Jony Ive: Apple Watch and New iPhones Apple's 'Best Work Yet'

[Yanwoo]

I think you're underestimating a few things

• as technology gets more pervasive and persistent in our lives, small improvements in interaction can have a notable aggregate effect. A few seconds may not seem much but given frequency many of us use our smart phones over the course of day it can be significant - especially for those very quick checks when getting a notification and making an instant action/no action decisions. We've never 'needed' remote controls for our TVs but how many of us walk up to the TV to change channels?
  
• a watch doesn't have to be held - the arm takes care of that; meaning hands can be freed up instantly if needed. It's a subtle difference but we see these subtle differences regularly making a difference when testing in real world contexts (I'm a researcher in this area). Our hands are one of our primary ways of engaging in the world and there are times when we need them suddenly and unpredictably, with a watch there's no action needed before diverting the hands to the urgent need. There are some contexts where this is a more frequent occurrence (e.g. sports like rock climbing, some industrial jobs, child care etc.)
  
• accessibility of a smart phone varies in different contexts. For instance, when I'm sitting down with jeans on I can't take the phone out of my pocket without standing up. Many women carry their phones in bags which are less accessible in different context than pockets (e.g. walking on a busy street) - especially when phones are just thrown in the bag and rummaging is needed!
  
• there's a lot of potential around health as more sensors will get built in to smart watches. It's a mistake to evaluate the whole future of smart watches based on what we have so far - it's very early days. I suspect there's more sensors in this version than apple has announced so far and it's inevitable future versions will have more (incidentally, HRV can also be calculated by tracking heart rate and that's one way to crudely monitor stress levels). There's no chance my mom will buy one of these things BUT if we get to the point where these perform live health monitoring as she gets older I'd buy her one!
  
  

It's not that I think you're necessarily wrong - you've made some good points.

However, there's plenty of arguments grounded in research (researchers have been designing and evaluating smart watches for many years) that suggest they may be successful.

My view right now is that if we can nail the interaction paradigm on a such a small device then I think there'll be a place for smart watches for a decent chunk of us in the next 5 years or so (it's a given they'll get thinner, longer battery, varied designs, more sensors etc.)

Only time will tell!

I get the impression that Ive believed in his and Jobs' ideas and design in the beginning, but he's just sold himself out now... he'll say anything, no matter how far-fetched. I suppose it's a given; Apple needs to sell the world on a new phone each year, and each phone is supposed to be better than the last, otherwise... who would buy it?

In the tech business, they've been pining for a new product category that will shake up the market and generate revenues like the modern smartphone and tablets have. These product categories have made many companies incredibly rich, so it's no surprise that they want another golden egg.

Since no new product type has evolved of its own volition, the industry has been pushing wearables/watches lately as the next major product category, but it's obvious to most people that this category will not be the next smartphone or tablet. This category is being pushed on the consumer by manufacturers, not fueled by consumer desire.

Modern smartphones and tablets have been successful primarily because they fulfill needs and people enjoy using them. This is my opinion, but the watch does not fulfill any real needs, and is not a particularly enjoyable experience.

The smartphone can do everything the watch can, and plenty more. If I want to pay for something, check e-mail, weather, send a message, check my calendar etc., I can do this rather well on my phone. In fact, any activity that requires typing or reading will be a far better experience on the phone. The product demo was pretty ridiculous and far more gimmicky than any demo I can remember from Apple.

We enjoy large screen sizes, so we can feel more comfortable interacting with the device, so it makes little sense to put away the now larger device, only to interact with it through a small, limited device. Most, if not all of Apple's products fulfill needs, and are great at what they do (Mac, iPhone, iPad for example), and this seems to be their weakest offering in recent times.

I think on top of all that, the watch is priced wrong. At $350+ (I think it could be significantly higher with the metal bands and particular finishes) for a new product category that offers little real benefit, it's far too high. They want to market it as jewelry, but it is not jewelry. Jewelry does not depreciate, lack features or become obsolete. No one will be cross shopping Omegas, Tags and the Apple Watch. This is just another tech gadget, and once past the initial excitement phase, I think people will treat it as such.

I see how Apple wants to see it... a new product category with high margins, a new app store with a new revenue stream. Beyond the initial hype, I think it will sell in some quantity, but it definitely won't be another smartphone, where over 70% of the population (in many countries) will have one.

 

[s1m]

But why would you buy the $6500 Tag Heuer unless it was as a fashion piece? a $10 digital Casio is more accurate at telling the time with a longer lasting battery, hell you could go nuts and get a calculator watch or something if you wanted more function!

The Apple Watch, all design opinions aside, is a tech gadget.

So you're going to potentially replace a fashion jewellery piece with a tech gadget, which you could arguably have gotten in the first place with a cheap Casio and saved yourself $6490.

I'm not being facetious, I'm just genuinely intrigued as to people's choices for buying an Apple Watch when to me it seems it's not stylish or exclusive enough to be a jewellery piece, not rugged/practical enough to be a sports/health watch you'd wear while training and limited in functionality as a purely tech piece. It seems to fall between every sector - jack of all trades, master of none.

When I bought the Monaco there were no smart watches and it will always be a fashion piece. Things have changed and the WATCH fills a new "need"

 

[skinnylegs]

Yeah no.
Reliable non-invasive glucose sensor devices do not exist.

Dexcom makes a non-invasive device that continuously monitors glucose levels. It's commonly referred to as a "dex.". My friends son has Type 1 diabetes and he wears one. That said, I'm pretty sure it would be prohibitively expensive for a device such as the Watch.

 

[SHNXX]

Dexcom makes a non-invasive device that continuously monitors glucose levels. It's commonly referred to as a "dex.". My friends son has Type 1 diabetes and he wears one. That said, I'm pretty sure it would be prohibitively expensive for a device such as the Watch.

Thanks.
I guess they are not totally non invasive although minimally invasive.
glucovation is supposedly trying to make a consumer version.
These sound promising although they would require that the watch is digging into the skin, which would make the watch a rather uncomfortable device.

 

[cgmpowers]

Skinny Jony...

LOL, I was thinking the same thing. I kept thinking, I don't recall him being such a fatty. He reminds me of the fat Ricky Gervais...who's really lost some wait since his earlier days. Maybe Jony should talk to Ricky about his weight loss and get some tips...

What happened to Skinny Jony ??? Either he is buffing up for mr universe or has found the Apple Muffin stash.

Also I can see why he does not speak at the keynotes.....

 

[Oberhorst]

Best work yet? From a design point of view, the iPhone 6 is TERRIBLE!! Steve would’ve thrown in his veto. He wouldn’t have round bars along the corners allowed nor a protruding camera. Total failure.

 

[skinnylegs]

Best work yet? From a design point of view, the iPhone 6 is TERRIBLE!! Steve would’ve thrown in his veto. He wouldn’t have round bars along the corners allowed nor a protruding camera. Total failure.

.....and your qualifications as a designer are?

 

[MyDataMyProbs]

Exactly. Well let's see how this value does over the next few months to finally show whether the majority of comments here are noise or are accurate predictions.

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General comment - $349 is an additional $349 of revenue captured by apple through new demand they've created... The Apple Watch isn't like other smart watches or doesn't need to live up to the expectations of the other watches because there is nothing like it. Pricing rules shouldn't follow that of jewellery or craft watches because it isn't, jewellery has little functionality outside of its aesthetics.

The glitzy smartwatch category seems new and it seems premature to estimate what market forces will be like... And at very least, we've got the absolute lowest bound (an unlikely scenario) where the Apple Watch will serve merely as an accessory to the iPhone. This isn't a bad outcome either - it builds strongly on Apple's lifestyle/ digital hub ecosystem (cliched, yes). A relevant question is how Apple's efforts compare to competitors or whether there's any reasonable basis of comparison in the first place.

+1
exactly. also, people tend to forget that this watches "lame features" are stricly apple apps so far. imagine the iPhone with only "Apple Aps" and no app store. do people forget that this too will be available to debs?! all these amazing sensors at your wrist with Taptic Engine and these fools actually believe this is a piece of junk?

people loooove to hear themselves talk.

 

[collin418]

Funny, that's the first I've heard of that product (granted I'm not into the wearables); having said that, pretty much everyone following the news yesterday has now heard of the Apple Watch...

I bought one of those watches, but returned it.

It turns out that the pulse tracking is notoriously inaccurate. So, what good is your heart rate being tracked when it's consistently off 5-10%?. Also, using it to track heart rate when you're exercising is a total waste of time. The inaccuracy seems to be a problem with the method of measuring, so Apple may not have improved on it since they just copied the technology it looks like.

Sure a watch is cool, but I would just look at my phone, since all the health tracking data was just a waste of time. You either workout and already do it, or you don't and you know it. The iwatch promises to track how much time you spend standing up each day!...wonderful lol

 

[numlock]

.....and your qualifications as a designer are?

what is this?

when you sing the praises you are "qualified" but when you dont you obviously arent qualified on a public forum btw

 

[SonicSoundVW]

see the crap falling from this guys word hole? http://www.cnet.com/cnet-top-5/#ftag=CAD3bbb26b&bhid=26020767876941301056510083928175

 

[Sloppy.Joe]

Lets say there are:

2 different sizes
10 different Watch metals and colours (I believe there are 6)
100 different bands (probably <<100 bands)
1000 different watch faces (likely <100)

Total "unique" watches = 2,000,000 (more likely to be <200,000)

Even using very conservative numbers you only get to 2M.

"Millions and millions"?

Not going to happen.

It isn't 3 watches, there are 6 if you count colors. And there are much more than 6 bands, there are different color bands of the same type. Times the 20 or so different faces (aerial clock, globe clock, Mickey Mouse, etc). In that scenario, yes, millions is possible. There is a reason why they are CEO and Senior VP, and you are...well, whatever you are in life.

 

[Oberhorst]

.....and your qualifications as a designer are?

LOL seriously? What were Steve Job’s qualifications as a designer? Still under his supervision Apple made the most beautiful devices. That’s over now obviously, you just need to turn the iPhone 6 around and look at its back.

 

[Naimfan]

Best work yet? From a design point of view, the iPhone 6 is TERRIBLE!! Steve would’ve thrown in his veto. He wouldn’t have round bars along the corners allowed nor a protruding camera. Total failure.

Easy.

Don't buy one.