Kuo: No Apple Watch Ultra 3 Next Year?

[WarmWinterHat]

THIS. I just want a simple camera so I don't have to carry my phone at all when running, cycling, hiking, etc...

Why does having a camera make it viable to not carry your phone.

I have non-cell Apple Watch and I don't carry my phone when I run. For cycling I use my phone as my bike computer and for hiking it doesn't matter, as 90% of the places I hike have zero cell service. My garmin in-reach connects to my phone so I keep it around for that.

 

[Rychiar]

Why release either watch next year? They have no new features ready yet. Skip a year and release the series 10 the following year with microoled too. Next year they can focus on vision pro

 

[Octavius8]

Does the “new” processor make the watch feel fastee?. Otherwise what is point?. Is Siri pretty useless still in an ultra 2?.

 

[PatrickNSF]

People have been predicting longer watch upgrade cycles since the original AW launched, but the annual upgrade cycles seems to be working fine. There are often few reasons to upgrade year over year, but it’s the cumulative small yearly upgrades that make an eventual upgrade compelling.

 

[120FPS]

Wasn’t there a rumour that Apple was going to change the band attachment mechanism? I would think they would probably focus on the Apple Watch 10/X and that it will be a big year for it.

 

[widestload]

Just upgraded from my S7 to an Ultra 2 last week (having previously updated every 2 years from an S3 to S5 to S7), so no Ultra 3 will be great for me as it will fit with my upgrade cycle and mean i have the newest for longer too

 

[Eldaerenth Faexidor]

Ultra 2 was pretty much a pointless upgrade. Will be happy with my Ultra 1 for another couple years at least unless some major features come sooner.

For you perhaps. Not necessarily for everyone else. I had them both and both on watchOS 10 and the difference was noticeably perceptible. I love the AW Ultra 2! Glad I upgraded, it’s a great smartwatch!

 

[transpo1]

Kuo is getting bored. There will definitely be a new Ultra every year there will be a regular Apple Watch, even if the only change will be a new processor. There is no way Apple can sell an Ultra with a worst processor than the regular watch.

This is exactly the problem Apple has gotten themselves into. Now they need to upgrade the Ultra every year.

 

[Royksöpp]

As we’ve seen, launching a new watch every year is kind of pointless. Two years would be a better schedule.

They should also start doing that with MacOS like the good old days. It won’t happen with iOS, but it would be nice, especially after iOS 17.

 

[bobcomer]

While this is a minor inconvenience,

Major inconvenience actually. My watch isn't readable more time in the day than not.

I'm sure they will address it soon.

Apple hasn't even admitted the problem unfortunately. I've seen too many comments about people getting "working as designed" when calling for support. Lets hope they do address it soon though!!

It's a stupid mistake on their part. Probably the team that handled brightness in a dim room are all young. Normally they're pretty good about accessibility, but this is the opposite of that.

They are basically showing off how low they can make the screen in the dark. Personally, I think my U2 is the best AW I have owned.

Who cares about how dim they can make it if it's not readable. I can make it a lot dimmer by turning it off!

My U2 has the best battery life by far, but it's my least favorite version. When they fix the brightness, we'll see. If they don't, I'll either go back to my S6, or go with an android watch.

 

[bobcomer]

THIS. I just want a simple camera so I don't have to carry my phone at all when running, cycling, hiking, etc...

It's hard to see how they could add that, but I'd like a camera too. It doeen't need to be very good, just there...

 

[rjp1]

I loved the Ultra 1. I started getting decreasing battery life with it despite battery health still showing 98% or something like that. So I ended up upgrading to the Ultra 2 and happy with it. There was some improvements I like for running, but that was just part of the new watchOS. The double tap gesture isn't working that great so far. I have no need for another watch unless they can improve the gps, add some new sensors, or I have issues with battery life again.

 

[maverick2007]

IMO its useless to see same watch every year with incremental upgrades. Tim lost his mind and just doing iterative updates and fooling innocent people.

 

[msackey]

Apple is still a tech company & probably took a hit with those 1st gen. gold editions pretty quick considering obsolete technology.

Yup!

In a sense, Apple Watch can't be compare with watches like Rolex. A mechanical watch or a watch that is not so digitally dependent will have value on its own.

An Apple Watch like all watches that are so digitally dependent, the value isn't only on the material but also how it works with software. An Apple Watch isn't even an independent device anyway. It's reliant on the iPhone. I think these kinds of interdependent relationships make the Apple Watch ultimately not as steady in value as a Rolex and other watches of those kind would be.

I did not understand getting an Apple Watch all blinged out when in several years that Watch becomes obsolete and worse, maybe can't be used.

 

[ReliableSource]

IMO its useless to see same watch every year with incremental upgrades. Tim lost his mind and just doing iterative updates and fooling innocent people.

I don’t get this mentality that seems to be “if they put out a new version of a product every year, then you need to upgrade every year.” IMO iterative updates are fine, and you don’t need to upgrade devices every time a new version is released.

The best analogy that I always see is cars: they put out new models of cars every year, and they’re often very similar to the previous year’s model, but nobody is saying “it’s pointless to to release a new car every year with incremental upgrades.”

How are innocent people being fooled by this?

 

[Nugget]

As we’ve seen, launching a new watch every year is kind of pointless. Two years would be a better schedule.

Buying a new watch every year is kind of pointless, yeah. That doesn't really translate to Apple's release of new watches every year being pointless. Buyers enter the market at different times and upgrade on their own schedules. Three million people upgrading their watch every three years will feed a healthy market of 1M annual sales for watches that see annual updates.

We live in a bubble here on MacRumors where every single hardware release merits consideration. Out in the real world people upgrade when it makes sense for them. The last thing Apple want in that scenario is for someone to break old watch or lose it after a year or two and then discover that their only option is to buy the exact same model they had before or a really stale model that everyone tells them is due for an update.

 

[AppleTO]

Buying a new watch every year is kind of pointless, yeah. That doesn't really translate to Apple's release of new watches every year being pointless.

That's fair, I just feel like the press (and purchase in interest) would be larger if the device had more notable new features. But I guess it could go either way.

 

[Nugget]

What matters most is if the current model watch has notable new features as compared to what the buyer is replacing, which in most cases is unlikely to be the prior generation device.

 

[spazzcat]

Major inconvenience actually. My watch isn't readable more time in the day than not.


Apple hasn't even admitted the problem unfortunately. I've seen too many comments about people getting "working as designed" when calling for support. Lets hope they do address it soon though!!

It's a stupid mistake on their part. Probably the team that handled brightness in a dim room are all young. Normally they're pretty good about accessibility, but this is the opposite of that.


Who cares about how dim they can make it if it's not readable. I can make it a lot dimmer by turning it off!

My U2 has the best battery life by far, but it's my least favorite version. When they fix the brightness, we'll see. If they don't, I'll either go back to my S6, or go with an android watch.

If you don't have glasses, you may need them. The only issue I have is with modular face and when it is in dark mode, I can't read the widgets, but I can see the time and read alerts.

Edit: And I should note if I put my readers on I can read everything in the dark without issue.

 

[Lakersfan74]

People with current models need to stop thinking it’s only about them. Apple needs to keep things current because there are always new users to a device every year.

 

[AndiG]

Apple is EoL. No fresh ideas, every year the same 💩. Sonoma - again - buggy as hell, will take at least 6-8 months unless you can install it in a productive environment. Same for iOS17.

I want my Apple back!!!

 

[Gengar]

They low-key don't need to update any of the watches every year. Most of the improves year-over-year are software enhancements that they can easily bring to older models, but they choose not to.

 

[macman01101]

Very disappointing. I was hoping for 4000 nits of brightness and maybe they’d bring back the ability to manually activate the red/night mode watch face. Of course that’s a hardware limitation. 🙄

 

[jjohnstonjr]

We also heard rumors of no new Apple Watch Ultra 2 and look what happened. Either he is losing his inside sources or he is trying to make us all feel good about our AWU2 purchases for the time being.

 

[bobcomer]

If you don't have glasses, you may need them.

Sure, blame me. And I do have glasses and they don't make things bright enough to see, that's not what glasses are for. I don't think night vision goggles would help either, but I haven't tried them.

The only issue I have is with modular face and when it is in dark mode, I can't read the widgets, but I can see the time and read alerts.

How old are you? The older you get, the less light sensitive your eyes get, so you need things brighter to see them. But then again, I've seen posts by people younger than myself (I'm 64) that are having trouble reading the watch in the dark. There are MANY posts in the Apple Community forums. Most of the time I can read the time too, but not always, and forget about any of the complications. Seems kind of a waste to have something you can't see on the watch face.

Edit: And I should note if I put my readers on I can read everything in the dark without issue.

Lucky you. I can't.