Swatch is a great design company
We know theirs won't look like a Fat Walmart shopper with a case of Narcolepsy
We know theirs won't look like a Fat Walmart shopper with a case of Narcolepsy
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Swatch Prepares to Go Head-to-Head With Apple Watch
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I didn't even bother reading past this line because you didn't even read anything I wrote. :roll eyes:
I just said that Swatch could've made an appearance with their Smart Watch when Samsung and others came out with theirs but it appears that Swatch saw no competition there until the Applewatch. Read please, Read.
We don't know that it's going to have WiFi or Cellular yet (at least not according to the article).
Could be getting all it's internet via bluetooth to your phone. With BTLE 4.0 that would be a much lower power draw than WiFI or Cell.
We all know that the biggest draw of battery life is going to be any display. Maybe Swatch has come up with a hybrid analogue / Digital method. if you're just looking at the date and time, the display is 'off' and transparent, showcasing traditional swiss timepiece. The digital display, for notifications and app interaction would only turn on when dealing with Apps and notifications from your phone. This could seriously reduce the power draw the watch requires. Combine in solar charging or mechanical motion charging and you MIGHT be able to power such a device.
Swatch is stupid. They don't have a chance to Silicon Valley.
They could do much better by buying Pebble, or being just an Android Wear OEM.
Much, much better.
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Except they said they were working on it short after Steve's death.
Of course nobody makes an Apple Watch in 6 months.
They could do much better by buying Pebble, or being just an Android Wear OEM.
Much, much better.
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Except they said they were working on it short after Steve's death.
Of course nobody makes an Apple Watch in 6 months.
Why is it cute? What other smart watch has posed any threat to traditional watch makers? Marketing is marketing. Just like in a political campaign the stronger candidates ignore the weak ones and focus on the real competition.
Can you provide me with a link where those billions of dollars in R&D for the Apple Watch are explained?
your 2 cents marketing opinion
Right...You probably know more on what's sell and how to whom...than Hayek who has been working for decades with Swatch...
Right...You probably know more on what's sell and how to whom...than Hayek who has been working for decades with Swatch...
The more cross-platform wearables in the wild, the better. Some samsung devices look nice, however, I will not buy a Galaxy phone just to use them, nor do I expect a Samsung, LG, or other Android phone user to drop their favorite device just to use the 
Watch .
It is turning into a bit of a Dog-eat-Dog world, would be nice to see corporations play better together.
Watch . It is turning into a bit of a Dog-eat-Dog world, would be nice to see corporations play better together.
The proof to your argument is that big money makes good products. So why is Apple still buying small companies when they need new fresh ideas?
Why so many of their software have gone so awful with all that power? I'm talking about Final Cut Pro and Aperture just to point to a few.
LOL. Thank you Mr battery technology expert for that amazing insight. Apple SHOULD HAVE fixed the laws of nature and made tiny Li-Po batteries do things that simply aren't possible. Congratulations, you have officially contributed the most significant piece of insight to this entire discussion. Apple ought to hire you. Its as simple as saying "I want better battery life" and poof it magically happens.
Let me ask you something, if it took Apple three years of development, developing an entirely new OS architecture that relies on offloading processing to an external device, designing a mostly black background user interface to save power on OLED displays, miniaturization beyond anything Apple has ever accomplished before to fit as large of a battery as possible inside a miniature space, new battery chemistry, etc. by some of the most talented and capable engineers and scientists in the world, do you honestly think you or Swatch or any other company who doesn't develop the ENTIRE stack will be able to achieve better results? Apple designs the hardware, the software, the silicon, and each one of these pieces has been remade entirely for low-power constraints.
You honestly expect a company picking off the shelf components to achieve something even close? The only way that would be possible would be to cripple the product. Apple is willing to compromise on certain things, but they're not willing to cripple a product for the sake of battery. Otherwise there's no point to even existing. So they make TRADEOFFS. That's what you do when you design products. If the watch isn't sufficiently powerful, it will not be quick enough for a glance-and-go user experience. You don't want ANY lag on a smart watch. It needs to have immediate feedback and a great user experience. If that means having to compromise on battery, getting 1 days charge instead of 1.5 days charge, then clearly it's the right decision, seeing as it would need overnight charging anyway to last the next full day.
But I'm sure you thought about this as deeply as Apples best and brightest have for the past 3 years
my thoughts
If someone releases a watch that looks and works like a normal watch, doesn't have to be charged every day or worse, but that collects all of the same fitness related data and can provide silent notifications for calendar events, and that won't be out of date in a year or two, I would be absolutely more interested in that than Android Wear or Apple Watch. I simply do not need or want apps on my wrist if it means I have to look like I am wearing a mini smartphone on my wrist that gets terrible battery life.
If someone releases a watch that looks and works like a normal watch, doesn't have to be charged every day or worse, but that collects all of the same fitness related data and can provide silent notifications for calendar events, and that won't be out of date in a year or two, I would be absolutely more interested in that than Android Wear or Apple Watch. I simply do not need or want apps on my wrist if it means I have to look like I am wearing a mini smartphone on my wrist that gets terrible battery life.
You need to see the Apple Watch in person. It looks completely and utterly normal. The craziest thing is how normal it actually looks.
Moto 360, as nice as the round screen is, is so big, you instantly notice that the person is wearing something weird on their wrist.
I guess Android wear really got it wrong then. Lots of white everywhere AND thin font.
I'm struggling to see what Swatch could come up with power wise that Samsung, LG, Moto, Apple etc. would not have thought of. If things like solar, body heat etc. were possible solutions right now wouldn't one of these companies have gone down that path already?
Part of the problem is patent, and trademark ownership. You can't always bring to market, or license what an other company owns overall rights to. Many of the purchases by Apple since joining the Mobile phone & Tablet market have been for that purpose.
I would have to say that Apple does make good products, I wouldn't say the best, however good enough for them to be successful players in a few of the markets they participate within.
The competition is stronger than ever, and Apple (to their detriment) tends to move too slowly in some areas (product introductions) and too quickly in others (OS, and iOS Releases) than some of their critics, and even fans may like to see.
I just hope their leadership can figure out good balance in this.
I am not in complete agreement with the OP, but some of those points (regarding R&D Time) were touched on during the Keynote.
More competition to the watches, that's awesome. It may even drive prices down as well.
Best of luck to all!
Best of luck to all!
LOL. Thank you Mr battery technology expert for that amazing insight. Apple SHOULD HAVE fixed the laws of nature and made tiny Li-Po batteries do things that simply aren't possible. Congratulations, you have officially contributed the most significant piece of insight to this entire discussion. Apple ought to hire you. Its as simple as saying "I want better battery life" and poof it magically happens.
Let me ask you something, if it took Apple three years of development, developing an entirely new OS architecture that relies on offloading processing to an external device, designing a mostly black background user interface to save power on OLED displays, miniaturization beyond anything Apple has ever accomplished before to fit as large of a battery as possible inside a miniature space, new battery chemistry, etc. by some of the most talented and capable engineers and scientists in the world, do you honestly think you or Swatch or any other company who doesn't develop the ENTIRE stack will be able to achieve better results? Apple designs the hardware, the software, the silicon, and each one of these pieces has been remade entirely for low-power constraints.
You honestly expect a company picking off the shelf components to achieve something even close? The only way that would be possible would be to cripple the product. Apple is willing to compromise on certain things, but they're not willing to cripple a product for the sake of battery. Otherwise there's no point to even existing. So they make TRADEOFFS. That's what you do when you design products. If the watch isn't sufficiently powerful, it will not be quick enough for a glance-and-go user experience. You don't want ANY lag on a smart watch. It needs to have immediate feedback and a great user experience. If that means having to compromise on battery, getting 1 days charge instead of 1.5 days charge, then clearly it's the right decision, seeing as it would need overnight charging anyway to last the next full day.
But I'm sure you thought about this as deeply as Apples best and brightest have for the past 3 years
No doubt someone from IBM had the exact same rant when apple introduced its first computer .
Yes it is possible to outdsign and outsmart apple , it has been done before and will be done in the future . Apple is not god .
Chances are it won't be any of the above and there's a 99.999999% chance Apple will scare people into buying Applecare. This is one of the reasons I am not interested in such a premium watch and I will continue to stick to G-Shock. Bumps, knocks, swimming and the like will not hurt the G-Shock. Sure it's not a Smart Watch, but be prepared to pay a king's ransom for total cost of ownership with the AppleWatch.