Does anyone know why the Apple Watch can't be paired with an iPad? It would seem to be a deliberate decision rather than a technical issue. Thoughts on whether it might be possible down the road?
Allow me to try to answer the question as I have had this since the beginning. While we're at it, there's no reason I can see that the watch can't be paired with the iPod Touch, iPad, or even Mac. On the face of it, this opens up the watch to being used by people who don't own iPhones, but do own other Apple products. And considering how slow initial sales have been for the watch, compared to other Apple products, I would expect Apple to open it up to as many options as possible.
However, Apple isn't going to offer that option up until the watch operates essentially autonomously from the iPhone, on which it still significantly depends. And I do believe that is Apple's eventual goal. I think Apple thought that the watch would help drive customers to the iPhone if they made it exclusive to that platform, but I think the slow adotption may change their minds. And I think they thought Pay would drive purchases of the watch as well for iPhone 5 series users, but it likely hasn't. So now all phones are about to have Pay natively, because adoption of that hasn't been as great as Apple hoped either.
I personally never carry my phone and watch together, using the later essentially autonomously. And it's worked pretty well. As soon as ATT offers wifi calling via the watch, which T-Mobile already does, then there won't be a need for the phone wherever I have wifi. And really that phone number is the only limiting factor.
If I have an iPad with a Google Voice number, and an LTE connection, I really don't need a phone do I? And I can't imagine the carriers are too happy about that, even if I'm buying my iPad LTE plan from them. Either way, wifi calling should allow me to own an Android phone, and use that number over wifi calling on an iPad, or an Watch.
So, I definitely see Apple enabling someone to pair the watch with any Apple device eventually, but it's definitely not a priority now because it would limit the user experience. But, when the watch gets native GPS, and a way to join any wifi network without the paired device, it's going to be a lot less dependent on the phone. The pairing device will merely be a way to maintenece the watch, with notifications and calls being transmitted over wifi. Much like iTunes became redundant to the iPhone and iPad for almost everything.