The more I think about it, the more the rumour has never made any sense.
The Apple Watch is not in a position to see the kind of year-over-year changes that the iPhone experiences. It's already so small, so there likely isn't much room to make it any thinner or lighter. Instead, the challenge is to increase the screen size while keeping its dimensions the same overall.
You are also not going to hold the Apple Watch the same way you hold an iPhone, so giving it the same form factor literally makes no sense. And Apple appears to have doubled down on their design language of rounded corners. I predict that next year's Apple Watch will have largely the same form factor, with the major hardware updates coming in the form of additional health sensors.
It's clearly not a last-minute alternative. This was always in the works. You get a new display (which I believe will be more significant once you wear it in person vs seeing it online), improved durability, faster charging, a couple of new software features (enhanced fall detection, built-in keyboard), and the processor is possibly more efficient in order to power the larger display without any change to battery life.
It's in line with what I would expect from an annual Apple Watch update. Apple continues to move mountains in order to make annual refreshes to the iPhone and apple watch lineup happen every year, what more with the pandemic and the additional challenges posed by more employees continuing to work from home.
In all, I think this remains a solid offering that should see plenty more people buying their first Apple Watch this year.
The Apple Watch is not in a position to see the kind of year-over-year changes that the iPhone experiences. It's already so small, so there likely isn't much room to make it any thinner or lighter. Instead, the challenge is to increase the screen size while keeping its dimensions the same overall.
You are also not going to hold the Apple Watch the same way you hold an iPhone, so giving it the same form factor literally makes no sense. And Apple appears to have doubled down on their design language of rounded corners. I predict that next year's Apple Watch will have largely the same form factor, with the major hardware updates coming in the form of additional health sensors.
It's clearly not a last-minute alternative. This was always in the works. You get a new display (which I believe will be more significant once you wear it in person vs seeing it online), improved durability, faster charging, a couple of new software features (enhanced fall detection, built-in keyboard), and the processor is possibly more efficient in order to power the larger display without any change to battery life.
It's in line with what I would expect from an annual Apple Watch update. Apple continues to move mountains in order to make annual refreshes to the iPhone and apple watch lineup happen every year, what more with the pandemic and the additional challenges posed by more employees continuing to work from home.
In all, I think this remains a solid offering that should see plenty more people buying their first Apple Watch this year.
