38mm Apple Watch has a fair amount of lines cut off in comparison to the 42mm model. Does that make the 38mm "a hassle to even use"? I don't think so.
- Apple watch sales are not struggling
I think the definition of struggling is in the eye of the beholder. In other words, to some people it is, to others it isn't. I think the only reason to care, is if it's too low for Apple to devote much effort into it. But seeing that it's Cook's first product, I think they'll keep at it.
- The "round" watch design didn't help Motorola sell any of their Moto 360 watches.
On the contrary, all the sales analyses say that Moto jumped from nothing to right behind Sony and third from Samsung during 2014, both of whom sold all year long... while Moto only sold the 360 in the last quarter or so. And it was due to people waiting on the Moto 360. LG also jumped in sales due to their LG Watch R.
- Apps don't matter as much as people accepting a new category of wearable tech as the norm.
I think you're right about people accepting it, although it's certainly not a new category by any means.
