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So many complaints about the Apple Watch but...

S

scaramoosh

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 30, 2014
856
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I don't understand it.

People want to justify it and expect the Watch to do everything and then complain when they don't find it useful. If you don't wear a Watch, maybe the Apple Watch isn't for you? I like having a Watch on personally, so that is your first question to yourself.

Also if you don't want things like fitness tracking or notifications... again it's probably not for you. I mean what do you expect a Watch with a tiny battery and screen to do? Yeah you have your phone, stop complaining that the Watch doesn't replace it.

For me the Watch has meant I can have my phone in silent all the time, I don't care for loud speakers, I hate how everyone has the same alert tones and it just becomes annoying. The Watch means I know I'm getting a notification and that amazing motor inside is so much better than the competition. I can tell what notification I'm getting, that's how good it is.

It's the best Smartwatch on the Market still, I turned off the Wrist wake thing and now I get 3 days of battery life instead of 1. I don't mind tapping on the screen, in fact I prefer it as the screen isn't constantly coming on when I don't want it to.

I just don't get peoples complaints, if you don't want a Watch, don't buy one... what were you expecting? The Smartwatch to replace all the hardware you own? It's a companion.


+ I'm at a bar drunk after someone bitched at me about the Apple Watch, so I haven't read this post through lol.
 
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MrTazz said:
I totally agree mate, telling the time, notifications, setting up reminders via Siri and a few others and it does the job for me. Like you said it's a companion/extension to the phone and not a replacement.
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Yeah and it's probably over priced, but you saw the price when you bought it, you cannot complain after the fact. I get that all the time on eBay, people leave me bad feedback after they say it was too expensive.... WHY BUY IT THEN?

To be fair though with how little they sold, they probably just broke even with all the R&D involved.
 
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I think the biggest complaints are actually 1) how slow it is and 2) how inconsistent the behavior is - which is an extension of how many parts of it don't feel polished as is typically Apple.

I generally agree with your points, and like my AW well enough - and use it in much the same way as yourself - but the speed of apps is just ridiculous. I keep a weather widget on the main face - but there is no point in interacting with the app any further because it takes a minimum of 5 seconds to update, and may take 30. I actually use Siri on the AW fairly regularly, but about 20% of the time she either doesn't respond at all, responds halfway through my request, or gets something wrong which I can't fix without starting over. Many tap interactions with apps are poor. The screen doesn't seem to have the same precision in detecting taps as any of their other devices, even accounting for the screen size. It feels like the device needs to provide some sort of feedback - haptic, something - when you hit a touch target many times because the delay in the apps processing the touch often means it's hard to know it registered.

Mostly, these are 1st generation issues, and I'm overall happy with the watch - but like I say - some of these things just feel like lack of polish that I expect from other companies, but not Apple.
 
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zhenya said:
I think the biggest complaints are actually 1) how slow it is and 2) how inconsistent the behavior is - which is an extension of how many parts of it don't feel polished as is typically Apple.
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The underpowered thing sounds like a standard Apple rev. A product.
 
From what I remember about the MacBook Air, iPod touch, heck most rev A products are what I hear about the watch. Which is why I'm pumped for gen 2.
 
scaramoosh said:
I don't understand it.

People want to justify it and expect the Watch to do everything and then complain when they don't find it useful.
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It's because they've formed their own expectations and then bitch about the watch doing things differently.

The ones who want it to replace their iPhone are going to be disappointed. I don't hear them complain about how their iPhones don't replace their Mac Pros, though.

The ones who want it to be a simple little single-purpose gadget like a Fitbit are also disappointed because the AW does too much.

So, what do they do? They do what half of everyone else seems to do these days: get online and whine about it.
 
jonnysods said:
From what I remember about the MacBook Air, iPod touch, heck most rev A products are what I hear about the watch. Which is why I'm pumped for gen 2.
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The same things were true of the original iPhone, which the watch has outsold. I still have it and use it every day, as an iPod. But if you remember web apps were all that was available on it when it came out.

When I got that first phone it was a long time before I saw another person with one. I see people with the watches every day so I'd say it's been a success, most are very happy with it and would buy it again. From reading some posts quite a few people were very happy to get the capability to pair a second watch to their phones and have purchased a second one. For me personally, as well as a fair number of acquaintances, I use my phone 30-50% less since getting the watch. If the speculation of future cellular connectivity and possibly gps come true, I'd say that 30-50 will go up quite a bit.
 
The world is full of many self-important people who DEMAND PERFECTION in a product they want. I saw someone say Siri "sucked" recently. REALLY? Cancer and murder suck. Siri is imperfect but often very useful.

I've seen this with Apple for about a decade. Since the iPhone was released, some people wondered when the next big innovation would come -- and it had to be as good as the iPhone. Really? I'd say this iPad Air is pretty great and has allowed me to easily consume digital books, textbooks and comic books. But apparently it doesn't change Earth's rotation and is thus doomed.

I don't get what people expected from a 1.0 Apple Watch. The speed is quite unfortunate, but processors and batteries aren't magically affordable and efficient. It's still a pretty nice product, although it does take convincing others it's worth it at $400 for the big one. I don't bother trying to convince people on the SS model I have because most of us made up our own mind to do that.

I keep wanting my mom to get one. The heart rate monitor might come in handy for tracking data and she wouldn't miss any phone calls while wearing the watch. But I gotta get her on an iPhone X Plus first. She's had my old 5s for two years and is "happy" with it. Ugh.
 
I love my Apple watch - having had several smart watches before (2 samsung ones and a Pebble), I had realistic expectations of what a smart watch is and what it isn't and for me, the AW matches or exceeds all those expectations.
I view it as a watch with additional functionality rather than something that can replace any of my other devices and it does that job perfectly well
 
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The difference between the Apple Watch and Apple's other products is utility.

I'm taking the liberty of using some broad strokes, but I think it fits here. Generally speaking the iPhone, the MacBook Air, the iPod Touch were all some what limited in their Gen 1 appearance, but they had great utility. They could do a lot of things for a large segment of consumers. On the other hand, the apple watch which has similar gen 1 growing pains does not have the same level of appeal. Its basically an extension of iPhone.

As for gen 2 improvements, unlike Apple's other gen 1 products listed, the apple watch is incredibly constrained by its form factor. There's not much room in the watch to make large scale changes.
 
People want everything but then will complain that the price is too high.

BarracksSi said:
It's because they've formed their own expectations and then bitch about the watch doing things differently.

The ones who want it to replace their iPhone are going to be disappointed. I don't hear them complain about how their iPhones don't replace their Mac Pros, though.

The ones who want it to be a simple little single-purpose gadget like a Fitbit are also disappointed because the AW does too much.

So, what do they do? They do what half of everyone else seems to do these days: get online and whine about it.
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I think the people saying they want it to do one thing are saying they want it to do one thing incredibly instead of being a multipurpose device. I'm glad Apple thought differently.
 
I paid $245 used for my 42mm Space Grey Sport with AppleCare+ so for me it was a no brainer ;)

If I end up not liking it I'll move on !
 
Like most anything, a lot has to do with your expectations. I expected it to be an extension of my iPhone, so I'm relatively happy with it. I like getting notifications on my wrist, where they're quick and easy to read. I'm often walking with my phone on my pocket, it's really nice not missing meeting reminders or phone calls.

I do think there is much room for improvement. I think they could have a 46mm watch for people who like bigger watches, IMHO the 42mm is on the small side (I have big wrists). It could also be better looking.

The interface is what needs the most work. Like others have said, it's slow. And the home screen, with all the tiny hard to see icons really needs a do-over.
 
maflynn said:
The difference between the Apple Watch and Apple's other products is utility.

I'm taking the liberty of using some broad strokes, but I think it fits here. Generally speaking the iPhone, the MacBook Air, the iPod Touch were all some what limited in their Gen 1 appearance, but they had great utility. They could do a lot of things for a large segment of consumers. On the other hand, the apple watch which has similar gen 1 growing pains does not have the same level of appeal. Its basically an extension of iPhone.

As for gen 2 improvements, unlike Apple's other gen 1 products listed, the apple watch is incredibly constrained by its form factor. There's not much room in the watch to make large scale changes.
Click to expand...

Very true. I think people nowadays are good at expecting more than is reasonable from a lot of different sources. My impression is a lot of people expected iPhone-like performance. I had a Fitbit Flex, so I didn't have much knowledge about these things other than "Why do you people suggest a week of battery life? That is not going to happen." When my Flex required a charge about every five days, I knew Apple would maybe magically pump two days out of it tops.

Also, if you buy a 1.0 product at launch, don't expect zero hassle. It takes a few generations to really work major bugs out and for the developers (both Apple and third-party) to get a handle on usefulness.
 
maflynn said:
Very true and I think at times, I'm guilty of forgetting that myself.
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I think when people have worked around technical stuff like that, they tend to understand the difficulties of making something that "works." I haven't worked on devices like that, but I've built and fixed a few computers before plus done some Web developing. When people complain about stuff that has stumped you and have some expectation that oh, you should've known that, you really want to drag them in and show them exactly what you're dealing with. "You're so smart -- fix it!"
 
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The thing is that you if ask anyone to name a better smart watch, they can't. Any Android Wear watch has serious drawbacks either in terms of hardware design or software and the fitness tracker watches or Pebble don't even come close.

We live in such a wondrous time that people today are like kids who've received way too many christmas gifts. After a while, nothing seems great anymore and they all end up under the bed.
 
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