Opinion: Apple Watch 2

I’ll keep these opinions short as people buying an apple Watch 2 won’t read this and therefore, logically, those of you reading this won’t by one.

So Apple strike again with a masterpiece of design, inspired by the early-2016 TomTom Golfer (right).

Well at least Apple got the shape right for an out-and-out sports watch. Even though it’s also a >£369 fashion statement.

I’ve been hanging out in East London recently and have seen a few Watches on the trendily-clad hipsters who frequent the area. The Apple Watch 2 looks very well constructed BUT it doesn’t look that great. Fine but not inspirational.

As an aside, the aesthetes atone the wonders of the also-new Apple wireless headphone things, below

I’m sorry, they just look ridiculous.

Back to the point.

Yep. A pretty watch is a round watch even though, personally, I DO prefer a square sports watch like the Apple.

Not the greatest of screen displays are shown on the ones below but the round form is simply more appealing to MOST people.

Unless it has the Apple name on it. Then it is the Apple name/logo which is most appealing to the wearer, IMO.

That’s why the vast majority of watches are, and always have been, round.

Ok , let’s crank the digital round form up to the max. TAG, nice…

So now the Apple Watch 2 is waterproof and a bit bigger to house a bigger battery and it has GPS to, most likely, bring the battery back to where it was in the first iteration…or thereabouts…or worse. How long? 4/5/6 hours probably. Even two or three years ago companies like Microsoft were ABSOLUTELY SLATED for battery life along those lines. But not Apple. they escape the criticism for some reason.

I’ll be blunt. A 5 hour battery life for a sports watch in 2016/7 is cr*p.

You’ll have lost 10% of the charge by the time you cross the START LINE at the London Marathon.

As the kids still say…lol.

You’ll spend most of your time secretly charging it in the toilet at work or looking at a blank screen and telling your friends that the screensaver is SO CLEVER as it knows you REALLY don’t want to look at it right now.

The Apple Watch 3 can read your mind.

Anyway, as a fitness watch it’s probably going to be alright in reality, I’ve just had a bad day. Nice shape, very nice apps, including the good-looking Nike one, and now with on-board GPS for all the clever locational stuff that apps leverage.

The problem, I reckon, that Apple really have got is that their technology isn’t as far advanced ahead of competitors to justify the super-premium. In fact in the sports area it isn’t even as advanced as Garmin.

Their target growth areas in Asia are not meeting analyst expectations as consumers there see sufficient value in the competitor offerings from Huawei and Xiaomi. Samsung has the same problem as Apple in this respect. This problem is hitting smartphones NOW and I would argue will come to hit premium sports devices soon.

Also, all this tech just isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Look at Fitbit. Pleasant bits of hardware and a sound and focussed app behind it. They sell cart-loads of units.  Nice. Lots of people just don’t care about the super-depth of sporting features in many of the watches. I do (you probably do too)…most don’t

Worse. Many people are actually CONFUSED by the volume of irrelevant stuff on the sports watches and sports apps. I picked up a TomTom Spark 3 last week. It doesn’t need a manual. For your thrice-weekly 40 minute run it’s: put it on; run; and job done. then get on with your life. Simple.

I was at a Half Marathon 6 months ago. Half the people there in the half-decent running pens at the start were not wearing sports watches. HALF! Is that an opportunity for sports watch vendors or a realisation that market penetration ain’t gonna reach 100% anytime ever.

Before you ask. No, I’m not waiting for Apple to send me a free sample.

Grumpy rant over, I’ll leave you with this image and admit it photoshops up pretty darn well 🙂 Although I still reckon its beauty is really what is able to be displayed by an app on a great screen rather than the me-too form and aesthetics of the watch/strap ie the bit what apple did!!

Unfortunately, to enjoy the new and brighter screen you deplete the battery BIG-TIME.