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Apple's Smartwatch Draws Competition And A Very Bad Review (businessinsider.com) 104

Posted by EditorDavid from the not-all-watches-tell-time dept.
Apple's share of the smartwatch market actually started declining in 2016, dropping down to just 52.4% (down from 63%), according to Business Insider. And following up on Apple's first drop in earnings in over 10 years, Slashdot reader Zanadou shares a Gizmodo's latest story about the Apple Watch.

"I stopped wearing it two months ago, and I'm not sure if I'll ever wear it again. That's because it doesn't really do anything that anyone needs, and even when it does, it doesn't always work like it's supposed to. Here are some things I learned over the past year of strapping the screen vibrator to my wrist."
The article describes wanting to try a new form factor, but ending up confused by the watch's two-button interface (where the buttons perform multiple functions). Gizmodo's writer complains that "there's literally no comfortable way to actually use it," and while he did appreciate things like the time-of-sunrise feature and the ability to read text messages on your wrist, most Apple Watch apps "just end up being a shell of the iPhone app". And worst of all, it was difficult to use the watch to actually tell time, since "the screen doesn't always turn on when you raise your wrist like it's supposed to."
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Apple's Smartwatch Draws Competition And A Very Bad Review More

Apple's Smartwatch Draws Competition And A Very Bad Review

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  • Some products fail... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Frosty Piss ( 770223 ) * on Sunday May 01, 2016 @01:30PM (#52023565)

    News Flash! This is the beginning of end of Apple, I tell you! Where is John Sculley! Actually, Apple's history is littered with stuff that never quite made it, that's the way it works. And, many say that Apple's "drop in earnings" is simply due to the fact that most of what they do sell is not crap, so people replace it less often. Even with Apples "drop in earnings", they are at no risk of financial disaster. Disclaimer, I own an iPhone 5s which still works just fine for me, but in general I can not afford any of the other flashy baubles from the Apple line-up...

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tnk1 ( 899206 )

      That said, they do need to keep things moving along. You don't maintain high revenue and buzz doing rehashes of something you've already done.

      If they get the smartwatch right in terms of design and software, it could be useful, but they absolutely need to not only do that, but somehow bring back a device that just about everyone has stopped wearing, ironically due to smartphones like the iPhone. Seems like they're trying to turn buggywhips into car keys.

      I actually think that something like smart glasses i

    • Re:Some products fail... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by radarskiy ( 2874255 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @03:35PM (#52024265)

      I'd love to have a failure like "sold more watches than Switzerland".

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Alomex ( 148003 )

        Presently Tim Cook could shit in a handkerchief and there would an eight hour line up at the Apple store to buy a million of those. So yes, the Applewatch is a failure.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      While I agree that reports of their imminent demise are premature, it has to be said that they do seem to have been struggling to come up with new stuff since Jobs died. Lots of iterations and a watch.

      • Even when Jobs was running the shop, the vast majority of what Apple did was "Lots of iterations." from 1999 to his death, they came up with the iPod which wasn't conceptually different from anything already on the market, and a pretty neat phone. Even the iPad is just a big version of the iPhone without cellular voice.

        And let's not forget that Jobs had a nice string of failures too - his near obsession with cubic computers being a prime example. Jobs looked so good because the rest of the industry was c

  • Apps are Useless, But not the Watch (Score:4, Interesting)

    by glennrrr ( 592457 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @01:35PM (#52023599)
    Apps take too long to launch to be useful, but features such as calendar display, notifications, find my phone, ApplePay, temperature make it worth putting on every work day.

  • Pepsi smart watch because its smart enough to have the time always visible http://s67.photobucket.com/use... [photobucket.com] WIth my phone on vibrate if I need to be notified when out hiking/trails.

    • Agreed. I bought a Seiko years ago after doing a rough calculation of how much cheap breakable watches had cost me over a period of time. I still wear it ever day, and it does what a watch should, it tells time.

    • Cost £20. Tells the time, has an alarm. Done. Anything else I can do much better on a phone or laptop. Smart watches are a solution looking for a problem.

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @01:46PM (#52023667)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • In truth, these sorts of stories are less about Apple and more about the product category as a whole. However Apple managed to convince some people who otherwise didn't see the utility in smart watches to buy one. Now that group of people are realizing smart watches don't do anything compelling for them.

      Me, I've been wearing a Garmin Vivosmart for the past 14-15 months. I got it mainly because I'd hoped it would motivate me to get off my *ss more... and it has. But, somewhat surprisingly, it's also taught m

    • It's a V1 product. At V1, the iPhone didn't have apps, was 2G, didn't have cut'n'paste or any form of multitasking, and was slow. What will the v6 Apple watch do?

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Pennidren ( 1211474 )
        Hopefully it will allow you to tell time when you glance at it.

      • What will the v6 Apple watch do?

        Something useful, or is that too much to hope for?

      • The problem with the watch is the same as the problem with smartphones in the mid '90s: the technology isn't up to the vision. I have a Skagen watch that has a titanium band and is so thin that I can forget that I'm wearing it. That's the sort of form factor that a watch should have. In comparison, the Apple watch reminds me of the Casio calculator watch that I thought was really cool when I was 11: it's big and bulky. On top of that, it has a short battery life. It needs to be about a quarter of the c

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by wwphx ( 225607 )
      I've been wearing a Pebble Time Steel since they shipped, well, except when I sleep, and quite like it. I looked at the Apple Watch and there were many things that I didn't like: weight, price, and UI. I want: an alarm, a count down timer, and a display that I can read without having to put on my reading glasses. This is a major point -- I had cataract surgery a couple of years ago and I need a big, blocky display. With the widely-available dev kit for the Pebble, the watch face that I needed was availa

  • News Flash! Gizmodo criticizes Apple! (Score:5, Informative)

    by TimHunter ( 174406 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @01:46PM (#52023669)
    The Macalope has already deconstructed this bit of click-bait. http://www.macworld.com/article/3061053/ios/over-the-top-making-your-apple-watch-diatribe-stand-out.html [macworld.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Yeah, it's hard to take Gawker seriously these days since it's just a big pile of click-bait. That is their business model - writers are paid by the click.

      And you also have to remember Gakwer is in a small bit of trouble, what with a lawsuit and some despicable courtroom behavior that surprisingly hasn't got the attention of the judge for openly defying his order.

      Oh yeah, and the iPhone 4 thing that while generating a lot of money when it happened... basically locked Gawker out of Apple events for the rest

  • You might not like it but.. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by bobm ( 53783 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @01:50PM (#52023691)

    If it doesn't work for you then fine, I actually find it quite handy. (note that it's nowhere near perfect though but the real issues have been discussed before (battery life being the biggest)).

    My test of usefulness was a week long trip I took for business and forgot to grab it on the way out. I missed being able to figure out what phone call to ignore or answer, seeing the next meeting or the text I just got without dragging the phone out of the pocket all the time is where it's a time/effort saver for me.

    I can see if you are one of those people who get hundreds of notifications a day then it might be a pain but I only have family and work setup to buzz the watch. So if I get buzzed more than a couple times an hour that is unusual. Everything else I check when I have time.

    It reminds me of the first apple phone, I came from using a palm treo so it wasn't an evolutionary jump for me (I also a couple windows devices). The first apple phone really didn't do much. Apple is frustratingly slow to market with features.

    I probably won't buy v2 of the apple watch, I'm saving up for the next Garmin Forerunner (9xx) if it is a big enough jump from my 910XT but I do wear the apple watch daily and like it.

    • I'm in basically the same boat as you on needed smartwatch functionality. Have a look at the Garmin Vivoactive. It's got the Phone/SMS notifications and Calendar but it uses some kind of E-ink screen so the battery life (with GPS off) is miles ahead of the iWatch. I've gone over a week without charging mine.

      I think the general gist of the article hits the nail on the head - For the price of the iWatch, the added value is just not there. Sure there are a tonne of randomly fancy apps but why not just take y

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cyn1c77 ( 928549 )

      My test of usefulness was a week long trip I took for business and forgot to grab it on the way out. I missed being able to figure out what phone call to ignore or answer, seeing the next meeting or the text I just got without dragging the phone out of the pocket all the time is where it's a time/effort saver for me.

      Think of how much time you would have saved if you just left the phone behind too!

  • I got a Casio Cosmo Phase [chez-alice.fr] since the time and date are always visible, along with the solar system simulation (makes it easy to know which planets are up after sunset and before sunrise to know if you'll take out your C9.25). Battery lasts for several years, it is actually waterproof (can do swimming and snorkeling) not just splash-resistant like the Apple Watch, it has the basics you'd want from a watch like multiple alarms, count-down timer, stopwatch, a very responsive button interface and I can tell you

    • I got a Casio Cosmo Phase [chez-alice.fr] since the time and date are always visible, along with the solar system simulation (makes it easy to know which planets are up after sunset and before sunrise to know if you'll take out your C9.25). Battery lasts for several years, it is actually waterproof (can do swimming and snorkeling) not just splash-resistant like the Apple Watch, it has the basics you'd want from a watch like multiple alarms, count-down timer, stopwatch, a very responsive button interface and I can tell you it is resilient as it has been working great for me since 1989!

      The fact is, many many people, me included, have swum/showered with their Apple Watch for well over a year [1]. Even swimming in the ocean is totally fine as long as you wash it afterwards.

      The reason Apple didn't say it's good for swimming is that the UI simply doesn't function when you swim with it (also not sure if the defined apps are designed to support swim tracking).

      [1] http://furbo.org/2015/07/14/a-... [furbo.org]

  • Those guys are nothing but the whiniest blog out there.

    Yeah, I see slashdot closing the doors by the end of 2016 if this is the quality of freaking articles we are getting now.

  • Maybe the Gizmodo hipsters should give the watches to me. They have the attention span of a gnat.

  • Too many buttons? (Score:5, Funny)

    by mveloso ( 325617 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @02:46PM (#52023997)

    It's hilarious that someone is complaining that an Appl product has too many buttons

  • Android Wear actually easier to use? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Lev_Arris ( 60782 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @03:12PM (#52024143) Homepage

    I found it interesting that Apple's 'digital crown' concept apparently isn't very comfortable to use while my Android Wear watch (an LG G Watch R) is perfectly serviceable with just a single button (to wake it up) and the rest of the UX being driven via the touch screen itself. (The apps you open most often are always at the top of the list, so getting to my groceries app is a simple swipe left and a tap.) Similarly, it's screen is always on, so the most basic function of telling the time is always right there, no matter whether the accelerometer noticed me raising my wrist or not.

    Of course, it does suffer from the same 'what can you do with it' problem that the Apple Watch does. Apart from dismissing notifications, using voice commands to set Google Now reminders or start the occasional timer/countdown, there really isn't that much useful functionality to benefit from. App-wise, I really only use two: one to track my groceries (Bring!) and one to tell me I've left my phone somewhere by alerting me of the Bluetooth connection loss (Cerberus).

  • Sell the strap as an accessory, but build an entire Apple store around that alone. With a genius bar, whose only assistance will be about donating those dollars to help feed the poor, you know, jest us folks stuck with three-year-old computers.

  • If I had ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Sunday May 01, 2016 @05:31PM (#52024783)

    ... longer arms, I could wear a Beowulf cluster of these.

  • It's a niche device at best. Apple tried to create a market for something where there was almost no real demand, and they failed.

    A "... a shell of the iPhone app" is probably the kindest way to describe it. Limited functionality, limited use case, limited operational range...it was mostly a status symbol for people who had $400 to blow. I've yet to see a review where the reviewer said it was a truly useful or life-changing gadget, or failing that, something they couldn't do without. Most of the reviews I've

  • As a brand new product category for the company and a revision A product, nobody buying the Apple Watch on launch day *really* knew what they were getting. Sure, we saw the Keynote presentation and the marketing material. But there's no substitute for actually using a product yourself for a while on a daily basis, to form an educated opinion.

    Like a lot of people, I think I primarily wanted the watch because I realized Apple had a long track record of selling products that wound up being real game-changers.

  • I don't like how it requires an iPhone. I'd like a stand alone smartwatch. Also, they are heavy, big, and power hunger. I will stick with my old school Casio Data Bank 150 watch. :P

  • Personally, I have no interest in the Apple Watch. I really just don't like wearing watches in general, let alone digital "smart watches".

    My wife was looking for a fitness device, and bought, tried, and returned two that were horrible. I got her an Apple Watch and after 6 months she still loves it. The kicker - she HATES most technology, and is about the opposite of a "gadget person" as one can be.

    Not surprisingly, the Gizmodo "reviewer" barely mentions anything about the fitness tracking, etc, capabilit

    • That's my wife's use case, she didn't care for the Garmin smart watch and traded it for an Apple Watch. Most of the positive thoughts above seem to be for fitness tracking, as well. Amusingly she wore both the Apple Watch and her old Garmin GPS watch at the same time for her last big race. She likes the smart features but the older style GPS watches are more accurate, apparently.

  • aka, when the startup watch division of your company makes more money last year than Rolex

  • This is why they need steve jobs (Score:3)

    by EmperorOfCanada ( 1332175 ) on Monday May 02, 2016 @03:02AM (#52026521)
    I can see Steve Jobs launching the prototype watch mockups into the wall yelling, "Why the poop would I want to wear a brick on my arm? This isn't elegant, this isn't design, this is a committee who put everything that popped into their heads into a single thing." "Boil this thing down until it is slim and does what people want. Not all these stupid menus."

    I can see him then making a rule. "Only use the watch for features where people glance at their phones; time, weather, notifications, minimal navigation. If it more than a glance then we don't put it on the watch."

    But instead they allowed the "creatives" to do whatever they wanted without any reigning in their stupider ideas. Many of the ideas such as incorporating the heartbeat or the apple pay should have waited until the technology was a few generations in and those features could be added to the super slim long battery lived watch.

    Apple is clearly a company that has had one home run every few years with a new product that soon eclipses the former products as they go into the sunset. Macbooks are a big market, just not a terribly big one for apple, yet in their day they were king. The iPhone was certain to meet the same fate. So while the watch could have been great, it certainly wasn't going to eclipse the iPhone. Thus Apple seems to have forgotten this little factoid. Build something that can eclipse the iPhone. Maybe that is what they were trying with whatever car project they have going. Maybe it will come out and blow everyone away. The critical bit being that I hope they have more than one high risk project in the works.

    If Steve Jobs had any one superpower it was that he didn't accept other people as having genuine expertise no matter how much they were at the top of their field. He knew that it was too easy for them to get caught up in group think, or to think that their shit smelled better than others just because of their qualifications. Thus he was perfectly happy to call the top experts in any domain an idiot if what they were proposing didn't make sense. He was also happy to demand that they do things that went against every industry norm that they understood, and could justify all day long. I don't see anyone at Apple willing to call Ivy an idiot for his ugly flat designs, or his stupid fat crappy battery watch. He is the expert you know.

  • My only real exposure to the Apple watch has been reading these types of stories about it, but this is the first time that I noticed their market share. Out of the many entries in the smart watch category, they have more than half? How can that possibly be considered a failure?
    I have had a first generation Pebble for a while, and really everything that folks write about the Apple watch reminds me of my Pebble experience: It's neat for seeing messages on your wrist, but--after a while-- remembering to charge

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