It's not hyperbole. Do a Google Image search for Apple Watch apps, then scroll through and look at all the types of apps that wouldn't work well on a round screen. You can say they just need a different layout, but my point is that Apple Watch developers have way more options, and don't need to shoehorn everything into a circle.
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The MacRumors Show: Can Google Finally Beat Apple With Pixel Watch?
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That would be confirmation bias and moving the goal posts. The AW doesn’t display twice as much info as a same diameter round watch, it displays a square twice the size. Sure, you get more space for one type of information display but nowhere near twice and not for everything. And if you start talking about the same size screen area, the difference will be even smaller.
I find it hard to believe that Apple Watch developers would have ”more options” in anything considering the level of control Apple exerts on app development. That’s the real issue. I’ve had an AW for 4 years and it still doesn’t do much more than measure my workouts and tell time. It would do so much more if Apple would just get off the brake pedal.
Betteridge's law of headlines: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."
And yet Apple dominates the watch industry. Not just smart watches, but the Swiss watch industry.
I'm not a horologist, but I have helped produce a textbook on watches (mostly the highest of the high end). And I've never seen anything that can compete with Apple Watch. Good or bad, that's just the facts.
What do you think a Garmin displays when it shows run info? It isn’t a list unless you are looking at settings (mostly). Even that list is dynamic in side to side footprint - sometimes too far to the sides.
Everything on smartwatches isn’t a list.
As for map footprint, of course it does - bigger screen. Mine’s a 1.3”. Diameter.
You need to be realistic and why one does square while another does round is a matter of design.
Garmin is round and square. Pixel is round. Samsung is round. Apple is square. It isn’t all about how much info can be displayed.
No. The hardware isn't good enough, the software isn't good enough. The support isn't good enough, the ecosystem isn't good enough. Third party support isn't available.
Pair Google hardware reliability with a Barbie watch and viola you get an Apple Watch killer. Absolutely😜
Following the "Made by Google" launch event last week, we talk through how the Pixel Watch, Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, and Pixel Tablet compare to Apple's devices on the latest episode of The MacRumors Show podcast.
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The Pixel Watch features a striking round design with a 41mm stainless steel casing, and offers an always-on display, 24-hour battery life, and Fitbit sleep tracking, for a price of $349. With Apple Watch features like blood oxygen monitoring, ECG, Fall Detection, Emergency SOS, 32GB of memory, and more, we talk through how the Pixel Watch compares to Apple's long-reigning smart watch.
The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro offer many features that will be familiar to iPhone users such as 2x crop mode to simulate a telephoto lens, Cinematic Blur for video, Active Stabilization mode, and Face Unlock, but adds faster Night Sight, Photo Unblur, 8GB or 12GB of memory, and the custom-silicon Tensor G2 chip. The devices look to directly compete with Apple's latest iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models, but undercut them in price by about $100.
Google also offered an early look at the Pixel Tablet that is set to launch next year – a device that will undoubtedly compete with the iPad. The tablet comes alongside a speaker dock that charges the device and turns it into a home-focused device to glance at information, display photos, and control smart home accessories.
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Article Link: The MacRumors Show: Can Google Finally Beat Apple With Pixel Watch?
Yes, the Apple Watch is the best overall experience of all smartwatch systems I’ve seen. And yet, it’s just ok – kind of useful but not essential in my life. If Apple allowed simple things like responding to texts on 3rd party apps and custom watch faces etc., there’s so many little things, I could do way more and even go without the phone sometimes. But instead, it’s just a convenience enhancer.
This is all because OS development is coupled with unit sales, so they give us a trickle of features, and abysmal competition, so there’s no reason to up their game. WatchOS has so much potential it’s maddening to see how they refuse to let it shine.
It’s interesting to watch (Sic) these guys try so hard to be even handed about this watch. But it’s not going to do any better than Google’s phones. They sell in the single digit millions, and have been around 3-4 million every year, despite good reviews. A reason is their cost. While Google has, in the past, kept orices well below Apple and Samsung pricing, they were still considered to be expensive for Android phones, which average, around the world, well under $300. This year, to people’s disappointment, they’ve nudged higher.
but from the very beginning, I’ve said that Android watches wouldn’t do well, and for that one reason, price. When Android phones cost, here in N America under $450 average (much less most everywhere else), while iPhones cost around $775, average, people aren’t going to spend as much on a watch which most people don’t consider to be the necessity they think their phone to be.
so buying an Apple Watch for an average price of, between the various models Apple has on sale, $350, is a fairly easy sell to many iPhone buyers, with some buying the $200 to $250 model, when available, and some the $650 black Stainless or even more expensive models. Success is shown in the sales.
but for less expensive phones, the buyers were buying Pebble watches (remember them?) for $99 to $150. Not very good smartwatches, but adequate for those who bought them. But Pebble failed eventually because of the same reason people were buying them at first - cheap, and not very good. So FitBit bought them as their smartwatches failed, where their cheaper fitness bands succeeded. But even then, FitBit failed because they couldn’t sell those $250 - $300 smartwatches, so Google bought them.
now Google comes out with a $350 - $400 smartwatch. What will happen? Samsung is fairly successful selling smartwatches, and collaborated with Google on the new Wear OS. But they sell maybe a quarter as many watches as Apple, maybe less. Garmin does well, but they sell to a different crowd, and their watches aren’t actually smartwatches, for the most part, and the ones that are closer are still well behind. But their fitness/sports watches are very different and go up to $1,900, well above Apple’s offerings.
so, to me, Google is boxed in with this. Too expensive to be really popular with most Android users, with Samsung already there with both cheaper and more expensive versions. They don’t work at all with the iPhone, which in N America now has 60% market share, going up, leaving a minority market for Android watches here, in one of the highest end markets.
what is the future for this?
but from the very beginning, I’ve said that Android watches wouldn’t do well, and for that one reason, price. When Android phones cost, here in N America under $450 average (much less most everywhere else), while iPhones cost around $775, average, people aren’t going to spend as much on a watch which most people don’t consider to be the necessity they think their phone to be.
so buying an Apple Watch for an average price of, between the various models Apple has on sale, $350, is a fairly easy sell to many iPhone buyers, with some buying the $200 to $250 model, when available, and some the $650 black Stainless or even more expensive models. Success is shown in the sales.
but for less expensive phones, the buyers were buying Pebble watches (remember them?) for $99 to $150. Not very good smartwatches, but adequate for those who bought them. But Pebble failed eventually because of the same reason people were buying them at first - cheap, and not very good. So FitBit bought them as their smartwatches failed, where their cheaper fitness bands succeeded. But even then, FitBit failed because they couldn’t sell those $250 - $300 smartwatches, so Google bought them.
now Google comes out with a $350 - $400 smartwatch. What will happen? Samsung is fairly successful selling smartwatches, and collaborated with Google on the new Wear OS. But they sell maybe a quarter as many watches as Apple, maybe less. Garmin does well, but they sell to a different crowd, and their watches aren’t actually smartwatches, for the most part, and the ones that are closer are still well behind. But their fitness/sports watches are very different and go up to $1,900, well above Apple’s offerings.
so, to me, Google is boxed in with this. Too expensive to be really popular with most Android users, with Samsung already there with both cheaper and more expensive versions. They don’t work at all with the iPhone, which in N America now has 60% market share, going up, leaving a minority market for Android watches here, in one of the highest end markets.
what is the future for this?
If one is using a sports watch, one doesn't need lots and lots of screen space, just a couple of lines of text will do. I have a Garmin Fenix 7 which is a sports watch and I use it as such, if I want a smart watch, I use my Apple ultra because it is better as a smart watch but not as good as my Garmin as a sports/fitness watch.
OK, then do a search for Google Watch apps instead. A lot of what you'll see is a round view of a square world, like looking through a keyhole. The edges of buttons, text fields, and design elements are cut off as they bleed into what would be the corners of a square. Not all apps do this, of course, but many do, out of necessity. Personally, I think it's ugly, and easily solved by a square watch face.