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Steve Jobs Introduces the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch

583 points by strict9 12y ago

bhouston 12y ago
Not bad at channeling Jobs. Congrats. He could do it better than Cook for sure.
- jiggity 12y ago
  Thanks for your kind words. It took me a long while before hitting that submit button. It's that moment when you're unsure if what you've written is any good.
  - rrrene 12y ago
    You did a great job of taking the "feeling overwhelmed by possible choices" out and putting a lot of "Steve Jobs" in. Good work!
  - tolmasky 12y ago
    I found myself actually wanting the watch reading this, which caught me off guard. Really well done.
    - jeznav 12y ago
      I think I now know why. There was a TED talk by Simon Sinek regarding how Apple sells its products to its customers by making you believe why you should need one than without one. http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action#t-135666 http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspi... The keynote didn't really sell me the watch. To me it was more like a 'me too' smartwatch but with several customizable options to set it apart from the competition. They should've stick with one model and iterate later like they always did. But I agree, if the presentation was worded like this, I probably would've bought one in a whim and wouldn't think the heartbeat thing as gimmicky.
  - strict9 12y ago
    I think you know what you wrote was done well. While I don't think so much should be viewed under the 'what would Jobs do' prism, I agreed with your points on product development, choice, and presentation. Brilliantly written.
  - ryan-allen 12y ago
    I think it was spot on. It made me yearn for Steve and his keynotes. It's sad that he's gone and we'll never see the likes of him again I fear.
  - gone35 12y ago
    What you did there is... quite something, and not trivial at all. Make sure you don't overlook whichever part of the brain or thinking framework/state that allowed you to pull that off.
  - serf 12y ago
    I'll be downvoted for this, but I'd like the chance to express myself to the author. I felt what you wrote was in poor taste. I think that it's in poor taste to speak for the dead when one was close friends with them, and I think that it's worse still to speak for a celebrity whom you had no personal acquaintance with. I feel like you did nothing more than mask your own personal complaints about Apple inside dialog written as if spoken by Jobs' , but with little forethought about Jobs' past history of actions, or the hierarchy of team effort that goes on at Apple, or even the way Jobs presented himself. The disparaging comments about 'his' previous lineup that 'he' (you) made proved that furthermore. I say all this with a personal hatred for Apple and the Steve Jobs method of getting stuff done, so I'd hate for anyone to think that i'm simply upset that it is sullying His name. I don't care about that; I just don't think that it's realistic in the least.
ZenoArrow 12y ago
It's a good attempt at a Jobs-esque keynote, enjoyed that aspect, but on the product side the only criticisms can be boiled down to... 1. There's too much choice (option of a larger phone screen from the 6+, and a variety of watch options). 2. Because of this choice, you have to do more thinking for yourself. I feel like it's sad that thinking for ourselves is seen as problematic. That diversity isn't something to be embraced. Though it just shows how much some value the status symbol aspect.
- tolmasky 12y ago
  Its not about not thinking for yourself, its about avoiding unnecessary choice. Our lives our filled with enough real decisions without the need for inane and subtle product ones. Most people do not need to be worrying about the voltage of their electric toothbrush. Its not because they're brainwashed and hate diversity. With the iPhone I'm now forced to regret the decision either way. The iPhone 6+ is too big for my hands, but the smaller one doesn't support the special landscape mode stuff and has a worse camera. They haven't even provided a clear upgrade differentiation, I'm forced to consider tradeoffs, in a product that I used to not think about at all. Similarly, I am incredibly skeptical that we really needed 2 different watch sizes (given that reviewers say both feel fine). I'm sure you'd agree we don't need 55 sizes in between the current two sizes, so its clear that its possible to have too much choice. Add to this three variations (hopefully there won't be different capacities like with iPhones too) and its just a fact that you created a necessity for me to try them on first before just buying them online.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - modfodder 12y ago
    I think 2 different watch sizes are absolutely necessary. There is no way that one watch size will fit across the varied wrists of both men and women. Both may feel fine for a average sized wrist, but start moving up or down from that wrist and one size quickly becomes a problem. Look at the Moto360. It's so large that it only looks decent on the largest of wrists.
trhaynes 12y ago
I really enjoyed this, especially the bit about the heartbeat feature.
- wwarren 12y ago
  Yeah, this was a way better way to introduce it than how they did it in the video presentation
- asadlionpk 12y ago
  yes if that feature was introduced this way, I would have been like "Ok now I want my entire family to have iWatch"
dmishe 12y ago
I do think that Schiller would make for a much better presentation. Cook is ok, but that good.
richard_cubano 12y ago
The single version of the watch is spot on. As is the implicit point that maybe they could have hit this year's holiday season if they hadn't tried to make so many different versions. The best part of what you wrote is the end, where Steve ties the watch to the human experience. I hadn't thought about his keynotes from that lens before -- you showed me something new.
- encoderer 12y ago
  I've heard other criticism about missing the holiday season. I suppose I feel like.. they're building a 20 year platform here. What's one holiday season? Besides, with this timing, they can sell early adopters this "Ipad 1" of a watch and possibly release the Watch 2 in time for Christmas 2015.
  - wvenable 12y ago
    Apple frequently "misses" the holiday season. Each version of the iPod Mini was launched in January of all times. The full sized iPod in summer. The iPad is in a March cycle.
- threeseed 12y ago
  The idea that a different screen size or a bunch of watch bands would cause a delay of 3 months is pretty ridiculous. The far more likely scenario is that either (a) there are serious hardware showstoppers, (b) yield issues with certain components or (c) the battery life is still unacceptable. Also the single version of a watch is a really dumb premise. A watch is a fashion accessory so you need to support people's varying tastes.
- glifchits 12y ago
  I feel like a fool sometimes where I have my iPhone out and everyone else around me does too. At least theirs are sometimes white. Now – your wrist is almost always visible. Once everyone gets an Apple Watch, if there were just one single minimalist design, it would start to feel less like a watch and more like a dog tag.
- dogecoinbase 12y ago
Bud 12y ago
The writer says a lot of things that are just silly. For instance: It's hard enough to craft desire for a single identity. When asked to think of an Apple Watch, people don't know what to picture. Can you imagine if the original iPhone in 2007 came with sixty customizable skins? Well, um, it did come with hundreds of customizable skins. They were called iPhone cases. They were, and still are, endemic. Instead of a single, perfect product, we got a jumble of features and choices. Actually, there is no functional difference between the various Apple Watch lines. It is a single product. It simply allows the user to customize the appearance of the product. This is necessitated by the fact that this device, unlike all Apple devices to date, is worn on your body.
- karmelapple 12y ago
  The important point is Apple did not sell those cases when the iPhone was first released. It didn't talk about the idea of customizing it. People will figure out how to own their phone and make it personal. I think the author of this piece did a great job channeling a likely, and better, introduction.
  - encoderer 12y ago
    Right, and what would be the analogy here? I suppose they could've let you replace straps without actually offering other straps? But that sounds like you're not offering more out of some silly superstition? Apple as a company has more resources today and I think that's certainly part of it. They barely launched a single phone on time in 2007, let alone multiple models. Steve Jobs said that "nobody would buy a bigger phone?" He didn't see people using phones the way they do today. In 2007 "bigger phone" meant "I can't make this smaller because small is hard" and by being small -- but inline with the phones people were using at the time -- it was even more impressive. Hell they STILL get us with that one, every single year. Thinner! Lighter! Yes!
  - ribs 12y ago
    Yeah that's true but it's still silly. Phones sit in your pocket, they mostly look the same, it's not that big a deal. Watches on the other hand have been fashion items for over a hundred years. There are countless variations. It would be arrogant - even for Jobs - to claim that a single design would satisfy everyone, would be perfect.
electronous 12y ago
That the iPhone is shown with Guardians of the Galaxy on the screen in his hypothetical is all wrong -- you can't get it in iTunes today. Apple would should a movie you can buy right now.
engtech 12y ago
That was a great article. I love the idea of the heartbeat feature. Is that a real feature of the iwatch?
- Watabou 12y ago
  You can share your heartbeat with others with the apple watch, yes.
aaronbrethorst 12y ago
Steve also claimed that Apple would never do a video iPod until the day it launched. You should read the entire article. Steve said a lot of stuff that he later (not so much recanted as entirely) ignored. http://www.wired.com/2010/02/steve-jobs/ http://www.wired.com/2010/02/steve-jobs/ When Mossberg in 2003 asked Jobs whether he planned to put video in an iPod, the CEO said he was turned off by the idea. “I’m not convinced people want to watch movies on a tiny little screen,” Jobs said. “To paraphrase Bill Clinton, ‘It’s the music, stupid, it’s the music!’ Music’s been around for a long time, will continue to be, it’s huge.”
- judk 12y ago
  He was right. People wanted video, but no one used it. Not till touchscreen smartphone screens made video work.
- Htsthbjig 12y ago
  He was totally right: "I'm not convinced people want to watch movies on a TINY SCREEN" Later they created a device with a much bigger screen(at least six times bigger) and called it IPOD, but it had not a tiny screen. The same could be said about small computers. When I got my first laptop I considered at least 17'' necessary, which was very bulky, I told everybody that. Then I got lots of complaints from people when I got a 13'' macbook air:"You said you will never use anything smaller than 17 inches". But I didn't say that. I said that given the resolution they had at the time, I needed 17 inches, but obviously I wanted the same screen in a smaller size at a reasonable price. The 13 inches macbook has more pixels on it than my old laptop.
GuiA 12y ago
Hacker News: your premier source for Steve Jobs fan fiction. (laughs) Does the author really think that Steve Jobs would have ever said "When I open up a website on Safari, I don't have to strain my eyes anymore"? They're still selling 5S and 5C! Not even Asus would disparage their previous products like that. The rest of the piece is just as bad and devoid of substance. (Steve rolls in his grave)
- encoderer 12y ago
  Right. A product is, well, a product of its time. I doubt Apple spent much time worrying how can we go bigger after saying we had the perfect size. Seems a bigger problem is how can we go bigger without people thinking that's the only difference? A 5.7" iPhone would be as out of place in 2006 (not enough power to push those pixels, low power screen tech was non-existent) as a 3.5" phone is today. No mental backflips required.
  - MPSimmons 12y ago
    The web has changed. Agreed.
  - paulojreis 12y ago
    > A 5.7" iPhone would be as out of place in 2006 (not enough power to push those pixels, low power screen tech was non-existent) as a 3.5" phone is today. Why would a 3.5'' phone be out of place, today? I see people everywhere assuming this is right, that increasing the screen size was truly needed (and demanded), but I'm yet to see the evidence. I mean, I'm sure that there's evidence that people wanted bigger screens (if Apple did it...), but I can't seem to find it, except for interweb-people who blog about... stuff. :) Real people - do they want bigger screens? For them, is the 3.5'' phone really out of place? Anyway: I guess I can be considered a interweb-person, tech savvy, heavy user*, and all that jazz. Still, I'm proudly driving my 4s. Even the 5/5s/5c is too big for me; I can't comfortably reach the top corners of the screens. I do believe that habits may have changed, but our anthropometry certainly didn't - the average human thumb is still the same length.
    - 12y ago
broabprobe 12y ago
Agree totally except for the bands. Customizable bands were a necessity for something you wear. It's a whole new experience to wear it and I would not buy it if it were just the band you selected as best. Otherwise this is spot on...
fndrplayer13 12y ago
This article is _fantastic_. Nailed Steve Jobs, as I remember him anyhow. The presentation that Apple gave sounded a lot like something you would hear from Google, not Apple, in my opinion. Too many options, too many stats. Not concise. Not moving.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- honestlyCurious 12y ago
  My thoughts exactly. The keynote given by Cook felt dull and overdone. He tried hard but he had big shoes to fill.
joeguilmette 12y ago
This article was horrible, in poor taste, and raises a litany of ridiculous points. That said, while I'm happy to see the iProduct naming convention die, I agree that including the logo in the product name is a bit much. There is the old story that the command key used to be an apple logo, but Steve had it removed as to not dilute the brand.
- GuiA 12y ago
  The Apple TV also has the logo in the name, although I guess it's a slightly lower visibility product.
  - joeguilmette 12y ago
    Excellent point!
kenjackson 12y ago
Jiggity, kill the intro to the blog post. All that insecurity stuff is BS. Jobs was as insecure as they come. But your Jobs transcript is spot on! Just have that as the blog entry. Keep it simple.
- spencera 12y ago
  I agree, let the script speak for itself. It's great!
mp99e99 12y ago
Amazing job nice work
mp99e99 12y ago
Amazing job nice work
jamestimmins 12y ago
Worth noting that "iWatch" doesn't work because it sounds like the sentence "I watch". There's a lot of ways to take that in creepy/joking directions, which would be an unnecessary distraction from the product.
- eurleif 12y ago
  Do you remember all the feminine hygiene product jokes when the iPad was released?
  - jamestimmins 12y ago
    Very true. Hadn't thought of that. There were a lot early on, but you never hear about that anymore.
- steadicat 12y ago
  Based on your logic, even iPhone ("I phone") is out the window. Besides, Apple has never shied away from punny names. Think iSight and Airport.
  - Gracana 12y ago
    But an "I phone" does phone. An "I watch" doesn't watch.
    - critiq 12y ago
      missing camera? :)
dmilanp 12y ago
Home Run
fizixer 12y ago
I'm not sure if the article was good or bad. But boy did it make me miss Steve Jobs. (and I don't even use Apple products).
owenwil 12y ago
This was killed already once today and is back again? Steve was very explicit to Tim Cook and others in the Apple executive team that they should never ask "what would Steve do." Seems to be written by someone with little understanding of Apple today.
- ntsb 12y ago
  > they should never ask "what would Steve do." Depends which Steve you are referring too, there still is, and always has been a very brilliant Steve at Apple.
- ryanSrich 12y ago
  Looks like the author is a YC alum. It's destined to reach the front page.
  - MCRed 12y ago
    When Steve Jobs introduced the iPod, I believe the author was probably 10 years old.
  - Radiant 12y ago
    His website design is a shameless rip-off of Paul Graham's website. It's incredibly lame.
- seunosewa 12y ago
  He didn't necessarily say that in Apple's best interests. Maybe he wanted to be missed more than he wanted Apple to succeed after his death? He did feel "hurt" when Tim Cook said Apple would remain the same regardless of who was leading it, after all.
jesstucker 12y ago
Commentary on Apple decorum at its finest.
mrjasonh 12y ago
totally disagree on the watch. I would never consider a watch with that metallic band, and there a few bands I really like that apple released. I think apple nailed it by recognizing the personal aesthetic and fashion statement that wearing a device on your body entails
binarycrusader 12y ago
I think the article was interesting, but it was surprisingly uncomfortable to see the various photos where Steve was suffering from the effects of his illness (I guess for me, it's more personal having seen other family members go through the same and pass away...).
arihant 12y ago
Maybe Jobs wanted to launch "The Sixty" and did not have a product deemed personalizable enough to do so in his time? Where they could, they have iMac, Macbooks, Mac minis. So with OSX, they do have multiple options cause it fits. Each model is customizable into gazillion ways based on HDD, RAM, GPU and what have you. How many variations of Macbooks can you count which can be ordered directly from Apple store website? I bet you it is more than the Apple Watch. What the author misses is - Apple thinks. It did with Jobs, and it is doing so without him. Apple did "The One" when they thought it suited. They did "The Sixty" when they thought it suited. Copying Apple is a job of other companies, not of Apple.
dodyg 12y ago
A watch is a fashion accessory. If you make it only in one 'perfect size/look/color', it becomes a gadget, which is the furthest thing Apple wants it to be.
chatman 12y ago
> (Audience is in tears as they stand up and give a standing ovation) Hilariously, genius!
niix 12y ago
:(
PerfectElement 12y ago
>> What we want from Apple isn't new technology. We want human warmth—a possibility of living a more fulfilled, meaningful life. So your life's meaning and fulfillment depends on Apple? That's really sad.
gcp123 12y ago
Don't tear apart the details of what the author wrote. Just squint your eyes, and you know he's dead right. This is exactly the kind of storytelling that was missing from Tuesday's keynote. Steve always started with WHY before he got to the WHAT or the HOW. Tim Cook was shaking his fists in triumph after doing nothing but showing some over-produced video that showed some cool camera angles on the watch. Not a word about why it should exist, or what it changes about your life. WE DID IT! WE MADE A WATCH! WOOO! My jaw dropped. Very tacky. Too self-congratulatory.
- MCRed 12y ago
  Frankly, I'm glad Cook is not trying to imitate Jobs. Imagine if Cook had gone on stage and followed the script jiggly wrote. It would have come off completely insincere. Sincerety is why Jobs was great, and it's why Cook is great. He doesn't BS us, as Jiggity seems to want. But the thing is, no matter what Apple does people will complain. There's always another way that they could say would have been better. If Apple had released only one watch model, in black, then people would complain about how they would never wear a black watch. No, this is exactly the kind of spin we've seen from people after every Apple keynote, going back to the late 1990s. Steve Jobs was not immune. It's just now that he's dead, they have a new "it's cause Jobs is dead!" rationalization. This is just a warm over of the standard issue "iPod is lame", "iPhone needs a 'real' keyboard", "iPad is just a big iPod touch", "the iMac needs a floppy drive!" type complaint after every product introduction.
  - GCPCo 12y ago
    Again, you are missing the point. Steve identified the insight (the WHY) behind a product before he introduced the details and design. Cook & team skip all the important foreplay. It makes the products feel less Apple-y, less inspired, and simply, more like everyone else's. I love Apple and will keep buying their phones, the watch, and Macs. But for some of us, the company is also part of the products.
    - GCPCo 12y ago
      Try pitching your startup to investors in the style of Tim Cook, see how far that gets you. Then you'll get it.
BigBadBionicBoy 12y ago
I don't care how good Steve Jobs pitch is. I'm not buying Apple Health from him.
mproud 12y ago
What’s next? Don Draper doing a marketing pitch to Apple as if he was selling the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch?
tcc2161 12y ago
A week doesn't go by without me seeing Steve Job's name in some click-bait headline and inasmuch as the author has identified current problems with Apple we can add the cult of Jobs to that list. Yes, of course, Jobs had amazing charisma, and bringing Apple back from the brink of bankruptcy with well designed products by Johnny Ive deserves its legend. But as the novelty of these products wear off (as they should) Apple still strives to distinguish itself (and continue to charge its premiums) by designing superior hardware. The hardware market is somewhat saturated, but since the tech is always improving, planned obsolescence means we get to take advantage of superior tech and better products every few years. The real growth market is the cloud and internet-of-things, and I think the author got it right by imagining Jobs describing the watch as a product for the "personal universe". Tethering to an iPhone is the first step to tethering to the Cloud. Apple is still trying to figure out the cloud, and they keep stumbling, and the celebrity leak (of which nothing was said to a room full of celebrities), and the live stream screw up are the latest examples. Also, egregiously, their indifference to producing a responsive website. They're still a hardware company, and the hardware, combined with their tightly controlled OS X / Unix based software, provide a solid platform for the design of superior software, by others. The first iPhone was severely limited and it didn't become the democratized smartphone until after the App Store and the 3G, that is to say, after they crowdsourced software development. The watch seems like the iPhone 2G and the Nano watch hack as revised by Ive. I don't want this version, but I'll probably want the one after the next, when its twice as thin, and Ive makes another pompous video extolling its bullshit (I can't have been the only one rolling my eyes at the "horological experts" and the "conferring on how different cultures care about time" ... the clock was perfected years ago). The thing about Apple is that they keep making the Modernist Future come true - handheld communicators, tablets, and now walkie-talkie watches. Tim Cook is proud of the fact that they pulled off the Dick Tracy finally, and who cares whatever Samsung did a year ago. What they really need to pull off next are the holograms. It just seems to me as well that to everything there is a season, and Apple has had a glorious turn of the century. It integrated itself with youth culture, but do you think the kids of the 2030s will still crowd Apple retail stores, presuming they still exist? Or will they see the brand as that of their parents, and thus lame. My greater point though is that Jobs is dead and let him rest in peace, and let Apple grow beyond Jobs, and don't worry if one day in about twenty years you hear some kid say Apple is lame. Apple did that to Sony, and presumably some startup out there now, or about to be created, might do that to Apple.
ck2 12y ago
Apple cult has gone a little too far when they start reanimating the dead.
geuis 12y ago
This, this, this. This is what is missing from Apple now.
rootlocus 12y ago
"Messy. Too many options. This is such a huge blunder." "It's hard enough to craft desire for a single identity." "Can you imagine if the original iPhone in 2007 came with sixty customizable skins?" Seriously? Is changing the wallpaper such a "huge blunder" for Apple users?
vor_ 12y ago
The previous time this was submitted, it was deleted, so I guess I'll post this again: Over the years, I saw many presentations from Steve that I thought were bland or off in some way. Pointing out Steve's statement that nobody would want a big phone, implying that a big iPhone isn't something Steve would have allowed to happen, ignores Steve's famous habit of dismissing something and then doing it anyway. I remember when he said nobody wanted to watch movies on an iPod, and then new iPods came out with the ability to play movies. I often see complaints that "Jobsian Apple" would never release multiple versions of something, even though there was the iPod, iPod mini in several colors, and the iPod photo; later there was the iPod nano, iPod classic, and iPod touch. A watch is a fashion device, and it would be strange not to have style options. Steve got too much credit. Apple was led by a team, and many of those people are still there. Some of Apple's most successful decisions were choices Steve opposed or had to be convinced of.
fredsted 12y ago
I just find this article a little creepy and off-base. He's yearning for Tim to be a fake imitation of Jobs. The author has some vision of a perfect Jobs. Guess what, Steve wasn't perfect. It's easy to say, "Steve would have done it this way". Tim is not a presenter, he's the CEO. And he's just really proud of his team. It shows. So he leaves most of the presentation to other VPs. Steve is no longer with us. Tim Cook is not Steve Jobs, and shouldn't be. He doesn't need to be. In any case, the products speak for themselves. Apple Watch definitely needs styles. It's partly a fashion item!
kathrinalewis 12y ago
Apple, finally catching on with androids ugly watch market.
Rapzid 12y ago
I completely disagree with his assessment of there being "too many" watch choices. For a fashion accessory I think it's absolutely critical that they give people room to express themselves. IMHO the "style" angle Apple has taken is what's going to move product.
- ultimatedelman 12y ago
  IMHO the "Apple logo" is what's going to move product.
LeicaLatte 12y ago
Some folks do have a lot of time in their hands.
petercooper 12y ago
Half a billion original thoughts safely stored on iCloud. I'm pretty sure Jobs wouldn't make a specific reference to iCloud's security so close to the celeb hacking scandal, whether or not it was Apple's fault.
laacz 12y ago
While other commenters are trying to find smal imperfections or errors, I read both parts with great satisfaction. SJ fiction was spot on for me. I really was able to portray SJ telling all of that. And I did not mind those tiny errors.
stef25 12y ago
Firewall here at work blocked this site, reason - pornography :(
ThePhysicist 12y ago
"What we want from Apple isn't new technology. We want human warmth — a possibility of living a more fulfilled, meaningful life." I think this sums up nicely what's wrong here: The belief that technology will make your life more fulfilled or meaningful. I didn't watch the live keynote (I don't have the required Apple gear) but saw excerpts on Youtube, and frankly, I find the level of religiousness surrounding this event appalling. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I really don't like how emotionally charged most products are today, in the sense that they are supposed to not only solve a technological problem, but at the same time fulfill a social or even religious role and provide "human warmth", as the author puts it. It's not only Apple who does this (BMW comes to mind with their Mini commercials), but it seems they perfected this art to a point where their events have more resemblance to a Lenie Riefenstahl movie than a trade show (no comparison intended beyond the aesthetics of the presentation). And does technology actually live up to the promise? Studies show that, although we have more superficial interactions through technology, the number of close friends diminishes and more and more people become socially isolated. Take the metro / subway in any big, affluent city these days, and look around you. What do you see? People whose eyes are glued to their phone screens, oblivious to the persons around them, looking for "human warmth" in their virtual companion. That's really not the society I want to live in. Sorry for the rant, I just think that especially people who are very savvy and enthusiastic about technology and full of entrepreneurial spirit (like most readers of HN) are especially susceptible to this kind of religious admiration of technology and should sometimes take a step back to ask themselves what kind of society they're actually creating with their actions.
- k-mcgrady 12y ago
  >> "Take the metro / subway in any big, affluent city these days, and look around youself. What do you see? People whose eyes are glued to their phone screens, oblivious to the people around them, looking for "human warmth" in their virtual companion. That's really not the society I want to live in." I agree with a lot of what you said but this isn't correct. True we all have out faces buried in our devices but before that we had them buried in newspapers. [0][1][2] No matter the decade people don't look for human warmth on public transport. They want to get on, look down, and get off. [0] http://img.qz.com/2014/01/baghi49cyaaz2ps.jpg?w=1024&h=714 http://img.qz.com/2014/01/baghi49cyaaz2ps.jpg?w=1024&h=714 [1] http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/01/article-2137695-12D9DA07000005DC-38_968x617.jpg http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/01/article-2137695-12... [2] https://www.wodumedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Riders-read-their-morning-newspapers-on-New-Yorks-subway-en-route-to-work-on-April-1-1963-after-the-end-of-the-citys-114-day-newspaper-strike.-AP-PhotoJacob-Harris.jpg https://www.wodumedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Riders-...
k-mcgrady 12y ago
Thank god Apple doesn't follow advice given by bloggers on the internet. Release one watch? Seriously? The wide variety of options is one of the reasons Apple has a shot at getting people to adopt smart watches when everyone else has failed so far. It's why they invited fashion industry people, and it's why many of them loved it. A wearable is a fashion accessory first and foremost. When it comes to looks, people like options - we've seen this with the iPhone. People quickly got bored of black, then they got bored of white. Most people also accessorise with cases, not to protect their device, but for aesthetic reasons and individuality. As for all the 'Jobs wouldn't have done that' BS, how do you know? There's a reason Jobs told them not to do what he would do but to do their own thing. Not even Jobs new what he wanted. He changed his opinion regularly: no video iPods, then he released a video iPod. No bigger screen iPhone, then the iPhone 5. This is one of those things that you look at and think you could do better but in reality dozens of the worlds smartest people have spent years researching and working on it and they have very good reasons for not doing the ideas you've come up with in 4 days.
nzealand 12y ago
I posted this a few days ago.... What would todays presentation would have looked like if Steve Jobs was still around? -There would have been fewer leaks before the big unveiling. -There would have been fewer features mentioned in the presentation. -There would have been fewer features in the product in favor of a faster ship date. -There would have been fewer choices in terms of colors, straps and models. This is a totally unfair comparison, especially as I don't work at Apple and have yet to wear the device. But I think we are all wondering, can Apple continue to innovate as successfully without Steve around?
- 72deluxe 12y ago
  Yes. Apple's creations didn't all come singularly from Steve's mind. Apple's creations came from the team there. Apple is not, and was not, one man. It would be foolish to think that the entire company worked like some Borg collective where Steve was the head, and all Apple drones would wither and collapse without him. They clearly haven't. When you buy food from Tesco, do you thank Jack Cohen and marvel at how he could think of so many foods and products and innovate so well? How will Tesco continue to succeed now that he's gone?!
hellbreakslose 12y ago
oh fuck off steve jobs thought u were dead and world was better without u!
mozilla 12y ago
thats actually pretty good i too believe in the single device. and explaining why its been made. otherwise, apple is another samsung. heck i dont even own any apple product but thats still something i liked and respected. turns out my next phone is the ze compact. close to the perfect size. :p
nb1981 12y ago
It's a, what, 7th, or 8th generation product? Let them move on. Of course it's going to settle into a more MacBook style cycle of steady, measured updates (no pun intended). Going bigger is clearly a 'we've done what we came here to do, now lets mop up what we can from the high end to fund our other projects'. I struggle to knock them for that.
Yizahi 12y ago
Author fails to see that iWatch is actually a single model, without any variation at all. Same OS and apps, same controls, same hardware. Counting straps as different models is really silly. And besides, not a lot of people are fans of metal bracelets. Second - if we are speculating about how Steve would see iPhone 6 then saying that he would keep THAT design and only fiddle with diagonal is also silly. Steve would have imagined something way more efficient and pretty - no button maybe, maybe radically different materials for body (and solve stupid stripes vs. radio dilemma), maybe it would be a flip or slider, maybe... maybe... Definitely not just 0.2 difference in diag.
mironathetin 12y ago
"Why do I need it?" That is indeed the question I ask myself since the introduction of the iPhone. And it includes the iPad and certainly the iWatch. I am a Mac user and although the old Mac models were not always better technologically, Jobs made us feel good when we used them. Just think about the awful time, when he had to re-sell the G4 to us again and again, because there was no progress with the G5. Who could have kept the spirit alive, if not Steve? That's one of his great achievements. That's not anymore. Apple has completely lost its focus with Macs. If Linux were not so bad, I'd be working on Thinkpads again, or Vaios. The iPod when I first bought one of the 5GB original white ones, was such a great thing to use. It reminded me of the walkmans but it was so much better. No need to explain. But, in the meantime I use a Cowon, because it sounds so much better. So, yes, there is truth in this article.
jacquesm 12y ago
The various incarnations of the iwatch are as different technologically as the original 'coloured' imacs.
Aloha 12y ago
It's not 'the 60' It's 12 Cases: Stainless (38/42mm) Black Stainless (38/42mm) Aluminum (38/42mm) Space Gray Aluminum (38/42mm) Rose Gold (38/42mm) Yellow Gold (38/42mm) and 15 bands: 5 Colors of Sport Band (Pink, Blue, White, Green, and Black) Classic Buckle Milanese Loop Modern Buckle (Pink, Blue and Brown) Leather Loop (Stone, Brown and Blue) Stainless Steel Link (Stainless and Black) In reality, I'd bet when this thing ships it's going to be the 12 watch sku's then an additional 15 sku's for the band,, the combination thereof to be assembled at the point of purchase. You cant expect to package an sell any watch like a phone, it can't be one size fits all, not to get any real market penetration, because with jewelry, the technology takes a back seat to the appearance.
hereonbusiness 12y ago
"What we want from Apple isn't new technology. We want human warmth - a possibility of living a more fulfilled, meaningful life." What we (the corporations) want from consumers is for them to buy our product(s), and we'll do whatever it takes to sell it to them as long as it is profitable.
quickdraw46 12y ago
Although I do agree with a lot of things being said here, I am happy that the watch comes with a variety of options. A watch is something much more intimate and reflective of personal style. Phones usually get covered up, the watch wont be.
ashrestha8 12y ago
I just love your presentations) You understand clearly what was missing at keynote and what all of us expected. Apple is becoming average. The iPhone looks like it has been derived from what market wants, it did not break any rules, and showed us we are wrong and that they know a better way. It feels cold (rightly noticed). Please jiggity continue with your posts, its like "the proper apple keynote)
mamoriamohit 12y ago
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple as CEO, he found a lot of variations of Mac getting developed. There was Mac for this, Mac for that, separate Mac for everything. He asked one question to the people developing, “If I had to buy one for my nephew, what would you recommend me?” He got several options. Then he asked, “If I had to buy one for my nephew, what would you suggest from the ones you just suggested?” He got more fine-tuned answer. He kept asking this question until a lot of the variations were rejected. Then he went up to the board and drew a 2x2 matrix. On one axis, he wrote, “Personal” and “Professional”. On another axis, he wrote, “Desktop” and “Portable”. He concluded that Apple would make only four variations of Mac, and they would shut down development of every other variation. Steve always went for 'less'. While current leadership released 2 versions of phones, many versions of the iWatch, Steve always wanted the company to focus of a subset of users. The simple flaw in present Apple's mindset is 'lack of focus'. First time ever, I am disappointed by the Apple. And yes, Steve would have fired every 10th person for the glitch in the live stream and the Chinese woman.
- callum85 12y ago
  The Chinese woman?
- a_c_s 12y ago
  The iPod is a great counter-example: there have been times Apple was selling 4 different lines of iPod at a time, most of which came in an array of colors. The apple watch basically comes in two sizes with an array of 'colors' (metals) and watchbands. The difference between that and the history is that each iPod has a clear niche. The problem Apple was having with such a selection of products is that it was hard to figure out which one should be purchased as they didn't have clear, differentiating roles.
- snowwrestler 12y ago
  This is just wrong. Jobs oversaw numerous variations in size, color, and specs during his time at Apple. The iMac came in like 5 colors at one point. And remember this was a desktop computer! Laptops in different sizes and colors; iPods in different sizes and colors, with Apple-branded accessories (remember the "socks" Apple sold for them?); iPad covers in multiple finishes and colors, etc. You just need to do your research before posting on something that can be easily looked up.
jbergstroem 12y ago
This was beautiful. Thank you.
Shivetya 12y ago
I actually like the article but for a reason I did not suspect, he identified another aspect of the Apple Watch I didn't quite connect the dots on earlier. Its not a well defined product, they could not make a decision and so went with everything. Committee designed and marketed.
DCKing 12y ago
The whole premise of this article is so wrong. If Jobs were alive we wouldn't have had this presentation in the first place. First up, under Jobs phablet iPhones would have been out of the question. He would have flat out rejected those, because he was simply wrong about some of the assumptions of phone design and would be a lot slower to admit that than Apple did without him. Second, the Apple Watch would not have been what it was now. For the first time in tech, Apple is second in execution with a more complicated product - one with a more complicated, information dense interface that requires two input methods to operate [1]. I'm not insinuating that Apple Watch will be an inferior product (I think it's more likely the opposite), but I don't think the execution of the product is something Jobs would have let happen in the same way. But that's all okay! Apple is going in a different direction, and it just might actually be the better direction to go in. I'll be buying my first iPhone later this year, and I very much doubt I would have done so if Jobs was still as influential as he was. This deification of Steve Jobs is incredibly annoying to me. The annoyance I feel when people say "what would Jesus do?" is the same annoyance I feel when reading these articles about "what would Steve do?". This article is just one level above fan fiction and it has gotten more than 450 votes. Ugh. He was a pioneer in the field, but let's appreciate him for what he's done and not for what he should have been doing today. [1]: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/smartwatch-wars-the-apple-watch-versus-android-wear-in-screenshots/ http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/smartwatch-wars-the-app... - the comments contain the gem "What kind of bizarro world are we in now where Google releases the clean, minimalist UI and Apple releases the information-dense but cluttered one?"
- coldpie 12y ago
  Yeah, it went from a kind of interesting analysis of the presentation and then fell over into fan fiction, even referencing the author's previous fan fiction pieces as some sort of weird Steve Jobs head canon. Yikes.
- flatline 12y ago
  I still think the "why" of the watch was missing from the presentation, and a lot of his points were spot on. My wife called me all excited about it and I kept asking her what it did and she didn't have a clue. But I'm not sure it matters. My takeaway from reading your post was "Google released a watch? Oh...who cares." So I think you're right, Apple is still doing more right than wrong. I just don't think of Google as a product company, the Android brand mostly belongs to other manufacturers in my mind, and the overall impression is still that they are all making iPhone knockoffs, even if in many cases they are objectively superior. There's still nobody around who can do a product release like Apple.
mlopes 12y ago
Not a realistic scenario. If Jobs was alive Apple wouldn't be chasing the Android and making crappy products, so he wouldn't need to give all of those lame excuses to try to justify poor decisions and no innovation in their products. I'm an iPhone user, and when my iPhone stop being usable, I'll move to a Google phone, in spite of the size, not because of it. The real reason why I'm moving to an Android phone is because all of the limitation that the iPhone has and that it hasn't removed while the Android evolved.
mpg33 12y ago
I think the iPhone's will sell themselves. The watch could have benefited from Steve selling it.
edwintorok 12y ago
The FSF has also made a statement regarding the new iPhone launch: https://www.fsf.org/news/free-software-foundation-statement-on-the-new-iphone-apple-pay-and-apple-watch https://www.fsf.org/news/free-software-foundation-statement-...
ragerman 12y ago
Very nicely done! The problem is Steve Jobs is dead. NO ONE ELSE could have delivered that pitch. Anyone trying would have been reaching. Only Federighi could even try. Perhaps even Jobs would have had difficulty. You see Apple is a different company. There is a desperation around it now, being a behemoth that needs to run at full tilt to stay exactly where they are. Earlier they were a tiny David constantly taking on Goliath. It takes something special for that desperation not to show.
Cowicide 12y ago
In my opinion, I think it was too early for Apple to release a watch. They should have waited until there was more of a breakthrough in battery storage (to make it far slimmer) and also the ability to give it some little bit of extra power capacity through heat off of one's wrist along with an ability to grab solar energy combined off the watch face. Also, it really, really needed to be able to work standalone without a tether to the iPhone, IMO. This was just too soon. The battery technology isn't there quite yet. This didn't blow my mind in practicality and usability, it just looks like another vanity watch someone wears in a vapid attempt to impress others. I'm underwhelmed.
transpy 12y ago
Man, I'm sold! Even if this is fictitious, there is just something about Jobs that actually influences me. The stainless steel model looks indeed very attractive.
mikecaron 12y ago
Absolutely NAILED it.
Radiant 12y ago
What an awful article. The whole "let's imagine how Steve Jobs would do it" thing is so lame and morbid. His whole critique is basically "Why isn't Tim Cook the same as Steve Jobs?!" If you need bullshit "storytelling" to like or buy a product, then that product probably sucks.

583 points by strict9 12y ago

bhouston 12y ago

Not bad at channeling Jobs. Congrats. He could do it better than Cook for sure.

jiggity 12y ago
Thanks for your kind words. It took me a long while before hitting that submit button. It's that moment when you're unsure if what you've written is any good.
- rrrene 12y ago
  You did a great job of taking the "feeling overwhelmed by possible choices" out and putting a lot of "Steve Jobs" in. Good work!
- tolmasky 12y ago
  I found myself actually wanting the watch reading this, which caught me off guard. Really well done.
  - jeznav 12y ago
    I think I now know why. There was a TED talk by Simon Sinek regarding how Apple sells its products to its customers by making you believe why you should need one than without one. http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action#t-135666 http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspi... The keynote didn't really sell me the watch. To me it was more like a 'me too' smartwatch but with several customizable options to set it apart from the competition. They should've stick with one model and iterate later like they always did. But I agree, if the presentation was worded like this, I probably would've bought one in a whim and wouldn't think the heartbeat thing as gimmicky.
- strict9 12y ago
  I think you know what you wrote was done well. While I don't think so much should be viewed under the 'what would Jobs do' prism, I agreed with your points on product development, choice, and presentation. Brilliantly written.
- ryan-allen 12y ago
  I think it was spot on. It made me yearn for Steve and his keynotes. It's sad that he's gone and we'll never see the likes of him again I fear.
- gone35 12y ago
  What you did there is... quite something, and not trivial at all. Make sure you don't overlook whichever part of the brain or thinking framework/state that allowed you to pull that off.
- serf 12y ago
  I'll be downvoted for this, but I'd like the chance to express myself to the author. I felt what you wrote was in poor taste. I think that it's in poor taste to speak for the dead when one was close friends with them, and I think that it's worse still to speak for a celebrity whom you had no personal acquaintance with. I feel like you did nothing more than mask your own personal complaints about Apple inside dialog written as if spoken by Jobs' , but with little forethought about Jobs' past history of actions, or the hierarchy of team effort that goes on at Apple, or even the way Jobs presented himself. The disparaging comments about 'his' previous lineup that 'he' (you) made proved that furthermore. I say all this with a personal hatred for Apple and the Steve Jobs method of getting stuff done, so I'd hate for anyone to think that i'm simply upset that it is sullying His name. I don't care about that; I just don't think that it's realistic in the least.

ZenoArrow 12y ago

It's a good attempt at a Jobs-esque keynote, enjoyed that aspect, but on the product side the only criticisms can be boiled down to... 1. There's too much choice (option of a larger phone screen from the 6+, and a variety of watch options). 2. Because of this choice, you have to do more thinking for yourself. I feel like it's sad that thinking for ourselves is seen as problematic. That diversity isn't something to be embraced. Though it just shows how much some value the status symbol aspect.

tolmasky 12y ago
Its not about not thinking for yourself, its about avoiding unnecessary choice. Our lives our filled with enough real decisions without the need for inane and subtle product ones. Most people do not need to be worrying about the voltage of their electric toothbrush. Its not because they're brainwashed and hate diversity. With the iPhone I'm now forced to regret the decision either way. The iPhone 6+ is too big for my hands, but the smaller one doesn't support the special landscape mode stuff and has a worse camera. They haven't even provided a clear upgrade differentiation, I'm forced to consider tradeoffs, in a product that I used to not think about at all. Similarly, I am incredibly skeptical that we really needed 2 different watch sizes (given that reviewers say both feel fine). I'm sure you'd agree we don't need 55 sizes in between the current two sizes, so its clear that its possible to have too much choice. Add to this three variations (hopefully there won't be different capacities like with iPhones too) and its just a fact that you created a necessity for me to try them on first before just buying them online.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- modfodder 12y ago
  I think 2 different watch sizes are absolutely necessary. There is no way that one watch size will fit across the varied wrists of both men and women. Both may feel fine for a average sized wrist, but start moving up or down from that wrist and one size quickly becomes a problem. Look at the Moto360. It's so large that it only looks decent on the largest of wrists.

trhaynes 12y ago

I really enjoyed this, especially the bit about the heartbeat feature.

wwarren 12y ago
Yeah, this was a way better way to introduce it than how they did it in the video presentation
asadlionpk 12y ago
yes if that feature was introduced this way, I would have been like "Ok now I want my entire family to have iWatch"

dmishe 12y ago

I do think that Schiller would make for a much better presentation. Cook is ok, but that good.

richard_cubano 12y ago

The single version of the watch is spot on. As is the implicit point that maybe they could have hit this year's holiday season if they hadn't tried to make so many different versions. The best part of what you wrote is the end, where Steve ties the watch to the human experience. I hadn't thought about his keynotes from that lens before -- you showed me something new.

encoderer 12y ago
I've heard other criticism about missing the holiday season. I suppose I feel like.. they're building a 20 year platform here. What's one holiday season? Besides, with this timing, they can sell early adopters this "Ipad 1" of a watch and possibly release the Watch 2 in time for Christmas 2015.
- wvenable 12y ago
  Apple frequently "misses" the holiday season. Each version of the iPod Mini was launched in January of all times. The full sized iPod in summer. The iPad is in a March cycle.
threeseed 12y ago
The idea that a different screen size or a bunch of watch bands would cause a delay of 3 months is pretty ridiculous. The far more likely scenario is that either (a) there are serious hardware showstoppers, (b) yield issues with certain components or (c) the battery life is still unacceptable. Also the single version of a watch is a really dumb premise. A watch is a fashion accessory so you need to support people's varying tastes.
glifchits 12y ago
I feel like a fool sometimes where I have my iPhone out and everyone else around me does too. At least theirs are sometimes white. Now – your wrist is almost always visible. Once everyone gets an Apple Watch, if there were just one single minimalist design, it would start to feel less like a watch and more like a dog tag.
dogecoinbase 12y ago

Bud 12y ago

The writer says a lot of things that are just silly. For instance: It's hard enough to craft desire for a single identity. When asked to think of an Apple Watch, people don't know what to picture. Can you imagine if the original iPhone in 2007 came with sixty customizable skins? Well, um, it did come with hundreds of customizable skins. They were called iPhone cases. They were, and still are, endemic. Instead of a single, perfect product, we got a jumble of features and choices. Actually, there is no functional difference between the various Apple Watch lines. It is a single product. It simply allows the user to customize the appearance of the product. This is necessitated by the fact that this device, unlike all Apple devices to date, is worn on your body.

karmelapple 12y ago
The important point is Apple did not sell those cases when the iPhone was first released. It didn't talk about the idea of customizing it. People will figure out how to own their phone and make it personal. I think the author of this piece did a great job channeling a likely, and better, introduction.
- encoderer 12y ago
  Right, and what would be the analogy here? I suppose they could've let you replace straps without actually offering other straps? But that sounds like you're not offering more out of some silly superstition? Apple as a company has more resources today and I think that's certainly part of it. They barely launched a single phone on time in 2007, let alone multiple models. Steve Jobs said that "nobody would buy a bigger phone?" He didn't see people using phones the way they do today. In 2007 "bigger phone" meant "I can't make this smaller because small is hard" and by being small -- but inline with the phones people were using at the time -- it was even more impressive. Hell they STILL get us with that one, every single year. Thinner! Lighter! Yes!
- ribs 12y ago
  Yeah that's true but it's still silly. Phones sit in your pocket, they mostly look the same, it's not that big a deal. Watches on the other hand have been fashion items for over a hundred years. There are countless variations. It would be arrogant - even for Jobs - to claim that a single design would satisfy everyone, would be perfect.

electronous 12y ago

That the iPhone is shown with Guardians of the Galaxy on the screen in his hypothetical is all wrong -- you can't get it in iTunes today. Apple would should a movie you can buy right now.

engtech 12y ago

That was a great article. I love the idea of the heartbeat feature. Is that a real feature of the iwatch?

Watabou 12y ago
You can share your heartbeat with others with the apple watch, yes.

aaronbrethorst 12y ago

Steve also claimed that Apple would never do a video iPod until the day it launched. You should read the entire article. Steve said a lot of stuff that he later (not so much recanted as entirely) ignored. http://www.wired.com/2010/02/steve-jobs/ http://www.wired.com/2010/02/steve-jobs/ When Mossberg in 2003 asked Jobs whether he planned to put video in an iPod, the CEO said he was turned off by the idea. “I’m not convinced people want to watch movies on a tiny little screen,” Jobs said. “To paraphrase Bill Clinton, ‘It’s the music, stupid, it’s the music!’ Music’s been around for a long time, will continue to be, it’s huge.”

judk 12y ago
He was right. People wanted video, but no one used it. Not till touchscreen smartphone screens made video work.
Htsthbjig 12y ago
He was totally right: "I'm not convinced people want to watch movies on a TINY SCREEN" Later they created a device with a much bigger screen(at least six times bigger) and called it IPOD, but it had not a tiny screen. The same could be said about small computers. When I got my first laptop I considered at least 17'' necessary, which was very bulky, I told everybody that. Then I got lots of complaints from people when I got a 13'' macbook air:"You said you will never use anything smaller than 17 inches". But I didn't say that. I said that given the resolution they had at the time, I needed 17 inches, but obviously I wanted the same screen in a smaller size at a reasonable price. The 13 inches macbook has more pixels on it than my old laptop.

GuiA 12y ago

Hacker News: your premier source for Steve Jobs fan fiction. (laughs) Does the author really think that Steve Jobs would have ever said "When I open up a website on Safari, I don't have to strain my eyes anymore"? They're still selling 5S and 5C! Not even Asus would disparage their previous products like that. The rest of the piece is just as bad and devoid of substance. (Steve rolls in his grave)

encoderer 12y ago
Right. A product is, well, a product of its time. I doubt Apple spent much time worrying how can we go bigger after saying we had the perfect size. Seems a bigger problem is how can we go bigger without people thinking that's the only difference? A 5.7" iPhone would be as out of place in 2006 (not enough power to push those pixels, low power screen tech was non-existent) as a 3.5" phone is today. No mental backflips required.
- MPSimmons 12y ago
  The web has changed. Agreed.
- paulojreis 12y ago
  > A 5.7" iPhone would be as out of place in 2006 (not enough power to push those pixels, low power screen tech was non-existent) as a 3.5" phone is today. Why would a 3.5'' phone be out of place, today? I see people everywhere assuming this is right, that increasing the screen size was truly needed (and demanded), but I'm yet to see the evidence. I mean, I'm sure that there's evidence that people wanted bigger screens (if Apple did it...), but I can't seem to find it, except for interweb-people who blog about... stuff. :) Real people - do they want bigger screens? For them, is the 3.5'' phone really out of place? Anyway: I guess I can be considered a interweb-person, tech savvy, heavy user*, and all that jazz. Still, I'm proudly driving my 4s. Even the 5/5s/5c is too big for me; I can't comfortably reach the top corners of the screens. I do believe that habits may have changed, but our anthropometry certainly didn't - the average human thumb is still the same length.
  - 12y ago

broabprobe 12y ago

Agree totally except for the bands. Customizable bands were a necessity for something you wear. It's a whole new experience to wear it and I would not buy it if it were just the band you selected as best. Otherwise this is spot on...

fndrplayer13 12y ago

This article is _fantastic_. Nailed Steve Jobs, as I remember him anyhow. The presentation that Apple gave sounded a lot like something you would hear from Google, not Apple, in my opinion. Too many options, too many stats. Not concise. Not moving.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
honestlyCurious 12y ago
My thoughts exactly. The keynote given by Cook felt dull and overdone. He tried hard but he had big shoes to fill.

joeguilmette 12y ago

This article was horrible, in poor taste, and raises a litany of ridiculous points. That said, while I'm happy to see the iProduct naming convention die, I agree that including the logo in the product name is a bit much. There is the old story that the command key used to be an apple logo, but Steve had it removed as to not dilute the brand.

GuiA 12y ago
The Apple TV also has the logo in the name, although I guess it's a slightly lower visibility product.
- joeguilmette 12y ago
  Excellent point!

kenjackson 12y ago

Jiggity, kill the intro to the blog post. All that insecurity stuff is BS. Jobs was as insecure as they come. But your Jobs transcript is spot on! Just have that as the blog entry. Keep it simple.

spencera 12y ago
I agree, let the script speak for itself. It's great!

mp99e99 12y ago

Amazing job nice work

mp99e99 12y ago

Amazing job nice work

jamestimmins 12y ago

Worth noting that "iWatch" doesn't work because it sounds like the sentence "I watch". There's a lot of ways to take that in creepy/joking directions, which would be an unnecessary distraction from the product.

eurleif 12y ago
Do you remember all the feminine hygiene product jokes when the iPad was released?
- jamestimmins 12y ago
  Very true. Hadn't thought of that. There were a lot early on, but you never hear about that anymore.
steadicat 12y ago
Based on your logic, even iPhone ("I phone") is out the window. Besides, Apple has never shied away from punny names. Think iSight and Airport.
- Gracana 12y ago
  But an "I phone" does phone. An "I watch" doesn't watch.
  - critiq 12y ago
    missing camera? :)

dmilanp 12y ago

Home Run

fizixer 12y ago

I'm not sure if the article was good or bad. But boy did it make me miss Steve Jobs. (and I don't even use Apple products).

owenwil 12y ago

This was killed already once today and is back again? Steve was very explicit to Tim Cook and others in the Apple executive team that they should never ask "what would Steve do." Seems to be written by someone with little understanding of Apple today.

ntsb 12y ago
> they should never ask "what would Steve do." Depends which Steve you are referring too, there still is, and always has been a very brilliant Steve at Apple.
ryanSrich 12y ago
Looks like the author is a YC alum. It's destined to reach the front page.
- MCRed 12y ago
  When Steve Jobs introduced the iPod, I believe the author was probably 10 years old.
- Radiant 12y ago
  His website design is a shameless rip-off of Paul Graham's website. It's incredibly lame.
seunosewa 12y ago
He didn't necessarily say that in Apple's best interests. Maybe he wanted to be missed more than he wanted Apple to succeed after his death? He did feel "hurt" when Tim Cook said Apple would remain the same regardless of who was leading it, after all.

jesstucker 12y ago

Commentary on Apple decorum at its finest.

mrjasonh 12y ago

totally disagree on the watch. I would never consider a watch with that metallic band, and there a few bands I really like that apple released. I think apple nailed it by recognizing the personal aesthetic and fashion statement that wearing a device on your body entails

binarycrusader 12y ago

I think the article was interesting, but it was surprisingly uncomfortable to see the various photos where Steve was suffering from the effects of his illness (I guess for me, it's more personal having seen other family members go through the same and pass away...).

arihant 12y ago

Maybe Jobs wanted to launch "The Sixty" and did not have a product deemed personalizable enough to do so in his time? Where they could, they have iMac, Macbooks, Mac minis. So with OSX, they do have multiple options cause it fits. Each model is customizable into gazillion ways based on HDD, RAM, GPU and what have you. How many variations of Macbooks can you count which can be ordered directly from Apple store website? I bet you it is more than the Apple Watch. What the author misses is - Apple thinks. It did with Jobs, and it is doing so without him. Apple did "The One" when they thought it suited. They did "The Sixty" when they thought it suited. Copying Apple is a job of other companies, not of Apple.

dodyg 12y ago

A watch is a fashion accessory. If you make it only in one 'perfect size/look/color', it becomes a gadget, which is the furthest thing Apple wants it to be.

chatman 12y ago

> (Audience is in tears as they stand up and give a standing ovation) Hilariously, genius!

niix 12y ago

PerfectElement 12y ago

>> What we want from Apple isn't new technology. We want human warmth—a possibility of living a more fulfilled, meaningful life. So your life's meaning and fulfillment depends on Apple? That's really sad.

gcp123 12y ago

Don't tear apart the details of what the author wrote. Just squint your eyes, and you know he's dead right. This is exactly the kind of storytelling that was missing from Tuesday's keynote. Steve always started with WHY before he got to the WHAT or the HOW. Tim Cook was shaking his fists in triumph after doing nothing but showing some over-produced video that showed some cool camera angles on the watch. Not a word about why it should exist, or what it changes about your life. WE DID IT! WE MADE A WATCH! WOOO! My jaw dropped. Very tacky. Too self-congratulatory.

MCRed 12y ago
Frankly, I'm glad Cook is not trying to imitate Jobs. Imagine if Cook had gone on stage and followed the script jiggly wrote. It would have come off completely insincere. Sincerety is why Jobs was great, and it's why Cook is great. He doesn't BS us, as Jiggity seems to want. But the thing is, no matter what Apple does people will complain. There's always another way that they could say would have been better. If Apple had released only one watch model, in black, then people would complain about how they would never wear a black watch. No, this is exactly the kind of spin we've seen from people after every Apple keynote, going back to the late 1990s. Steve Jobs was not immune. It's just now that he's dead, they have a new "it's cause Jobs is dead!" rationalization. This is just a warm over of the standard issue "iPod is lame", "iPhone needs a 'real' keyboard", "iPad is just a big iPod touch", "the iMac needs a floppy drive!" type complaint after every product introduction.
- GCPCo 12y ago
  Again, you are missing the point. Steve identified the insight (the WHY) behind a product before he introduced the details and design. Cook & team skip all the important foreplay. It makes the products feel less Apple-y, less inspired, and simply, more like everyone else's. I love Apple and will keep buying their phones, the watch, and Macs. But for some of us, the company is also part of the products.
  - GCPCo 12y ago
    Try pitching your startup to investors in the style of Tim Cook, see how far that gets you. Then you'll get it.

BigBadBionicBoy 12y ago

I don't care how good Steve Jobs pitch is. I'm not buying Apple Health from him.

mproud 12y ago

What’s next? Don Draper doing a marketing pitch to Apple as if he was selling the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch?

tcc2161 12y ago

A week doesn't go by without me seeing Steve Job's name in some click-bait headline and inasmuch as the author has identified current problems with Apple we can add the cult of Jobs to that list. Yes, of course, Jobs had amazing charisma, and bringing Apple back from the brink of bankruptcy with well designed products by Johnny Ive deserves its legend. But as the novelty of these products wear off (as they should) Apple still strives to distinguish itself (and continue to charge its premiums) by designing superior hardware. The hardware market is somewhat saturated, but since the tech is always improving, planned obsolescence means we get to take advantage of superior tech and better products every few years. The real growth market is the cloud and internet-of-things, and I think the author got it right by imagining Jobs describing the watch as a product for the "personal universe". Tethering to an iPhone is the first step to tethering to the Cloud. Apple is still trying to figure out the cloud, and they keep stumbling, and the celebrity leak (of which nothing was said to a room full of celebrities), and the live stream screw up are the latest examples. Also, egregiously, their indifference to producing a responsive website. They're still a hardware company, and the hardware, combined with their tightly controlled OS X / Unix based software, provide a solid platform for the design of superior software, by others. The first iPhone was severely limited and it didn't become the democratized smartphone until after the App Store and the 3G, that is to say, after they crowdsourced software development. The watch seems like the iPhone 2G and the Nano watch hack as revised by Ive. I don't want this version, but I'll probably want the one after the next, when its twice as thin, and Ive makes another pompous video extolling its bullshit (I can't have been the only one rolling my eyes at the "horological experts" and the "conferring on how different cultures care about time" ... the clock was perfected years ago). The thing about Apple is that they keep making the Modernist Future come true - handheld communicators, tablets, and now walkie-talkie watches. Tim Cook is proud of the fact that they pulled off the Dick Tracy finally, and who cares whatever Samsung did a year ago. What they really need to pull off next are the holograms. It just seems to me as well that to everything there is a season, and Apple has had a glorious turn of the century. It integrated itself with youth culture, but do you think the kids of the 2030s will still crowd Apple retail stores, presuming they still exist? Or will they see the brand as that of their parents, and thus lame. My greater point though is that Jobs is dead and let him rest in peace, and let Apple grow beyond Jobs, and don't worry if one day in about twenty years you hear some kid say Apple is lame. Apple did that to Sony, and presumably some startup out there now, or about to be created, might do that to Apple.

ck2 12y ago

Apple cult has gone a little too far when they start reanimating the dead.

geuis 12y ago

This, this, this. This is what is missing from Apple now.

rootlocus 12y ago

"Messy. Too many options. This is such a huge blunder." "It's hard enough to craft desire for a single identity." "Can you imagine if the original iPhone in 2007 came with sixty customizable skins?" Seriously? Is changing the wallpaper such a "huge blunder" for Apple users?

vor_ 12y ago

The previous time this was submitted, it was deleted, so I guess I'll post this again: Over the years, I saw many presentations from Steve that I thought were bland or off in some way. Pointing out Steve's statement that nobody would want a big phone, implying that a big iPhone isn't something Steve would have allowed to happen, ignores Steve's famous habit of dismissing something and then doing it anyway. I remember when he said nobody wanted to watch movies on an iPod, and then new iPods came out with the ability to play movies. I often see complaints that "Jobsian Apple" would never release multiple versions of something, even though there was the iPod, iPod mini in several colors, and the iPod photo; later there was the iPod nano, iPod classic, and iPod touch. A watch is a fashion device, and it would be strange not to have style options. Steve got too much credit. Apple was led by a team, and many of those people are still there. Some of Apple's most successful decisions were choices Steve opposed or had to be convinced of.

fredsted 12y ago

I just find this article a little creepy and off-base. He's yearning for Tim to be a fake imitation of Jobs. The author has some vision of a perfect Jobs. Guess what, Steve wasn't perfect. It's easy to say, "Steve would have done it this way". Tim is not a presenter, he's the CEO. And he's just really proud of his team. It shows. So he leaves most of the presentation to other VPs. Steve is no longer with us. Tim Cook is not Steve Jobs, and shouldn't be. He doesn't need to be. In any case, the products speak for themselves. Apple Watch definitely needs styles. It's partly a fashion item!

kathrinalewis 12y ago

Apple, finally catching on with androids ugly watch market.

Rapzid 12y ago

I completely disagree with his assessment of there being "too many" watch choices. For a fashion accessory I think it's absolutely critical that they give people room to express themselves. IMHO the "style" angle Apple has taken is what's going to move product.

ultimatedelman 12y ago
IMHO the "Apple logo" is what's going to move product.

LeicaLatte 12y ago

Some folks do have a lot of time in their hands.

petercooper 12y ago

Half a billion original thoughts safely stored on iCloud. I'm pretty sure Jobs wouldn't make a specific reference to iCloud's security so close to the celeb hacking scandal, whether or not it was Apple's fault.

laacz 12y ago

While other commenters are trying to find smal imperfections or errors, I read both parts with great satisfaction. SJ fiction was spot on for me. I really was able to portray SJ telling all of that. And I did not mind those tiny errors.

stef25 12y ago

Firewall here at work blocked this site, reason - pornography :(

ThePhysicist 12y ago

"What we want from Apple isn't new technology. We want human warmth — a possibility of living a more fulfilled, meaningful life." I think this sums up nicely what's wrong here: The belief that technology will make your life more fulfilled or meaningful. I didn't watch the live keynote (I don't have the required Apple gear) but saw excerpts on Youtube, and frankly, I find the level of religiousness surrounding this event appalling. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I really don't like how emotionally charged most products are today, in the sense that they are supposed to not only solve a technological problem, but at the same time fulfill a social or even religious role and provide "human warmth", as the author puts it. It's not only Apple who does this (BMW comes to mind with their Mini commercials), but it seems they perfected this art to a point where their events have more resemblance to a Lenie Riefenstahl movie than a trade show (no comparison intended beyond the aesthetics of the presentation). And does technology actually live up to the promise? Studies show that, although we have more superficial interactions through technology, the number of close friends diminishes and more and more people become socially isolated. Take the metro / subway in any big, affluent city these days, and look around you. What do you see? People whose eyes are glued to their phone screens, oblivious to the persons around them, looking for "human warmth" in their virtual companion. That's really not the society I want to live in. Sorry for the rant, I just think that especially people who are very savvy and enthusiastic about technology and full of entrepreneurial spirit (like most readers of HN) are especially susceptible to this kind of religious admiration of technology and should sometimes take a step back to ask themselves what kind of society they're actually creating with their actions.

k-mcgrady 12y ago
>> "Take the metro / subway in any big, affluent city these days, and look around youself. What do you see? People whose eyes are glued to their phone screens, oblivious to the people around them, looking for "human warmth" in their virtual companion. That's really not the society I want to live in." I agree with a lot of what you said but this isn't correct. True we all have out faces buried in our devices but before that we had them buried in newspapers. [0][1][2] No matter the decade people don't look for human warmth on public transport. They want to get on, look down, and get off. [0] http://img.qz.com/2014/01/baghi49cyaaz2ps.jpg?w=1024&h=714 http://img.qz.com/2014/01/baghi49cyaaz2ps.jpg?w=1024&h=714 [1] http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/01/article-2137695-12D9DA07000005DC-38_968x617.jpg http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/01/article-2137695-12... [2] https://www.wodumedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Riders-read-their-morning-newspapers-on-New-Yorks-subway-en-route-to-work-on-April-1-1963-after-the-end-of-the-citys-114-day-newspaper-strike.-AP-PhotoJacob-Harris.jpg https://www.wodumedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Riders-...

k-mcgrady 12y ago

Thank god Apple doesn't follow advice given by bloggers on the internet. Release one watch? Seriously? The wide variety of options is one of the reasons Apple has a shot at getting people to adopt smart watches when everyone else has failed so far. It's why they invited fashion industry people, and it's why many of them loved it. A wearable is a fashion accessory first and foremost. When it comes to looks, people like options - we've seen this with the iPhone. People quickly got bored of black, then they got bored of white. Most people also accessorise with cases, not to protect their device, but for aesthetic reasons and individuality. As for all the 'Jobs wouldn't have done that' BS, how do you know? There's a reason Jobs told them not to do what he would do but to do their own thing. Not even Jobs new what he wanted. He changed his opinion regularly: no video iPods, then he released a video iPod. No bigger screen iPhone, then the iPhone 5. This is one of those things that you look at and think you could do better but in reality dozens of the worlds smartest people have spent years researching and working on it and they have very good reasons for not doing the ideas you've come up with in 4 days.

nzealand 12y ago

I posted this a few days ago.... What would todays presentation would have looked like if Steve Jobs was still around? -There would have been fewer leaks before the big unveiling. -There would have been fewer features mentioned in the presentation. -There would have been fewer features in the product in favor of a faster ship date. -There would have been fewer choices in terms of colors, straps and models. This is a totally unfair comparison, especially as I don't work at Apple and have yet to wear the device. But I think we are all wondering, can Apple continue to innovate as successfully without Steve around?

72deluxe 12y ago
Yes. Apple's creations didn't all come singularly from Steve's mind. Apple's creations came from the team there. Apple is not, and was not, one man. It would be foolish to think that the entire company worked like some Borg collective where Steve was the head, and all Apple drones would wither and collapse without him. They clearly haven't. When you buy food from Tesco, do you thank Jack Cohen and marvel at how he could think of so many foods and products and innovate so well? How will Tesco continue to succeed now that he's gone?!

hellbreakslose 12y ago

oh fuck off steve jobs thought u were dead and world was better without u!

mozilla 12y ago

thats actually pretty good i too believe in the single device. and explaining why its been made. otherwise, apple is another samsung. heck i dont even own any apple product but thats still something i liked and respected. turns out my next phone is the ze compact. close to the perfect size. :p

nb1981 12y ago

It's a, what, 7th, or 8th generation product? Let them move on. Of course it's going to settle into a more MacBook style cycle of steady, measured updates (no pun intended). Going bigger is clearly a 'we've done what we came here to do, now lets mop up what we can from the high end to fund our other projects'. I struggle to knock them for that.

Yizahi 12y ago

Author fails to see that iWatch is actually a single model, without any variation at all. Same OS and apps, same controls, same hardware. Counting straps as different models is really silly. And besides, not a lot of people are fans of metal bracelets. Second - if we are speculating about how Steve would see iPhone 6 then saying that he would keep THAT design and only fiddle with diagonal is also silly. Steve would have imagined something way more efficient and pretty - no button maybe, maybe radically different materials for body (and solve stupid stripes vs. radio dilemma), maybe it would be a flip or slider, maybe... maybe... Definitely not just 0.2 difference in diag.

mironathetin 12y ago

"Why do I need it?" That is indeed the question I ask myself since the introduction of the iPhone. And it includes the iPad and certainly the iWatch. I am a Mac user and although the old Mac models were not always better technologically, Jobs made us feel good when we used them. Just think about the awful time, when he had to re-sell the G4 to us again and again, because there was no progress with the G5. Who could have kept the spirit alive, if not Steve? That's one of his great achievements. That's not anymore. Apple has completely lost its focus with Macs. If Linux were not so bad, I'd be working on Thinkpads again, or Vaios. The iPod when I first bought one of the 5GB original white ones, was such a great thing to use. It reminded me of the walkmans but it was so much better. No need to explain. But, in the meantime I use a Cowon, because it sounds so much better. So, yes, there is truth in this article.

jacquesm 12y ago

The various incarnations of the iwatch are as different technologically as the original 'coloured' imacs.

Aloha 12y ago

It's not 'the 60' It's 12 Cases: Stainless (38/42mm) Black Stainless (38/42mm) Aluminum (38/42mm) Space Gray Aluminum (38/42mm) Rose Gold (38/42mm) Yellow Gold (38/42mm) and 15 bands: 5 Colors of Sport Band (Pink, Blue, White, Green, and Black) Classic Buckle Milanese Loop Modern Buckle (Pink, Blue and Brown) Leather Loop (Stone, Brown and Blue) Stainless Steel Link (Stainless and Black) In reality, I'd bet when this thing ships it's going to be the 12 watch sku's then an additional 15 sku's for the band,, the combination thereof to be assembled at the point of purchase. You cant expect to package an sell any watch like a phone, it can't be one size fits all, not to get any real market penetration, because with jewelry, the technology takes a back seat to the appearance.

hereonbusiness 12y ago

"What we want from Apple isn't new technology. We want human warmth - a possibility of living a more fulfilled, meaningful life." What we (the corporations) want from consumers is for them to buy our product(s), and we'll do whatever it takes to sell it to them as long as it is profitable.

quickdraw46 12y ago

Although I do agree with a lot of things being said here, I am happy that the watch comes with a variety of options. A watch is something much more intimate and reflective of personal style. Phones usually get covered up, the watch wont be.

ashrestha8 12y ago

I just love your presentations) You understand clearly what was missing at keynote and what all of us expected. Apple is becoming average. The iPhone looks like it has been derived from what market wants, it did not break any rules, and showed us we are wrong and that they know a better way. It feels cold (rightly noticed). Please jiggity continue with your posts, its like "the proper apple keynote)

mamoriamohit 12y ago

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple as CEO, he found a lot of variations of Mac getting developed. There was Mac for this, Mac for that, separate Mac for everything. He asked one question to the people developing, “If I had to buy one for my nephew, what would you recommend me?” He got several options. Then he asked, “If I had to buy one for my nephew, what would you suggest from the ones you just suggested?” He got more fine-tuned answer. He kept asking this question until a lot of the variations were rejected. Then he went up to the board and drew a 2x2 matrix. On one axis, he wrote, “Personal” and “Professional”. On another axis, he wrote, “Desktop” and “Portable”. He concluded that Apple would make only four variations of Mac, and they would shut down development of every other variation. Steve always went for 'less'. While current leadership released 2 versions of phones, many versions of the iWatch, Steve always wanted the company to focus of a subset of users. The simple flaw in present Apple's mindset is 'lack of focus'. First time ever, I am disappointed by the Apple. And yes, Steve would have fired every 10th person for the glitch in the live stream and the Chinese woman.

callum85 12y ago
The Chinese woman?
a_c_s 12y ago
The iPod is a great counter-example: there have been times Apple was selling 4 different lines of iPod at a time, most of which came in an array of colors. The apple watch basically comes in two sizes with an array of 'colors' (metals) and watchbands. The difference between that and the history is that each iPod has a clear niche. The problem Apple was having with such a selection of products is that it was hard to figure out which one should be purchased as they didn't have clear, differentiating roles.
snowwrestler 12y ago
This is just wrong. Jobs oversaw numerous variations in size, color, and specs during his time at Apple. The iMac came in like 5 colors at one point. And remember this was a desktop computer! Laptops in different sizes and colors; iPods in different sizes and colors, with Apple-branded accessories (remember the "socks" Apple sold for them?); iPad covers in multiple finishes and colors, etc. You just need to do your research before posting on something that can be easily looked up.

jbergstroem 12y ago

This was beautiful. Thank you.

Shivetya 12y ago

I actually like the article but for a reason I did not suspect, he identified another aspect of the Apple Watch I didn't quite connect the dots on earlier. Its not a well defined product, they could not make a decision and so went with everything. Committee designed and marketed.

DCKing 12y ago

The whole premise of this article is so wrong. If Jobs were alive we wouldn't have had this presentation in the first place. First up, under Jobs phablet iPhones would have been out of the question. He would have flat out rejected those, because he was simply wrong about some of the assumptions of phone design and would be a lot slower to admit that than Apple did without him. Second, the Apple Watch would not have been what it was now. For the first time in tech, Apple is second in execution with a more complicated product - one with a more complicated, information dense interface that requires two input methods to operate [1]. I'm not insinuating that Apple Watch will be an inferior product (I think it's more likely the opposite), but I don't think the execution of the product is something Jobs would have let happen in the same way. But that's all okay! Apple is going in a different direction, and it just might actually be the better direction to go in. I'll be buying my first iPhone later this year, and I very much doubt I would have done so if Jobs was still as influential as he was. This deification of Steve Jobs is incredibly annoying to me. The annoyance I feel when people say "what would Jesus do?" is the same annoyance I feel when reading these articles about "what would Steve do?". This article is just one level above fan fiction and it has gotten more than 450 votes. Ugh. He was a pioneer in the field, but let's appreciate him for what he's done and not for what he should have been doing today. [1]: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/smartwatch-wars-the-apple-watch-versus-android-wear-in-screenshots/ http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/smartwatch-wars-the-app... - the comments contain the gem "What kind of bizarro world are we in now where Google releases the clean, minimalist UI and Apple releases the information-dense but cluttered one?"

coldpie 12y ago
Yeah, it went from a kind of interesting analysis of the presentation and then fell over into fan fiction, even referencing the author's previous fan fiction pieces as some sort of weird Steve Jobs head canon. Yikes.
flatline 12y ago
I still think the "why" of the watch was missing from the presentation, and a lot of his points were spot on. My wife called me all excited about it and I kept asking her what it did and she didn't have a clue. But I'm not sure it matters. My takeaway from reading your post was "Google released a watch? Oh...who cares." So I think you're right, Apple is still doing more right than wrong. I just don't think of Google as a product company, the Android brand mostly belongs to other manufacturers in my mind, and the overall impression is still that they are all making iPhone knockoffs, even if in many cases they are objectively superior. There's still nobody around who can do a product release like Apple.

mlopes 12y ago

Not a realistic scenario. If Jobs was alive Apple wouldn't be chasing the Android and making crappy products, so he wouldn't need to give all of those lame excuses to try to justify poor decisions and no innovation in their products. I'm an iPhone user, and when my iPhone stop being usable, I'll move to a Google phone, in spite of the size, not because of it. The real reason why I'm moving to an Android phone is because all of the limitation that the iPhone has and that it hasn't removed while the Android evolved.

mpg33 12y ago

I think the iPhone's will sell themselves. The watch could have benefited from Steve selling it.

edwintorok 12y ago

The FSF has also made a statement regarding the new iPhone launch: https://www.fsf.org/news/free-software-foundation-statement-on-the-new-iphone-apple-pay-and-apple-watch https://www.fsf.org/news/free-software-foundation-statement-...

ragerman 12y ago

Very nicely done! The problem is Steve Jobs is dead. NO ONE ELSE could have delivered that pitch. Anyone trying would have been reaching. Only Federighi could even try. Perhaps even Jobs would have had difficulty. You see Apple is a different company. There is a desperation around it now, being a behemoth that needs to run at full tilt to stay exactly where they are. Earlier they were a tiny David constantly taking on Goliath. It takes something special for that desperation not to show.

Cowicide 12y ago

In my opinion, I think it was too early for Apple to release a watch. They should have waited until there was more of a breakthrough in battery storage (to make it far slimmer) and also the ability to give it some little bit of extra power capacity through heat off of one's wrist along with an ability to grab solar energy combined off the watch face. Also, it really, really needed to be able to work standalone without a tether to the iPhone, IMO. This was just too soon. The battery technology isn't there quite yet. This didn't blow my mind in practicality and usability, it just looks like another vanity watch someone wears in a vapid attempt to impress others. I'm underwhelmed.

transpy 12y ago

Man, I'm sold! Even if this is fictitious, there is just something about Jobs that actually influences me. The stainless steel model looks indeed very attractive.

mikecaron 12y ago

Absolutely NAILED it.

Radiant 12y ago

What an awful article. The whole "let's imagine how Steve Jobs would do it" thing is so lame and morbid. His whole critique is basically "Why isn't Tim Cook the same as Steve Jobs?!" If you need bullshit "storytelling" to like or buy a product, then that product probably sucks.