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Macwick

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 9, 2008
284
236
I've talked to a lot of Apple Watch skeptics who scoff when they see my Space Grey Sport. The conversation usually goes something like this:

Me: What can your $400 watch do?

Skeptic: Tell the time. What can your $400 watch do?

Me:
Tell the time.
Track my activity/workouts.
Display new text messages/emails.
Warn me when it's about to rain (Dark Sky).
Control the music throughout my house.
Remind me of upcoming appointments.
Provide turn-by-turn directions.
Answer or place a phone call.
Quick access to one-time passwords (for 2FA).
And much more....

Skeptic: But you have to charge it every day!

That's it! That's the biggest knock against the Apple Watch.

I just don't get why the bar is set so high, given that the existing technology is so limited AND has a similar (or higher) price tag.
 
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silverblack

macrumors 68030
Nov 27, 2007
2,680
840
It is a tough sale because it is expensive. People can't shake off the fact that for the price of an Apple watch, they could have gotten an iPad, iPhone, or even a MacBook. These devices perform many more functions, and as a result, they can't justify in their minds to spend that much money on something that does a lot less.
 

Macwick

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 9, 2008
284
236
It is a tough sale because it is expensive. People can't shake off the fact that for the price of an Apple watch, they could have gotten an iPad, iPhone, or even a MacBook. These devices perform many more functions, and as a result, they can't justify in their minds to spend that much money on something that does a lot less.

But I think that's a flawed comparison. It's a watch, don't compare it with an iPad. Compare it to an average $400 watch that can do one thing - tell time.

For some reason we believe that it has to be a magical entertainment/communication/navigation/health tracking device to justify the price tag.
 

Totally

macrumors 6502a
Feb 22, 2012
744
261
West Coast = Best Coast
Me: What can your $400 watch do?

Skeptic: Tell the time. It can also tell the date actually. What can your $400 watch do?

Me:
Tell the time.
Track my activity/workouts.
Display new text messages/emails.
Warn me when it's about to rain (Dark Sky).
Control the music throughout my house.
Remind me of upcoming appointments.
Provide turn-by-turn directions.
Answer or place a phone call.
Quick access to one-time passwords (for 2FA).
And much more....

Since you asked for it, I'll play. When you read this, keep in mind that there is a decent chance I enjoy my Apple products more than you do... I've been an iPhone jailbreaker since 2007. I'm not bitter about Apple products.

You: What can Totally's $400 dumb watch do?

Me (Totally): Tell the time AND the date;). What can your (Macwick) $400 smart watch do?

You:
Tell the time.
Track my activity/workouts.
Display new text messages/emails.
Warn me when it's about to rain (Dark Sky).
Control the music throughout my house.
Remind me of upcoming appointments.
Provide turn-by-turn directions.
Answer or place a phone call.
Quick access to one-time passwords (for 2FA).
And much more....

Me (Totally): Yes, great. My iPhone can do everything you put on that list on a nice big screen. And my $400 watch gets compliments based on it's fashionable style and I'm sure yours doesn't because it looks like every other apple watch out there worn by every other person that wants their technology on their wrist. I don't need to know who texted me so badly that I have to have it on my wrist. I can check my phone 5 minutes after the fact. I'll stick with my $400 nice looking watch that will last me years. And you can have your $400 watch that will be obsolete in 9 months.

Point of my post? It's great that you like your Apple Watch. But. People have different styles. Stop trying to convince them that yours is the right one, it's not your place. You don't need to sell me on the Apple Watch. You can't. If I had to drop $1200 or any other amount of money on a watch today, would I buy a nice $1200 or any amount of money Apple Watch? Hell no. I'd buy the Versace I've been oogling online. That dumb watch will get me compliments for the next 10 years while it's alive and ticking and the smart Apple Watch will be dead in a Chinese tech recycling center.
 
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jasonklee

Suspended
Dec 7, 2007
623
746
Since you asked for it, I'll play. When you read this, keep in mind that there is a decent chance I enjoy my Apple products more than you do... I've been an iPhone jailbreaker since 2007. I'm not bitter about Apple products.

You: What can Totally's $400 dumb watch do?

Me (Totally): Tell the time AND the date;). What can your (Macwick) $400 smart watch do?

You:
Tell the time.
Track my activity/workouts.
Display new text messages/emails.
Warn me when it's about to rain (Dark Sky).
Control the music throughout my house.
Remind me of upcoming appointments.
Provide turn-by-turn directions.
Answer or place a phone call.
Quick access to one-time passwords (for 2FA).
And much more....

Me (Totally): Yes, great. My iPhone can do everything you put on that list on a nice big screen. And my $400 watch gets compliments based on it's fashionable style and I'm sure yours doesn't because it looks like every other apple watch out there worn by every other person that wants their technology on their wrist. I don't need to know who texted me so badly that I have to have it on my wrist. I can check my phone 5 minutes after the fact. I'll stick with my $400 nice looking watch that will last me years. And you can have your $400 watch that will be obsolete in 9 months.

Point of my post? It's great that you like your Apple Watch. But. People have different styles. Stop trying to convince them that yours is the right one, it's not your place. You don't need to sell me on the Apple Watch. You can't. If I had to drop $1200 or any other amount of money on a watch today, would I buy a nice $1200 or any amount of money Apple Watch? Hell no. I'd buy the Versace I've been oogling online. That dumb watch will get me compliments for the next 10 years while it's alive and ticking and the smart Apple Watch will be dead in a Chinese tech recycling center.

Exactly. I absolutely love bringing my Olivetti Lettera 32 typewriter to Starbucks and being the center of attention with all the noise I bang out with each strike. Notebook PCs make no sense. But even cheap notebooks can do everything an iPad can do and we all know how the iPad turned out.
 

Newtons Apple

Suspended
Mar 12, 2014
22,757
15,254
Jacksonville, Florida
But very different from any dumb watch.

I think the Apple Watch looks pretty nice. I am coming from a solid gold Rolex Yachtmaster which many here would think looks terrible. I like them both but giving to Rolex a little rest after 3 years.
 

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dotnet

macrumors 68000
Apr 10, 2015
1,661
1,387
Sydney, Australia
Its $400 for a watch that will be quickly outdated, and likely unusable within a few years.

Conventional watches are already outdated the day you buy them, and have been for decades. They simply go through the same fashion cycles as any other ornamental product – huge, tiny, over the top, understated, round, rectangular – there is nothing really original there, at least not in the Apple Watch price range (lest you bring up the HM6).

As for the Apple Watch dropping dead in a few years, time will have to be the judge on that one.
 
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oneMadRssn

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
6,083
14,193
This is my thinking:

I stare at dual monitors at work, next to my iPhone on a cradle, and next to the Cisco LAN phone that also has a 6" screen. I use my iPad on the couch at home. I watch movies and shows, and play video games on my TV. I have my iPhone in my pocket or within reach 95% of the time, including next to my bed. I also read books on my Kindle near bed or at the beach when on vacation. There are also screens in my car, in the elevators at work, and at the train station. I am pretty much surrounded by screens all the time everywhere I go.

Thus, the thought of adding ANOTHER screen to my life is not appealing. Indeed, the saturation of screens, I think, is a problem. I love technology, but I have begun to dread that blue-ish glow of screens.

I love the iPad and iPhone because those devices converged different technologies into one device: where before I had a camera, a camcorder, a gameboy, an iPod, and a calculator, each with it's own screen, I now have all those things in one screen.

The Apple Watch seems to be the antithesis of converging functions and simplifying things. It would add another screen to my life without obviating others. It is a spin-off of the iPhone, rather than a convergence into it.

Thus, for me, more than price, the issue is being convinced that the benefits of the Apple Watch outweigh the negatives of adding yet another screen into my everyday life. If there was an Apple Bracelet, for example, that had the sensors and the haptic notifications but no screen, I would be more more inclined to buy it.
 

JayLenochiniMac

macrumors G5
Nov 7, 2007
12,819
2,390
New Sanfrakota
The Apple Watch seems to be the antithesis of converging functions and simplifying things. It would add another screen to my life without obviating others. It is a spin-off of the iPhone, rather than a convergence into it.

I beg to differ. Many texts/email simply need to be read or merely acknowledged with an okay. Previewing them on the Watch allows you determine the urgency of a message and whether or not to take your iPhone out of your pocket (rather than take it out ever single time just to read but not respond to it). This is most certainly simplifying things. Just as the iPad is far better at some key tasks than the iPhone, the Watch is far better at some key tasks than the iPhone.
 

3rdiguy

macrumors 65816
Sep 17, 2012
1,365
624
What's keeping me from buying it is the software. If it was there then I could more easily justify the price, for the Sport model. By the time the software is good I may just wait for the second version. I wouldn't but it right now tho
 
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doug in albq

Suspended
Oct 12, 2007
1,449
246
Honestly, for me it is because I do not want a powerful electronic device with multiple wireless radios strapped directly to my skin...I know, I am weird like that.
 
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papbot

macrumors 68020
May 19, 2015
2,297
1,076
I've talked to a lot of Apple Watch skeptics who scoff when they see my Space Grey Sport. The conversation usually goes something like this:

Me: What can your $400 watch do?

Skeptic: But you have to charge it every day!

That's it! That's the biggest knock against the Apple Watch.

I just don't get why the bar is set so high, given that the existing technology is so limited AND has a similar (or higher) price tag.
It's not a hard sell for anyone who has actually checked them out. I'm running into more and more people every day who have just gotten one or are planning to. A few are getting them after checking mine out. And as the article I linked to in a post below the satisfaction rate for the watch is higher than the phones and iPads.

As for charging the watch every day or every two days with light usage, I can point to $50,000+ watches that have to be hand wound every day ( oh the horrors!). If it was such a hard sell why did Pebble appear, why did Motorola come out with one? Smart phones were a hard sell, supposedly, before the iPhone. Now you'd struggle to find someone who doesn't have one. These wrist devices will find their place soon enough. The Apple Watch may not be the one for everybody but one day it will be difficult to find those with a smart phone that don't have a wrist device.

As for me I couldn't do without mine ( I could but I damn well don't want to)!
 

papbot

macrumors 68020
May 19, 2015
2,297
1,076
I beg to differ. Many texts/email simply need to be read or merely acknowledged with an okay. Previewing them on the Watch allows you determine the urgency of a message and whether or not to take your iPhone out of your pocket (rather than take it out ever single time just to read but not respond to it). This is most certainly simplifying things. Just as the iPad is far better at some key tasks than the iPhone, the Watch is far better at some key tasks than the iPhone.
I think you've stated the exact purpose of the watch. And everyone I've spoken to that has gotten one says exactly what you've said. My wife uses hers at work all day long She's a case manager in a hospital and has to send and receive messages and quick updates to the other medical staff. The hospital is now dropping Blackberrys and going to iPhones for their managerial staff and her watch makes it extremely easy to communicate without pulling her phone out every time. Since the wifi system is throughout the building many times she doesn't even carry her phone.
 
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Mac2me

macrumors 6502a
Jun 10, 2015
965
446
I do message back and forth with my husband so it's convenient for that but I wouldn't say it's the exact purpose of the watch. I use mine primarily for so many other reasons. By giving it so much breath in purposes, it does have a wide appeal. Some people will say they are holding off for 3rd party apps. And maybe that's what they see theirs for, but honestly I don't have any 3rd party apps on my watch and so don't know or miss them at all.

For my life, I'm very satisfied with the AW in general and haven't found the battery to be a big concern at all. Never been on Reserve either. As for the horrors of charging each night, OMG don't people brush their teeth at night and change underwear each day, I mean really. The battery issue is nothing but an AW hater's attempt to throw issues out there. Those heavy users may have a legit concern and need more battery life depending on what they do but as I think we can tell from people's experience here for the vast, vast majority of users battery use and recharging at night is not a problem.
 
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