Everyone knows Apple plans to bring the company’s famed panache and chic design to a television, and integrate our viewing habits into the world’s most profitable technology and content ecosystem.
Everyone knows an Apple television is coming. Apple won’t deny it. These are the only issues:
- What will an Apple TV do that’s different?
- What will it cost?
- When will it be available?
As much as I’d like to see an Apple television, there are problems. Apple likes to charge a premium, and very good, smart, high quality HD screens these days cost less than an iPhone or iPad.
How can Apple justify a higher price tag to maintain the company’s notoriously outrageous profit margins? Apple’s products are multibillion dollar players in the tech gadget industry.
How many televisions can Apple sell to a world already overpopulated with dozens and dozes of manufacturers?
It doesn’t matter. Apple’s next insanely great thing won’t be an Apple television. It’ll be a watch.
Yes. A watch. The kind you wear on your wrist. This is an idea whose time has come, and an Apple watch fits in perfectly to the iOS ecosystem of Reminders, Notifications, music, movies, email, Twitter, and AirPlay.
The inspiration comes from comic book hero Dick Tracy, the police detective with the famed 2-way Wrist Radio.
Already there are watch wristbands for Apple’s iPod nano, which turn the iPod into a stylish, clever mood watch with functionality, so the idea isn’t far fetched at all.
I think of an Apple watch as not much more than a dumb screen on your wrist that receives signals via Bluetooth from your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or even your Mac.
Think about the possibilities. Phone calls could be originated from and sent to the Apple wrist watch. Music, TV shows, movies are a natural, of course, but I’m also thinking about Notification Center.
What better notification center could there be than your watch? It’s more ubiquitous than an iPhone and it’s not stuffed out of sight in your pocket or purse. It’s right there, on your hand, ready to use, always visible. Email, text messages, alarms and alerts could easily be routed from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac direct to your Apple watch.
Add Siri to the mix, and let the Apple watch act as your built-in microphone and speaker to communicate with Siri and your iPhone without touching the iPhone.
Use the Apple watch to dial out using Siri’s voice recognition. All you need is your iPhone or iPad or Mac within Bluetooth distance to make it all work.
An Apple watch would also be perfect for news flash alerts, sports scores, and VIP messages (which bypass voice mail). Siri would be useful to select music, TV shows, video clips, or movies, all of which could play on the watch screen.
The same holds true for your daily Calendar schedule. Tell Siri to give you a list of appointments, or reminders, or whatever, and an Apple wrist watch version shows up on the watches screen.
Who would buy an Apple watch? Anyone with an iPhone, iPad, PC, or Mac. We’d use the watch as an interface to the iPhone or iPad while on the go.
An Apple watch would need to last a few days before being recharged. And it wouldn’t take long for a wrist watch band industry to proliferate. How about putting the battery within the watchband (keep extra watchbands recharged and in different designs).
As much as an Apple designed television might be a monster (it’s usually one per household), there are more people in the world who would use an Apple watch attached to the Apple ecosystem.
Anybody up for watch apps?
Wristwatch? How retro…
I have to admit, it is an intriguing thought. I’ve seen bluetooth wristwatches out there, but I’ve never really been inspired to buy one–sort of like the days before the iPod. And I’d definitely trust Apple to come up with something fashionable.
It’s interesting when you consider that, way back when, wrist-watches were considered fashion pieces for women. Real Men used a pocket watch. In fact, it was considered girly to wear a wrist-watch. World War I changed all that (tough to pull out your pocket watch and check the time while holding a rifle). After the war, the pocket watch met a swift demise.
I understand that today’s hep cats eschew wristwatches because their phones have a clock. Why bother with a wrist-watch? I see women wearing watches, but mostly as fashion statements (wear big watch to emphasize small wrists). So it’s an intriguing idea–yeah, you get your clock, but you can also get your tweets, reminders, etc.
A quick thought: It definitely needs a high-resolution display. Watches are glanced at, not stared at. So I need to be able to glance at my wrist and see “Pick up milk” or “Product Meeting in 5 Minutes” or “Cool Video here.” If I have to pull up my arm and stick it in front of my face to read it, it’s just as bad as having to pull out my phone.
What a great idea. Except for one thing. Today’s generation doesn’t go for watches. They keep time by looking at… their iPhones.
Still, if Apple could make it a remote screen to my iPhone, I’d probably stand in line to buy one.
At what price?
I think its only the young kids who don’t wear watches, and that too is a fad that I see ending as my 17-year-old daughter started wearing a watch this year.
Most professionals still wear a watch, in fact, most PEOPLE still do. Where I think an Apple watch will have trouble is penetrating the high end, where digital and even battery-operated analog watches are a tough sell.
Personally, I’d like the functionality, but would rather wear a wear a fine mechanical watch and turn to my iPhone for information other than time as I currently do.
My prediction for next bit thing is true iPhone integration in cars. THAT will be a big one.
Pebble, anyone?