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Paul Thurrott says Apple Watch is a disaster

Rogifan

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
Nov 14, 2011
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Won't link to his site to give him any page views but he basically says it's too hard to buy and too hard to use. Why does it seem like average people have an easier time with the Watch than some tech writers do? And a disaster? Talk about hyperbole.
 
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What do you expect from a Windows hack/blogger?

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Too hard to buy? Much like every other Apple product in the first few weeks of release.

Sure they took away some people's fun of camping on the street for a week and news crews outside every major Apple store but the system has meant that it's actually easier for people with everyday lives to get the watch early on. Besides, it could be as soon as this month that normal stores start to carry them for every customer and the try-on appointments have never been compulsory, only for the customer's benefit.

Hard to use? I can't comment on that yet but I think a lot of these "experts" are confusing the meanings of "hard to use" and simply "less intuitive than other products" or even "takes a small amount of time to get used to"
 
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DynamicSausage said:
Too hard to buy? Much like every other Apple product in the first few weeks of release.

Sure they took away some people's fun of camping on the street for a week and news crews outside every major Apple store but the system has meant that it's actually easier for people with everyday lives to get the watch early on. Besides, it could be as soon as this month that normal stores start to carry them for every customer and the try-on appointments have never been compulsory, only for the customer's benefit.

Hard to use? I can't comment on that yet but I think a lot of these "experts" are confusing the meanings of "hard to use" and simply "less intuitive than other products" or even "takes a small amount of time to get used to"
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Or maybe they're trying to use it like an iPhone on their wrist (don't). Several people in my Facebook and Twitter feeds own an Apple Watch and I have yet to hear any of them complain that it's too hard to use. Doesn't mean the UI/UX is perfect and I'm sure Apple is learning and iterating as they go. But it's far from disaster IMO.
 
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Too hard to buy? It's Apple's first new product line since the iPad...of course it's hard to buy right now! Hard to use? PFFFT. People that try this device or are considering a purchase need to realize this is a device meant to complement the iPhone and that it is meant for micro interactions and notifications.
 
A disaster? Man, I wish all disasters were as cheery and successful as Apple's.

Seriously, I know it wasn't the smoothest launch they've had, and it could have gone better especially with that availability confusion, but labeling it as a "disaster" is nothing but hyperbole.
 
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Rogifan said:
Or maybe they're trying to use it like an iPhone on their wrist (don't). Several people in my Facebook and Twitter feeds own an Apple Watch and I have yet to hear any of them complain that it's too hard to use. Doesn't mean the UI/UX is perfect and I'm sure Apple is learning and iterating as they go. But it's far from disaster IMO.
Click to expand...

No - I DO agree this has been a woeful buying experience (SOMETHING APPLE PRIDE THEMSELVES ON HAD BEEN THE BUYING EXPERIENCE) bought about by inventory and manufacturing issues. This has NOT been normal. Even Angela Ahrendts has issued an edict today that the store staff have to swat up on the product to make sure IN STORE buying IS an experience and that they have to be "above and beyond ready", coz this ONLINE buying effort by all of us has been anything but pleasurable. It's only been softened, to a degree,by the great people HERE...not at APPLE - which is where my Apple purchasing has always been so wonderful. TO me this is a botched delivery, big time.
 
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Hard to BUY? Apple's website or Apple Store apps are pretty simple. Hard to ACQUIRE? Sure, it took me five weeks.

Hard to use? Maybe, but a lot of it is because the experience is quite new. If you had owned an iPhone, you knew how to use an iPad. But this is a completely different layout with buttons you're not sure about. There is no full keyboard input, and the apps don't have text labels. So it's different, and I would have to spend a lot of time teaching my parents how to use one.

But that's also called new technology. Find someone from some country or maybe remote parts of the U.S. who has never used or even seen a computer before. Put him or her in a chair. Turn it on. Then tell him or her to use it. I'll guarantee you this person will be stumped because he or she doesn't have a clue what to use it for yet.

There aren't even native apps yet. I'd say the whole success/failure thing is tough to call.
 
Erm, no, he didn't say it was a disaster. His review was quite balanced, praising the hardware and the support, but criticising the software as being complex. His conclusion was: "Overall, Apple Watch is exactly what I thought it would be: Expensive, unnecessary, and complex, but of obvious high-quality." which is of course true.

I find Paul is always very accurate, but he often either misses the point or doesn't explain his thinking very well. For a site which has a whole section dedicated to the Xbox, it seems weird to criticise a device as being "unnecessary", of course it's unnecessary, it's a consumer device.
 
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DynamicSausage said:
Too hard to buy? Much like every other Apple product in the first few weeks of release.

Sure they took away some people's fun of camping on the street for a week and news crews outside every major Apple store but the system has meant that it's actually easier for people with everyday lives to get the watch early on. Besides, it could be as soon as this month that normal stores start to carry them for every customer and the try-on appointments have never been compulsory, only for the customer's benefit.

Hard to use? I can't comment on that yet but I think a lot of these "experts" are confusing the meanings of "hard to use" and simply "less intuitive than other products" or even "takes a small amount of time to get used to"
Click to expand...

It was really easy to buy. I clicked buy then typed my password in. Probably the easiest purchase I've ever done!

Good things come to those who wait and all that...
 
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Its only hard to buy because of initial supply chain issues however its not that hard to use at all...Ive had more complicated remote controls.....
 
Disaster? In what sense? Financially? There's no way for us to know: Apple won't release the figures.

As a product launch? You must be the most fanatical fanboy if you think the launch was slick. Disaster? No, but hardly a resounding success.

As a product? The watch is not easy to use: you're often guessing what mode of interaction to use next. Do I swipe, force touch, click, ... ? Functions are hidden behind these that you have to discover for yourself, and you may never do so. The look and build are good: I would personally have preferred a larger size. Disaster? No. It's fine.
 
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profmatt said:
As a product? The watch is not easy to use: you're often guessing what mode of interaction to use next. Do I swipe, force touch, click, ... ? Functions are hidden behind these that you have to discover for yourself, and you may never do so.
Click to expand...
I disagree. Wearing my Apple Watch for close to three weeks now, I absolutely have no issues in finding what I want or getting the information that I want at any time.

It's a new product line from Apple as stated before and while the handling is different to iPad/iPhone it didn't really take me long to learn how to use this thing. OK, I have to admit I am a tech geek and love discovering functions of new gadgets/devices but the learning curve really wasn't that steep.

Nevertheless, I am also pretty sure that there is potential for making the experience with the Watch OS more fluent somehow and I am looking forward to the changes that will come with newer versions of the OS.

But again, I have had devices in my life which were much, much harder to handle than the watch. If everyone would take his 20 minutes to have a look at the manual for a better and basic understanding and maybe watch a video from Apple or two there wouldn't be so many pointless questions about it in the forums.

My 2 cents.
 
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I've had mine for 4 days now and finding it hard to understand why it's hard to use, sure it's a new product and you need to get to grips with how everything is organised, but to say it's too hard to use is absurd. This isn't the only review I've heard of out there criticising the UI, to be honest I don't find it any harder than it was to adjust to the first iPhone.

Saying that this is from a windows site and I know from prior pain just how easy windows is to get working properly:p

To say it was too hard to order is absurd I ordered mine no problem the only issue for me was the length of time it took for it to be delivered, but it's a new product under high demand so wasn't outraged that it took so long to come through, doubt anything windows related has ever received the kind of demand at launch that Apple products incite.
 
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I work in tech and I had to google this guy to see why I would care about his opinion. Nope, still don't.

Being an internet blogger means you have a valuable opinion?

I'd give this guy marginally more credibility than Carrot Top. :D
 
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Rogifan said:
Won't link to his site to give him any page views but he basically says it's too hard to buy and too hard to use. Why does it seem like average people have an easier time with the Watch than some tech writers do? And a disaster? Talk about hyperbole.
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I'll post the link because your post is a complete misrepresentation of what he said. I don't care for him too much but at least let's be fair to the guy and not put words in his mouth.

Apple Watch First Impressions

I think his first impressions are spot on and more than likely what the average consumer who doesn't hang around tech forums or reads tech blogs all day will experience.

You should also give him some credit for not throwing it aside and declaring that it's too hard to use therefore he won't. He took the time to make an online support appointment to get help setting it up. While he obviously prefers and leans towards Microsoft products and services, he gives credit where credit is due.
 
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Thanks for suppling the link rocknblogger. While I don't agree with everything Paul said, it was no where near as negatively biased as I was expecting it to be.
 
OllyW said:
I can't find where he says "the Apple Watch is a disaster". :confused:
Click to expand...

My bad, I saw some of his comments from another site which used that word in the headline so I assumed it came from him. :oops:
 
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