Kuo: Apple Watch Series 5 Lineup to Launch in Fall With OLED Displays Supplied by Japan Display

blcamp said:
Beyond a ceramic case, what else would there be to merit a Series 5 release? More storage? A processor bump? The Series 4 seems to already hit the sweet spot.
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This is the new Iphone, slowly being expanded. If you think this is the sweet spot, it's because:
1) you're not seeing the bigger picture.
2) Apple is deliberately taking it slowly, in order to manage expectations and make you satisfied with what are in fact a steady stream of broader and broader beta products

You can expect to continue to see growth in battery life and features that make you use the device more actively. So that means a modular camera added to the wristband, control of third party "proper camera" standalone lenses, more audio use cases, display "thrown" to external devices (include at some point "iGlasses"/iLenses/etc). And obviously the watch going totally standalone without being tethered to a phone for activation or syncing.

You ain't seen nothin' yet.

But obviously the expansion of the device to full blown vision will be staged based on Apple's success in expanding battery life through battery technology development, device power efficiency, OS power efficiency and broader availabiliy of wireless charging tools.
 
SigEp265 said:
Hopefully they change design or have multiple versions at least. I would love a round one.
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Why? You will never get as much usable screen space with a round smartwatch face as you do with a square smartwatch face. You also create additional engineering challenges.
 
CarlJ said:
I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a standalone Watch this fall, that doesn't need another iOS device to connect through / coordinate with. But that may not help you for passing down a previous series model (if it requires the latest - and understandably you're unlikely to give her the new one and keep the old for yourself).
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im not opposed to skipping a generation and getting her a new one. It wouldn’t be the stainless or the LTE (most likely) but I would like for her to have one. I just need it to connect to her Apple ID from her iPad.
 
deconstruct60 said:
Connect for what? The next version of WatchOS has its own apps store. The iPhone is not needed to 'squirt' apps or data to the watch. The older watches may not scale up to being independent devices, but at this point the newer "hand me downs" will be mostly independent devices.

Would need to synch data through iCloud if want to view data on device with bigger screen. The gap that Apple has is that they need an "Health data" viewer perhaps on the iPad ( they should have one for Mac also) . Apple's "non phone, small screen" work around is the iPod Touch at the moment, but somewhat too focused on just being a Health data collector and skipping substantive "viewer" issues.

Cellular option probably still wouldn't work since no principle phone number/service to share, but there is no phone in this context anyway.

It is the same generational growth that the iPod and iPhone went through where initial coupled to iTunes on bigger device and then as their internet capabilities got better over time largely became independent computing devices ( with just option sync to a "bigger" computer. )

I doubt Apple is going to put effort into backfilling where the Watch was as opposed to more work where the Watch is going in the future. If put better ( lower power consuming) Wi-Fi in the watch then won't need to sip data on low power bluetooth mode most of the time.

It is extremely likely that Apple could sell WAY more Watches if it was not very tightly coupled to the iPhone. It is the same thing that boat anchored the iPods for a while ( needed Mac and Firewire). When Apple let the iPod off the Mac only chain it took off. Watch is ramping up to the same "take it of the chain" point. Wear OS (Android) and others have stumbled pretty badly. It isn't urgent because vast majority of iPhone owners still don't own an Apple Watch ( so can still grow substantially just monetizing the iPhone subset. ). But jumping into the bigger market of Watch + some other non iPhone apple device ( a Mac , an iPad coupled to an Android phone . ) is a bigger group than just iPhone by itself.


P.S. When the Watch goes "independent device", Apple really should add a "back up wireless" option to iTunes to go along with what is still left for the iPhone/iPad. Doing 100% local encrypted backups still should be doable without the "Cloud" for those who don't want to use it.
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I like we’re the watch is going. In my family we all have our own Apple ID’s and devices. We all back up to iCloud. We all even pay for additional iCloud space. My wife and I just haven’t felt the need to pass down an iPhone to our 9 year old. I know some kids have them at 9, we just don’t feel she needs one yet. She does have an iPad that my dad bought her and added “unlimited” data to it. She uses it for school, kids YouTube type things and FaceTime. She’s had some heath concerns from an infection she got while we were working overseas. Spent 27 days in ICU, plus multiple surgeries. Having the iPad actually was a big benefit. There’s a few health things that the Apple Watch offers that we be a great backup for her. Plus she would think it’s cool.

I’m hoping Apple will add the watch and health apps to the iPad, even if it’s just an optional download.
 
I waited until the Series 4 before I bought my first Apple Watch, waiting for the design to improve and a major feature like EKG to come along. Have no need to upgrade. Next game changer will be blood sugar measurement without pricking the skin. Will probably wait 4-5 years before I upgrade. Same deal with my iphones; always wait 4 years before I upgrade. Learned the hard way never rush in on Apple early tech as Apple withholds features to entice upgrades.
 
I have a Series 4 and will probably upgrade to a second generation mLED display Apple Watch Series 7 in 2021 in case they need to iron out any kinks in the mLED tech. Anything beyond that and the battery and performance on the Apple Watch tends to suffer, although maybe less so going forward. Ideally 4-5 years for a Watch upgrade would be great. That's about how often I would get a new mechanical watch in the past.
 
native sleep tracking with better battery life please, i don't care how they do it, make haptic side buttons making battery bigger, etc etc.
 
blcamp said:
Beyond a ceramic case, what else would there be to merit a Series 5 release? More storage? A processor bump? The Series 4 seems to already hit the sweet spot.
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Probably an Apple made sleep tracking app that most current Apple watches could handle running but will only be available on the Series 5 to sell Apple Watches.
 
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Was looking to grab a S4 to replace my S0 as it was looking like Apple might wait a year with the S5. Guess I'll hold off and see what comes out, and get one of those, or a discounted S4.
 
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LS3 POWER said:
I honestly see no reason to upgrade my Apple Watch annually. I have the Series 4 Currently. But I had the First Gen, then then Series 2, and now the 4. so I will wait till at least the S6 next year.
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No one is saying that you should. This will be a nice upgrade for users on the series 1 or 2, like myself.
 
blcamp said:
Beyond a ceramic case, what else would there be to merit a Series 5 release? More storage? A processor bump? The Series 4 seems to already hit the sweet spot.
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I wonder if they will continue the Hermès line. To me it would make sense for the Hermès to be the ceramic watch.
 
I'm most interested in what the price is likely to look like. Last years priced hike effectively priced me out of ever looking st anything beyond used I think, considering how "disposable" this tech is still.

I may look into what a series 4 costs once 5 drops but I've essentially sold myself on "needing" the scratch resistance in the stainless. If only they'd offer a middle of the road sapphire with aluminum chassis.
 
blcamp said:
Beyond a ceramic case, what else would there be to merit a Series 5 release? More storage? A processor bump? The Series 4 seems to already hit the sweet spot.
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- Obviously faster CPU, that keeps allowing Apple to throw more functionality at it.

- A low power "tiny" CPU to reduce power consumption. The main CPU (Zephyr in S4) is OoO 3-wide, a respectable CPU. A 2-wide in-order core would be reasonable low-power companion.

- At some point there's going to be a full Apple WiFi stack (right now the W3 is just Bluetooth and a subset of 2.4GHz non-MIMO WiFi 5). Presumably that Apple WiFi chip will also be part of the W4 radio for the S5.
With WiFi6 as the hot new thing, this may be the year for the Apple-designed full WiFi stack?

- Why better WiFi? At some point the aWatch can start to take over functionality that you might prefer to do on a phone, but your phone isn't available. Maybe act as a cell hotspot for your laptop? Maybe play stored videos to an aTV or a Chromebox? (Sure these take power, so maybe only practical on the charger --- but occasionally useful.)

- Better NPU. Again you say why? Because language processing is exploding, with quality that is becoming unbelievable. The more of that that can run on the watch, the more useful. eg Watch performs realtime audio translation for Airpods?

- One obvious missing health sensor is UV. UV sensors on watch and Airpods should give most people good enough coverage regardless of clothing.

- Another sensor that would be helpful would be temperature. Or two temperatures! One for body temp, can track things like sleeping and unusual changes (fever), the other for ambient temp.

- Really useful would be to have a laser, for things like pointing or creating a plumb line.

- Likewise for a compass.

These are ordered more or less in order of usefulness (to me!) And I'm sure we won't get them all. But the point aWatch is not a "fancy watch" it is a wrist computer. As such, it grows in functionality like any computer.
At some point (not this year!) Apple will conclude enough people get the point, that wrist computers are useful, that they can stop pretending it's just a watch (like the iPhone 5S was the last iPhone that pretended it was just a really good cell phone, and the 6 embraced being a computer, including the larger screen).
At that point (so 4 more generations out?) Apple may switch to an ever large screen (maybe no longer square but stretching out a little along the wrist)? Or maybe they will link two watches together, so you can wear one on each wrist, but they operate usefully together, like unlocking one unlocks both, and they co-ordinate over who records health, provides notifications, and so on...
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cylack said:
I waited until the Series 4 before I bought my first Apple Watch, waiting for the design to improve and a major feature like EKG to come along. Have no need to upgrade. Next game changer will be blood sugar measurement without pricking the skin. Will probably wait 4-5 years before I upgrade. Same deal with my iphones; always wait 4 years before I upgrade. Learned the hard way never rush in on Apple early tech as Apple withholds features to entice upgrades.
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Blood sugar without skin prick has been demoed by Princeton (using quantum cascade lasers) a few years ago.
But commercialization has been tough because QCLs are expensive ($thousands each) and no-one has yet much effort in miniaturizing the whole device (the actual QCL is about the size of a grain of rice, but then there is packaging and optics around it, then a large power supply and driver board).

Some people have experimented with doing what the QCL does using two or more telco lasers (not ideal wavelengths, but MUCH cheaper, and much smaller packaging). That seemed promising, but I'm unaware of any work that's definitely said "yeah, we've been successful".

Bottom line -- lots of people know it's wanted, lots of people working on it in many ways. But it's a hard problem with many pieces that need to be figured out.
 
JGIGS said:
Probably an made sleep tracking app that most current Apple watches could handle running but will only be available on the Series 5 to sell Apple Watches.
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Oh give up the idiotic conspiracy theories. If you want a sleep tracker app right now, get AutoSleep from Tantissa.
Costs $2, works like a charm, integrates with all of Apple ecosystem include Health.app

It could work better if the next aWatch had a body temperature sensor (and that may be what's delaying Apple's sleep tracking app) but there's no conspiracy by Apple to prevent sleep tracking on your existing watch.
 
I honestly don’t know how they can make it better. The Series 4 is amazing and leaps ahead of any other smartwatch in terms of performance, capability, and design/style.
 
I would like better Siri integration. I wear an S4 and don't know if it is just me but I sometimes call up Siri on my watch and I get a response of "just a minute" as Siri appears to be waking up from a long winter's nap. It happens in areas where I should have good cellular coverage. It makes using Siri pretty hit or miss from my watch but she works fine if I pull out my phone.
 
I have a stainless steel series 4 and a aluminum series 2. I wear the series 4 during the day for work and use the series 2 when I work out later on. It makes it easier since I don’t have to switch bands constantly. What blows my mind is how much slower the series 2 is compared to the series 4. Even though I only use it for working out it can be a pain in the ass.
 
rumz said:
Yep. This alone is the only reason I would be interested in upgrading my series 4-- but I don't expect they'll get where I want it. Right now I have to take it off for 1-2 hours at night to recharge so that I can wear it to bed to monitor sleep.
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How do you do at mornings? Does the battery last all day until the “night charge”?
 
eedoxies said:
I had not been particularly interested in the Apple watch until recently. Will wait for the specifics on the AW 5, but will likely go with the 4. How much of a price reduction on the 4 series can be expected after the 5 is announced?
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I'm actually expecting Apple to discontinue the Series 4 when the Series 5 comes out, and continue to offer the Series 3 as the lower-priced option, possibly giving it a processor boost to help keep it current.

The reason I think this is if the Series 5 is only an incremental upgrade, Apple won't want a cheaper Series 4 cannibalizing sales of the newer model. This could happen if there is a widespread perception that the S4 is still good enough and is priced more attractively than the S5.
 
Creole Ned said:
I'm actually expecting Apple to discontinue the Series 4 when the Series 5 comes out, and continue to offer the Series 3 as the lower-priced option, possibly giving it a processor boost to help keep it current.

The reason I think this is if the Series 5 is only an incremental upgrade, Apple won't want a cheaper Series 4 cannibalizing sales of the newer model. This could happen if there is a widespread perception that the S4 is still good enough and is priced more attractively than the S5.
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Give it the iPhone X treatment; that makes a lot of sense. I don’t believe that’s allowed here on the MR forums, however...
 
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RevTEG said:
I wish Apple would allow me to connect an Apple Watch to an iPad. My 9 year old daughter would love an Apple Watch. It would be great for her b3cause of some heath concerns and activity monitoring. Plus all the cool factors. She doesn’t have a phone yet but she does have an iPad with unlimited data. If I could connect a watch to her iPad, well that would be great. I could pass down a watch to her.
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If Apple allowed to the Apple watch to work with any device it would own the market. It wouldn't push more $1300 iPhones, though.
 
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