There’s going to be a lot of disappointment if the S9 is incremental!
Why would the Ultra be on a 2 year cycle when the now “regular” Apple Watches are updated every year? This is already the third year that the Apple watches, including the Ultra, are using the same chip. They will definitely update it next year. You can almost guarantee that it will get a new chip and bigger screen by reducing the bezel.
I had the same thoughts as you, I have never had an Apple Watch so got a series 8 (aluminium) I had it for a week but the allure of the ultra got me, so I replaced the series 8 with it. I have some nasty steep stairs in my house up to the bedroom and sometimes I water the garden with a hose so it was quite obvious that I needed the extreme capabilities of the watch. All joking apart, I did think exactly as you but thought, "life's short," I'm not regretting my decision. Next year? Lets see what is released.
People speculated the same thing when the original Apple Watch was released in 2015, and that's been updated yearly.
No, it's not. The annual upgrades like this year's aren't designed to get someone to swap their Series 7 for a Series 8. They're to attract new customers and get some to swap their Series 3/4/5 for a Series 8.
Smart move! I usually upgrade every couple years. The 6 is my last so this could have been the year to get the 8. It wasn't enough by itself, but the Ultra is! Been enjoying it for the past week or so.
This is my thinking. Yearly upgraders aren’t the target audience. It’s those with older devices. The most disappointed are those who want the latest because it’s new, because they’re the ones that are often the most hard done by as the new stuff doesn’t offer as much incentive.
I totally agree that the annual upgrades aren’t intended to push people to upgrade every year. However it has to be a problem for Apple that the reviews for many of the Apple Watches are so “meh”. Logically reviewers and customers should be looking back over a few years but they don’t; they just see 1 or 2 changes and fail to be excited.
If the Ultra hadn’t been introduced this year, the S8 would have been a redesign I expect. One of the reasons for minimal changes would have been because the Ultra was in development.
It would be the first full redesign of the watch but you maybe right. I’m sure the Ultra must have occupied a lot of attention.
They won’t be. Once the redesign hits, we’ll be back to incremental updates again. Technology doesn’t move fast enough for massive updates year in year out. Moving to a two year release cycle would be better for frequent updaters but then you don’t cash in on the slow updaters.
