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The idea that cell connectivity on a watch is a good idea is just insane, for this reason: You're going to carry your phone with you anyway. Even if the phone
by aetherson 10y ago
The idea that cell connectivity on a watch is a good idea is just insane, for this reason:
You're going to carry your phone with you anyway.
Even if the phone did have a cell antenna and did have a battery good enough for it, and even if it had human-level natural language processing, you'll want a phone-sized screen for, you know, all the stuff that you use your phone for today, for examples including but certainly not limited to: reading anything longer than an SMS. Looking at a web page. Looking at a map. Playing games. Taking a photo. Showing pictures/video to other people.
The idea that we'll give up on having screens big enough to actually look at things is just crazy. We love our phone screens. The one thing that people demonstrably want their phone screens to be is bigger.
If you're going to be carrying a phone-sized screen with you 95%+ of the time anyway, why on earth would you make the expensive, difficult decision to jam a cell antenna into your watch. Much less all the valid points that people make about voice interfaces and battery and so forth.
- draw_down 10y agoNot if you're exercising, which is a big use case for the Apple Watch and other wearables.
- nradov 10y agoWhat kind of exercise? A modern smartphone is pretty light and easy to carry in all but the most extreme forms of activity. One of my friends takes her iPhone surfing.
- superuser2 10y agoRunning? I wear loose-fitting athletic shorts; a phone swinging around in my pocket is really annoying. I'd have to get an armband.
- nradov 10y agoArm bands are cheap, much less than a smart watch.
- new299 10y agoDevil's advocate: The idea that a personal computer is a good idea is just insane, for this reason: You're going to be connected to a mainframe anyway. Even if your personal computer did have enough storage and power you're still going to want connect to the mainframe to access reports and data. So if you're going to have a connection to a mainframe anyway, why bother with all that local computing power? --- I'm not saying it's a good idea in the current ecosystem but there are advantages to the watch having it's own network connectivity, and in fact I believe the current watch does connect directly to your wifi access point using credentials shared by the phone when possible. The main issue with watch cellular access at the moment, is cost of paying for a phone contract for a watch, when at least at the moment, you will probably want a phone too.
- johncolanduoni 10y agoExcept it was never the case in any country that ~70% of people had access to a mainframe at work, let alone home. If a much smaller percentage of people had smartphones and putting cellular on a watch was cheaper/more convenient enough to get the rest of the population on board, then your comparison would make some sense.
- hirzel 10y agoI like the mainframe PC analogy but I think in this case we are running up against ergonomics. People's hands are not shrinking and our eyes aren't getting any better. More interface may get offloaded to audio/voice, but we are such visual creatures. Until we are beaming data directly into our eyes, I don't think we will abandon the palm-sized display-- maybe foldable one like paper, or a tattoo, or my shirt sleave, but something.
- Sophistifunk 10y agoI believe that misses the point entirely. Forgetting the fact that I never even saw a mainframe until the late 90s, back in the PC day you were still using the same keyboard + monitor for both.
- BuuQu9hu 10y agoYou really should have s/mainframe/cloud/
- babesh 10y agoI think the idea is to combine glasses projecting an image to your eyes with body sensors for gesturing (watch?) and you won't need a screen anymore.
- BillinghamJ 10y agoBody sensors have the same problem as talking to your phone I think.
- hyperpallium 10y agoYet google glass wasn't popular, partly because of camera-privacy, partly because it couldn't block light, only add it (though Magic Leap has apparently solved this latter problem.) Tim Cook also pooh-poohed headsup displays as a barrier between people, instead of connecting them. But, since earplugs and people checking their phones already disconnect people, this seems like diversionary bs to me. Apple is surely working on this, as they work on many things. Small displays are the problem, bigger phones are popular despite their awkwardness. Headsup displays solve both: large display, out of the way. Not sure about input; gesturing to yourself is going to look even crazier than talking to yourself.
- kderbe 10y agoTim Cook also poo-pooed headsup displays That sounds painful. (The word you are looking for is pooh-poohed.)
- hyperpallium 10y agothanks, it didn't seem quite right
- cgvgffyv 10y agoHow is that a word? Are we pre-schoolers now? Good lord.
- kwhitefoot 10y ago> Not sure about input; gesturing to yourself is going to look even crazier than talking to yourself. In the early seventies I used to carry my Philips portable cassette player and headphones everywhere, people thought I was crazy until Akio Morita had the same idea and got Sony to create the Walkman. Now people wear headphones in the street and hardly anyone thinks about it at all. My point is that what you think is crazy now might well be normal in ten years time, or perhaps even tomorrow.
- germinalphrase 10y agoUntil multi-sensory AR becomes a functional reality. A set of glasses and a watch would fit smoothly into many/most peoples' lives. Add a set of indiscreet wireless earphones (and gloves?) and you're set. It's handwavy Sci-Fi right now, but...
- azernik 10y agoPeople don't always carry their phones with them (if they're in athletic or formal wear that doesn't have convenient pockets). In those cases, they'll settle for whatever reduced internet-connected experience they can get, even if the ergonomics don't really make the full phone experience available. Just like how yes, if you have your laptop on you, you'd almost always prefer to use that over your phone, but your phone can be with you in many more scenarios.
- tlow 10y agoI think this is a very good point, thank you. I didn't intend to comment this but now I am reminded of the initial iPad release in which I believe a criticism was raised that there "was no use case for this device".
- aetherson 10y agoSure, but those times (athletic and formal wear) are less than 10% of your life for 90% of all people. Probably less than 5% of your life for 50%+ of all people. A product that sacrifices general utility in pursuit of a 5%-10% use case is a niche product. Nothing wrong with that, but Apple isn't looking to add a new niche product. Now, obviously, if you could throw cell connectivity onto a watch for very little cost and very few compromises to the rest of the watch, then sure, you would. But in the real world, cellular connectivity for a watch would be an enormous additional cost both monetarily and to anything else you wanted the watch to do. It doesn't make sense for a product that's trying for mass appeal.
- freddyc 10y ago> You're going to carry your phone with you anyway The ability to not carry my phone is the only reason I'd be tempted to try a wearable device again (I had a gen 1 Apple Watch and sold it within a month). I'm not really interested in using it as an "always on" watch, but if I go for a run or take the kids to the park I'd love to be able to leave my phone at home and rely solely on my watch to stay connected. I wouldn't be using it for browsing or meaningful work, but to be able to receive calls, text messages and scan emails without carrying my phone would be great (cracked screens make the playground an expensive activity!).
- whytaka 10y agoI for one am strongly in the smartphone-fatigue niche, and I think my camp will get bigger over time. I eagerly await an Apple Watch with cellular connectivity so I can be aware and undistracted.
- snyp 10y agoThink about the watch for connectivity the AirPods for sound transmission and a wearable pair of glasses for the screen