I'm a little negative towards it because it doesn't seem to keep my interest and IMO has failed as a fitness tracker. I have high hopes for future versions and updated software but wouldn't buy it again as is.
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Why all the negativity?
- Thread starter Markgnyc2
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I don't believe it. Why waste the money? Heck, Apple fans are notorious for saying non-positive things about their _own_ favorite company whenever they don't like a new product version. No payment necessary.
Though I must say, for an extra $1,000 a month pocket cash, I think even some hardcore pro-Apple fans would be willing to anonymously post some less than glowing reviews
Sadly it's very true.
They were just fined for doing it to HTC also
http://gizmodo.com/samsung-just-got-fined-340-000-for-paying-people-to-ba-1451367955
I received mine on launch day, the first 4 weeks I had the Sport which I preordered because I could not justify the price of the SS. 2 weeks ago the manager at the Apple Store allowed me to return my Sport for a full refund so I could buy the SS. So the only days I have not had a Apple Waych on was the 5 days my SS was on order lol. I love the watch that much that I was able to justify the higher price.
When people ask me about the watch, I tell people exactly what it is, an extension to the iPhone, and a beautiful well crafted time peice to.
When people ask me about the watch, I tell people exactly what it is, an extension to the iPhone, and a beautiful well crafted time peice to.
It did get boring very fast for me. I wear mine about once a week now and when I wear my Sub and DSOTM I don't miss the Apple watch at all but when I wear the Apple I miss the Sub and DSOTM. To me the hardware is not bad and the craftsmanship is great on the SS/sport model. It is very comfortable. Battery life is a non issue for me as I throw it on the charging stand every evening just like I place my 2 Swiss watches on a winder. Im usually at about %70 at the end of the day. Being a watch guy and an Apple fan boy ill hang on to it. I really hope with the 2.0 software and native apps it will be a different watch this fall but right now its pretty boring and slow. I just use it for the time, world clock date, weather.
One thing I do know is there will be a lot of potential as technology progresses. Imagine GPS, cellar capability, better health monitoring, 2-3 day battery life, greater water resistance. As long as we can get past the 1st gen I thing this product could do really well. There is just something about a fine mechanical that I will never give up but at the same time I love cool technology.
One thing I do know is there will be a lot of potential as technology progresses. Imagine GPS, cellar capability, better health monitoring, 2-3 day battery life, greater water resistance. As long as we can get past the 1st gen I thing this product could do really well. There is just something about a fine mechanical that I will never give up but at the same time I love cool technology.
People love to hate on Apple. They bash "fan boys" as if "fan boys" can somehow help Apple break all records for sales and make them the largest company in the world by market cap. When Microsoft was the clear "winner" back about 15 years or so ago, everyone hated Microsoft.
There are fan boys but it is about equal to the Apple haters and people love to read anything negative about Apple and as soon as there is something negative, the posts here jump way up.
I would hazard to guess a surprising percentage of negative comments/reviews are paid. Maybe it is a strategy that works, just the same in politics. This is a cutthroat industry, and you'd be surprised what is happening behind not-so-closed doors. Apple is also a prime stock to manipulate with paid "reports" and "articles". At least that is what I have read. Also it is far easier to be a negative/skeptical person than a creative problem solver or optimist.
Personally I love my Apple Watch Sport and would immediately replace it with the same, maybe splurging on SS/sapphire for the extra $200.
Personally I love my Apple Watch Sport and would immediately replace it with the same, maybe splurging on SS/sapphire for the extra $200.
One of the most complete, even, and fair assessments I've seen of the watch, that didn't take 15 minutes to read. Nice.
Wait until watchOS 2 release with more native 3rd party app, customize complication, & time travel with customize complication, able to look forward and back on complication status on clock screen without going to watch app.
iOS sells iPhone and especially iPad, not the other way around. Both will not take off without 1.4million iPhone apps and 725thousand iPad apps. Just as more watchOS 2 compatible app will accelerate sells of AW.
iOS sells iPhone and especially iPad, not the other way around. Both will not take off without 1.4million iPhone apps and 725thousand iPad apps. Just as more watchOS 2 compatible app will accelerate sells of AW.
That was an isolated local manager, who hired a local Taiwan marketing agency whose "great" idea was to post anti-HTC comments on local forums. It was so obvious that it was easily caught.
OTOH, as far as forums like this one go, look around. What we see are regular people posting the same "It's not for me" reasons that are normal for any wearable.
Sure, by advertising income. Writing anything about Apple, pro or con, is big business.
Just as with any news, bad news gets the most clicks. And once one outlet does it, the rest follow the click money. No need for a conspiracy theory to explain such common behavior.
Especially since Apple allows no direct competition to the Apple Watch. Unless you think that Pebble is paying news sites to diss it. Nobody else has any reason to.
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IMHO that is a debatable point. Certainly Apple has included the features it said would be included, but as to them really working in a practical sense, I would say not always. For example, it comes with a fitness app and has a HRM. That's fine for a long walk or if you run but don't really train to improve. Ultimately, it's a weak substitute for a dedicated fitness watch, one of the THE big market points of AW put out by Apple.
Another bone of contention is that while the AW works, it's rather slow. Launching an app isn't an "instant on" process. There is a short waiting time, something a device like a watch should not have because the whole point of using a smartwatch is to save time. But when you could pull out your phone and launch the app there before it surfaces on the watch, well...
The AW really reminds me of the first Newton. Amazingly cool idea, demo'd great... to the point I actually flew to Boston from DC on launch day to buy one. But the off demo use of the Newton was flawed and handwriting recognition to inaccurate for productive use. It was just not ready for consumer use at launch but then CEO John Sculley needed to prove his mettle with a new product. But it eventualy forced his leaving instead.
AW has lots of promise. I really enjoy notifications for example. But many of Apple's selling points are just that: marketing features that are not useful as designed. We'll see what performance improvements Watch 2.0 brings. But I think early adopters are being truthful in their complaints. Apple would have fared better underselling some of the features rather than unreasonably raising expectations of a supersmartwatch.
That is not to say there are some true Apple Haters that don't miss a chance to make pot shots. Those articles are there too. But look at what normally Apple friendly folks are saying. Buried in their general praise of AW are critiques of what AW doesn't do as advertised and what Apple needs to do to correct the issue.
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I doubt there is a conspiracy from competitors (they should be working hard on their own products), but more in the form of news paid for indirectly by traders looking to move the stock and reap a profit. If a trader could spend $50k on getting some bad news published, then reap some serious profits... Well it's all business, legal or not. I try not to think about it to much, because in the end it's all just noise and doesn't create any real trend.
What the complaints remind me much more of are all the threads about previous Apple new products, such as iPod, iPhone, and iPad.
In the real world, my Apple Watch has been great, if not perfect. People ask me about it when they notice, and it is nowhere near as conspicuous as an iPad when that came out. Just as with the first iPad, I can demo a couple things on the watch, how I use it day-to-day, and say it's pretty neat. Apple Pay generates the most comments, usually "Wow! I have to get one of those!" and, "Maybe time for me to switch back to iPhone. That is amazing!" Twice now a cashier has run back into the kitchen excitedly describing seeing someone pay with that new Apple thing. That is the kind of buzz that will make or break a new product.
There were tablets before the iPad. They were just terrible. My point is, with both the first iPad and now with the Apple Watch, a chorus of people were/are saying "what do I need this for"?
With the iPad, detractors were saying "I already have an iPhone and a laptop. What do I need a tablet for? My existing devices already do everything that an iPad can do. I don't need another device." I remember this very clearly. The argument that it was better than the iPhone because the screen was a "bigger canvas" was a hard sell to people who had never used a tablet before. Sound familiar?
It's exactly the same with the Watch. It doesn't do anything your iPhone doesn't already do. The difference, like the iPad, is that it's a different form factor and can be used differently and more conveniently than your phone for many tasks. Plus it's a nice watch. But to many people, they don't see the value yet.
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Not sure what you mean.
Exercise: Sure there may be a few lacking excersice features that are present in a dedicated exercise/run band (GPS, buttons for ease of use, always on display), but with the feature set given, I find it makes a fantastic exercise companion. It took a bit of an adjustment to get used to using it, and it will never be as good as a dedicated unit, but in other ways it exceeds the competition.
Activity: What core features are you talking about? Sleep tracking is the biggest omission I can see, but with nightly charging that's kinda moot (also, with wOS 2, there will be 3rd party apps for this). In every other avenue I think this crushes other fitness trackers. The 3 ring system is a terrific balance of activity. The only thing I can think of how it differs from others is you can't change the move goal categorty (ie. to distance, steps, stairs climbed). But it still tracks all those things. Honestly I think the "active calorie" goal is far more beneficial than the others (assuming it has a decent level of accuracy/precision). I don't even care about calories persay, but even if apple made up their own "fitness units" (similar to nike fuel points) that was a synthesis of steps, distance, flights, heart rate, etc that number seems much more meaningful to me than any one of those individually.
Spot on. Even today, there are plenty of people who aren't convinced of the usefulness of an iPhone or iPad. A friend of mine finally traded in her flip phone for an iPhone 6 after years of saying "I just don't need that; flip phones are the best"... Well now she loves it and is ready to buy an Apple Watch soon.
People should be skeptical - money doesn't grow on trees. Just as with the first iPad or iPhone, non-tech people around me are taking a wait and see approach. They are very interested, but not early adopters or tech pioneers. The jewelry aspect actually has some pull with these same people already picking out their favorite case/band/size combos in the Apple Store app on their phone, then telling me "oh I've already picked out the stainless 38mm with link band... It is so pretty". I don't see that happening with other smart watches. Maybe Apple is indeed onto something with the fashion angle, something true geeks have a hard time relating to.
So far my Watch is working exactly as Apple said it would. I also don't understand all the hate, and love the people who hate it but don't return within 14 days. Two weeks is plenty of time to figure out if you're not happy.
Not sure what else people expect it to do outside of what Apple advertised.
Not sure what else people expect it to do outside of what Apple advertised.
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What are you comparing the Apple Watch to? The Pebble?
Android Wear has thousands of available watchfaces, with complications of all sorts, including ones with compass direction and altitude.
Even non-programmers can make custom faces using one of the watchface player kits, and upload them to share with others.
I like Glances a lot. There are similar setups for Android, but I like Apple's version better. At least, when they don't delay so long that I just give up.
The problem is, I don't think there's a lot of full-on apps that make sense on a tiny wrist screen.
Hugely subjective.
I think that the best looking part of the Apple Watch is one or two of its bands. The watch shape itself is pretty boring, like an mini wrist chrome iPod with a 1990s rectangular smartwatch screen.
When my daughter and I are out shopping, people barely comment on her Apple Watch, and instead remark on the always-on bright round display of my stainless steel Android Wear watches, with either link or stitched leather bands.
And reams of articles have been written about how good looking the latest Huawei and other watches are.
Again, subjective. I think it's more complicated, with more dead end paths, than there should be.
Apple did throw in a lot of stuff, but they also left out some major capabilities, such as a compass, GPS, LTE.
The one thing that Apple Watch has that I wish Android Wear had, is a speaker. I miss being able to take a call when I'm too far from my phone.
For this reason alone, it's difficult to imagine Apple allowing Android Wear to work on the iPhone.
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It's a beta product. There's an argument that they should have waited a few years. But it seems like a test. They used older stuff in there apparently (chips).
So, we are guinea pigs. What else is new. Oink oink
So, we are guinea pigs. What else is new. Oink oink
I wonder though, some of the UI complaints relate to inconsistent or unintuitive contextual roles for inputs. Things like that are very un-Apple, very jarring to the experience and it doesn't really seem like they are on Apple's agenda for change.
Guinea pigs aren't actually pigs. They don't go "oink oink".
Exercise: My point in the post is that the AW does not attempt to compete in the exercise device space. The AW is a basic exercise device at best-- essentially a stopwatch with distance approximation. Athletes expect a tool with precise distance data that maps the workout with elevation, and let's them drill into splits and see HR data as a function of elevation and pace. The AW cannot even capture split data. And, an exercise device has to be more than IPX7. The first gen GPS watches were IPX7, and try did not fare well.
Activity: It is massively behind the state of the market for activity tracking. Every other device has manual activity entry, social interaction with sharing and challenges, caloric recording for holistic wellness, a web UI for better data analysis, integration with third party apps with bi-directional data sharing. These have all been table stakes for 5 years with every other fitness tracker. The three rings are cool, but they do not compensate for the gaps.
The iPad wasn't a new category. There were tablets but they couldn't get widespread acceptance. There is a long history of development and concepts that precedes even Microsoft's tablets from 2003.
I'm neither surprised nor bothered by the negativity. What matters to me is how well the watch works for me. So far, I'm pleased - at a meeting today I was able to respond to several texts and phone calls with text messages unobtrusively. In the past, I would have had to take my iPhone out of my pocket to do that. This method is much more subtle and less disruptive. But there definitely is room for improvement. I think that the next Watch OS release will be a big step forward.
The public wants to blame Apple for the sluggish sales of Watch, but in reality smart watches are not the next gen platform we thought they would be.