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Apple Watch Still Waiting On App Developers
An anonymous reader writes: It's been almost three months since the Apple Watch launched, and the tiny device hasn't taken people's wrists by storm. That's not to say it's a failure — experts estimate Apple has sold between three and five million of them, and we may get more detailed sales information during their earnings call, tomorrow. But many major app developers are still missing from the Watch's catalog, and Apple doesn't have a good way of roping them into the new section of its ecosystem. "I don't know if we could get it all in there in a way that feels good and works well," said a Facebook executive. "Why would you look at a small picture when you can look at a large one on your phone?" said Snapchat's CEO. The app rush that hit phones and tablets is dampened for the Watch. For now, all Apple can do is improve their development toolkit and hope coders can figure out useful new wrist-based interactions.
Apple Watch is still a solution in search of a problem.
"wrist-based interactions"
The battery has gone flat :P
Summation 2
Wasn't busy looking at my apple watch cause I ain't got one
It comes down to one key business problem: these companies can't monetize a wearable. No one wants to see ads on their wrist. Facebook fears the Apple Watch. This could hit their top and bottom line.
It's been almost three months since the Apple Watch launched, and the tiny device hasn't taken people's wrists by storm. That's not to say it's a failure
Whether it is a failure or not depends upon Apple's expectations for the device.
If Apple Watch is selling at a rate of only one-tenth of what Apple expected, then it is indeed a failure.
The Snapchat CEO has a good point. Why would I look at the tiny picture on a phone when I can look at a big one on my desktop?
He's probably wrong, though. People are both dumber than a box of rocks and richer than they deserve to be. This is why fools and their money are soon parted. They'll pay for the watch, they'll pay for the apps, and they'll be no better off for it. It just takes a little time, that's all.
This might bet the point at which Apple without Jobs falters.
You can't introduce the "revolutionary" new product and not have the killer use-case for it. You can't release "teh smartwatch" and have no idea of WTF people will use it for.
Wow, the ability to see my text messages without looking at my phone? Nope, not compelling.
The smartwatch has always felt like a gimmick with little utility for most people.
And this got cemented when they were selling the gold plated "gee but I'm a rich asshole" version. I'm pretty sure I've never heard a single person who could finish the sentence "I want a smart watch because ..." with anything substantive.
Android or Apple, I don't see any value in splashing out for something which they still are hoping someone will create the thing which makes it useful.
Sorry, no. Increasingly mobile consumer electronics are just vehicles for ads, analytics, and giving up my privacy ... and any app which makes use of this is more of the same. Some of us are moving to less digital crap in our lives, and not more.
This falls firmly in the camp of no defined purpose, no benefit, and not getting my money.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
On the other hand, you could have a watch loaded with a lot of mediocre apps that cause its power use to spike a lot, draining the battery and leaving you to charge it a few times a day. So either you end up taking the watch off once or twice a day or you end up with a cable linking your phone to your laptop or a wall charger.
Sounds like great options that are sure to drive adoption of the core product.
As a developer I hear people complain the watch does everything the phone is already used for, and that aside from aesthetic perfection of Yet Another Apple Device on ones person, there are a half-dozen android competitors that are easier to code for and arent tethered to apples comparatively draconian app store. Have other devs written anything interesting for it?
Good people go to bed earlier.
Meanwhile, my Pebble Time, which was recently released, has a ton of apps on it. And it lasts for 7 days, is 30m water proof, has an accelerometer for fitness or sleep tracking, and a microphone for text responding or other features. Oh, and a color display.
It connects to Android AND Apple devices. I can control music from it, read texts, check my calendar, and something else too, I can't quite remember, I think it has to do with a clock.. Oh well.
Why would I want an Apple Watch for more than twice the cost again?
1) Buy the Apple Watch
2) Spend days or weeks of work developing an app
3) Cross your fingers to hope it goes in Apple's store
4) See your app listed with dozens of others just like it including about a dozen free options
5) ???
6) Profit!
Obligatory XKCD
I'll go out of my way to not buy a smart watch. It's uncomfortable to have something around your wrist, especially while typing. What the heck are you doing all day that you constantly need to know what time it is, or what the stock prices are, or what the weather is? A smartphone is accessed just as quickly as a pocket watch and will notify you when your appointments are coming up. Telling me what time it is before I need to know just makes me worry about what's coming up instead of focusing on what's going on right now.
Nuts to that. Less is more. Even once we have augmented reality, it shouldn't be popping up useless numbers and text - it should be seamless and unobtrusive, with the "killer apps" removing useless information like billboards from the world.
It's hard to justify spending $350 or more on a device that is hobbled by poor battery life, needs to tether to an iPhone 5 or later. And to top it off, the heart rate sensor returns false information intentionally and the oxygen sensor is not enabled. I won't delve into it not working with Android devices simply because it is an Apple product.
The device is a 1.0 model. And, like most 1.0 models, it has flaws. The flaws listed above will keep all but the purest Apple devote away. Our household is predominantly Apple. I enjoy developing apps for iOS and Mac. I even have an iPhone 5 (can't justify the 6 due to the effect of the net cost on our mobile plan and wallet). But, I WILL NOT spend $350 on a device that has so many flaws and a fledgling utility market. Drop the prince to $150 and it will move. At $350, it isn't going to happen anytime soon.
The Apple Watch shipped with just the very limited WatchKit SDK available to developers. The coming WatchOS 2 update will provide developers with a native sdk that allows apps to actually run on the watch rather than just display an interface to an iPhone app.
Perhaps this new sdk will attract more apps.
"Got to get these WiiU games out the door first, then we'll be right with you," said devs.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Background
- I'm a developer on iOS.
- My apps seem like good fits for apple watch (VLC Remote and VLC Streamer).
- I wear an apple watch.
Data:
Approximately nobody uses my apple watch app.
I don't use any apple watch apps.
My thoughts:
Having bought the watch, I can see why. It just isn't useful for quick interactions.
The default setting on the watch is that when you drop your wrist, it resets to the watch face, so every time you lift your wrist, you need to go to the launcher, find the app, launch it (wait some seconds) and then interact with the small screen.
There is an option to make the watch return to the point you left in the app - but in most cases, that isn't what you want for your watch. You do want it to show you the time when you lift your wrist 10 mins after you last used it.
On top of this, the things that could be useful like siri interaction are weak. Siri just doesn't work nearly as well as google now.
I keep wearing the watch because I like the activity monitor, but I don't even use my own apple watch apps.
VLC Remote for iPhone and Android
Hey. Just saying.
That's what I want and love about my Android Wear watch. You don't really need it for anything else.
>> For now, all Apple can do is improve their development toolkit and hope coders can figure out useful new wrist-based interactions.
Or, they could take their famous mountains of cash and contract developers to write the "missing" apps for their watch. But if that's too much of a gamble for Apple...
The main problem with small devices is that they make input very difficult. If Facebook doesn't awaken you to the idea that everyone has something to say, no matter how trivial, then nothing will. Start focusing on input technology that make it easy to call an idiot a dolt and these small devices may eventually take off.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
I don't see it as a problem that every app maker does not have an Apple Watch app, because not every application NEEDS an Apple Watch app. The Apple watch is not "searching for a problem", it has some very specific things it does that solve problems better than the phone does. But because of the narrow focus not every app will need to be on the watch.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Off the top of my head the Apple Watch has: A capacitive touch screen Heart rate and ambient light sensors 802.11b/g/n WiFi 8GB storage Apple Watch's OLED screen resolution of 312x390 vs. the Pebble Time 144x168 e-paper. Battery life is not a problem if you charge it each night. It takes 90mins to get to an 80% charge.
I have a Pebble Time, and an Apple Watch (I'm developing apps for both).
I tried using the Pebble Time exclusively for a week, but it's just not as useful as the watch...
The Apple Watch apps are better (even with the simpler API of WatchOS 1.0), and I am pretty sure there are more of them than Time apps.
The biggest issues though is the integration of the Apple Watch just makes it more useful - with the Pebble Time, any notification goes through to the watch. With the Apple Watch, I have carefully narrowed the set of notifications that actually reach the watch to a small number, so a notification really means something if it goes to the watch instead of my phone.
Also the Pebble Time screen is really, really hard to read under lots of normal conditions like being indoors, or in the dark... the backlight is not very strong. It's much easier to read the Apple Watch screen in full sun than it is to read the Time screen anywhere with dim lighting.
The Apple Watch is worth about 10x the Time because it's vastly more usable, especially so when WatchOS 2.0 apps come out.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
when watchOS 2 - which allows native apps and more functionality - comes out in autumn. as for the "facebook executive" and the snapchat CEO - that's smart. nobody wants apps that don't work on the tiny screen of the watch - at least i don't. don't give in to those imbecile reviewers who lamented the lack of a browser or on-screen keyboard. that's just stupid on a screen twice the size of your upper thumb digit. but i bet there'll be a facebook messenger with a dictation function pretty soon.
The Apple Watch is useful for quick interactions - in the context of a longer activity, where it makes sense to lock in the screen on raise to the current app.
Going forward your own remote app will make more sense when you can tie into a complication, so the user can just raise the wrist, tap on the complication showing current play time and then open the app to control. It's really easy to set up multiple watch faces you switch between so I see where users would set up task specific faces that would let them jump to things relevant to that task.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If you want to know the future of the Apple Watch, look at the history of the calculator watch. Once the "wow factor" wears off, it will be relegated to the wrists of virgins.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
iOS doesn't allow Android-style widgets on the phone
iOS developers have been able to add custom widgets to the Today view (easily visible in lock screen) for some time now.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
same here two days, probably three if you turn it off at night.
Pebble is the only one that makes it trivial to program for, you dont even have to install an IDE or software to write for it.
Apple watch and the Google wear watches all suffer from the same problem The killer apps for them, Health apps like Glucose monitoring and other health apps that are useful are blocked by the idiots at the FDA. Get an affordable non invasive Glucose monitor and an app on the phone and watch for this and you can make a huge change in someone's life.
Honestly the killer apps are medical and shackled by the morons that run the regulation system.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
What Apple just don't get it is this: no one needs a stupid remote control for the phone, but a phone on a wrist. Guys from NeptunePine got it right: this is a phone, an independent device that can make calls and browse the Web. I want to leave my smartphone at home and take a smaller phone on a wrist (for cycling \ hiking \ whatever).
What NeptunePine got wrong is the design and hardware: it looks dreadful, with crappy screen and abusmal battery life. I'm sure Apple can pick it up and make it a lot better. They have great screens, and I'm sure they can put a battery and a relatively weak (this is a smartwatch, not 4core 6" monster) processor in a smaller case.
The fact that copymonkeys like samsung don't get it is understandeable - they don't have anything to copy from. But Apple should be better than that. Besides, how hard could it be to put a small but decent retina-resolution screen with a smallish battery on a wrist?
Does the iOS Pebble Time app not have this screen?
Not that I can tell, apps on IOS cannot control the routing of notifications.
one of the first review videos I watched for the Apple Watch complained that notifications were all-or-nothing; when did Apple begin allowing you to control that?
From launch of the device, you can also control what apps that have Apple Watch apps show up on the device also. I'm not sure how they could possibly miss it since "Notifications" is at the top level of the Apple Watch control app.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I've had a Samsung Gear 2 watch now for about a year. I really like it, and don't leave home without it. It has enough conveniences that if it breaks, or I've had it long enough, I'll get another one.
But ...
It's not enough to get someone to switch phone types, and neither is the iWatch. Mostly because, with such a small screen, the number of apps is limited. It's not suitable for reading more than a few paragraphs. It's not suitable for typing (other than voice dictation). It's not useful for web browsing.
It's a nice extension for things already on my phone so I can use some phone features without taking it from my pocket. Messaging, calendar and other notifications or nice. Of course it makes using the phone easier, especially taking a phone call when it's just not convenient to take out my phone. It is a watch, so it's more convenient to check the time and date. I use the stopwatch and timer often enough. And the Samsung watch has a camera sufficient for taking quick pictures and Facebook posting (I'll never buy another watch without a camera).
I've tried a few others, including email programs, tiny keyboards, news aggregators, and calculators. All of which have been deleted. The only really convenient one I added was one that lets me use my phone as a remote camera to see behind objects or in tight places. Every other app I've installed, I've removed. Even new watch faces because they burn through the battery. I suppose someone who is a bit OCD would like the health monitors, but I even turned them off as I find my scale is a sufficient indicator of whether or not I'm actually losing weight. And they burn through the battery. (I can get almost 4 days on my Gear, I usually charge it after 3)
I go through the apps in the gear store from time to time and still cannot find any that I feel a need for. The apps I use, in order of most used, are:
* receiving text messages (very often)
* checking the time (often)
* camera (more often than I thought I would)
* taking phone calls (sometimes
* timer (sometimes)
* remote camera (rarely)
* stopwatch (rarely)
* find my phone (even more rarely)
The only one my phone didn't come with is the remote camera.
Until some new tech comes out that lets me project my watch onto a larger surface with touch screen capability, I doubt if any app developer is going to come up with anything more useful than derivatives of the things already installed.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
I am waiting for my free coffee cup from Apple first..
I am quite sure that if the discussions still exist for the original iPhone are still in the /. archive they look very similar to this set of comments at three months in. And we all know what a colossal failure the iPhone was for Apple!
Idiots!
I live in an affluent area with a plethora of iPhones and I have yet to see an iWatch.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Apple's (and most other "smart" watches) watch works with smart phones with pretty displays. So, exactly, why bother with a watch? Where it would make sense is paired with a compact tough smart phone with maybe an E-Ink display and no fancy GUI. Keep the phone on your hip, in your shoe, on top of your beanie. Stick a Bluetooth bone-coduction headset on, control everything with the watch, and it's now a semi-hands-free wearable system. Everyone seems to think the iPhone/Android direction is the future path. Maybe it's not. It certainly has not been for me. Problem 1: How to sell people a high-performance phone for $500 that has a minimalist and low-power display/UI + a watch for $300 to interface with it. Problem 2: Apple doesn't want to cannibalize phone sales, so they're not willing to make the watch work with other than their high end phones.
It's not necessary or particularly useful, nor does it provide a user with the ability to do anything they can't do nearly as easily anyway. I know two people with these watches, and here's their reason for buying one (word for word): "Because it's an Apple Watch." As opposed to, say, "I want to tell time conveniently" or "picking up my 10 oz. phone to look at Facebook is SO MUCH WORK!"
iOS doesn't allow Android-style widgets on the phone
iOS developers have been able to add custom widgets to the Today view (easily visible in lock screen) for some time now.
No that is not anything like Android's at-a-glance style of widgets that can sit on the lock screen. Are you really that much of an Apple fanboy that you're going to pretend you don't see a significant difference between the implementations?
Apple's version is a more cumbersome user experience (and yes before you get all upset I'm sure you can find many things on Android that are a more cumbersome user experience than iOS too). You have to activate the screen, pull down the notifications bar and -- if you left it on the "notifications" tab -- switch to the "today" tab and scroll down to find the widget you're looking for.
I think you mean iCows.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
nt
iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Apple has a $760B market cap (just looked up on my Apple watch), so (a) they're not missing your $350, and (b) maybe they know what they're doing.
Who *are* you?
What are you talking about?
All failures, which is exactly why Apple is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy right now.
I'm an iOS developer and I really WANTED to build something cool for the Apple Watch, but it's just not practically possible. It has nothing to do with the market size or the physical limitations of the watch, and everything to do with the restrictions Apple has put on what graphical capabilities are available to third-party developers. With the current APIs you can build things out of lists and buttons, and not much else. Arranged in a pre-defined layout.
Forget sprites, tile maps, zooming, panning, dragging, sound, moving objects, most animations, particle effects and other things you associate with modern computer games. Those aren't available. At least not yet. The watch has the capabilities, but Apple either wants to preserve battery life or wants an initial phase where consumers get used to Apple Watch apps behaving in a certain standardized way.
Haven't had to rewind mine for 25 years now.
I think this thread misses the point of the iWatch. I think did too initially.
I write iOS Apps and I've had good success with them.
So on the announcement of iWatch I immediately thought about how to make use of the iWatch.
Jump on the bandwagon, why not?
But I can't really think of any good way that the watch augments my Apps.
I could extend the daily notification to the watch but really it's not a game changer for my apps.
I use them myself and love using them on iPhone and iPad, but on that tiny screen with what appears to be a fiddly UI? Nah...
I've not bought an iWatch yet, I've thought long and hard about it but I think I've arrived at the conclusion it's worth trying the cheap end version.
Why?
I see two things the iWatch has that I think I'd like to have.
1) Apple Pay without having to pull out your phone.
2) A discreet and personal notification system using a haptic feedback interface.
I like the idea of not missing phone calls, being able to get notifications of important emails, txts etc from a gentle tap on my wrist.
I don't like being attached to my phone, I prefer to leave it on my desk or in my brief case when I'm out meeting clients.
In doing this I miss calls and messages that are important.
The iWatch, as I see it, is just a hardware extension of the iOS eco-system.
It's not a separate entity in it's own right as the iPad is separate from iPhone.
So as an app eco-system it doesn't make any sense and neither does this article.
Time wasting social media (FB, Snapchat et al) are piss poor examples too.
Facebook's got an issue with Apple right now (see Samsung patent case announcement today with FB siding against Apple).
So any comments coming out of FB towards Apple right now can be taken with large amounts of scepticism.
iWatch Killer App? I'd say it's already there in "Apple Pay".
You're still made you didn't get to come back?
Yea because you charged it mid day while at work or something.
I'm not convinced by the complication story.
My guess is
% of users who bother to customise the watch face
* % of users who add my complication to the face
* % of users who even find that useful
~= 0%
essentially, you're describing using complications as a launcher, but it is a launcher with 4 (?) launchable apps, and it is still a tap/load away from actually using the app.
VLC Remote for iPhone and Android
It's a lot more compelling though when they realize how fast third party applications can be as useful as the built in "Activity" - just one post on Lifehacker detailing the technique and millions would be using it for key apps.
essentially, you're describing using complications as a launcher, but it is a launcher with 4 (?) launch able apps
Yes, but the key is PER WATCH FACE. It's just a moment to switch to a watch face that is customized for a specific task.
There is still one tap/load but that's enough that a desired task would be quick to get to - and no reason one of the complications could not be +30 (for your app) that would launch you app telling it to jump 30 seconds on launch...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
One thing lost in all this... you always hear about companies caught flat footed, and then not seeing replacement technology coming and smacking them in the face. Apple is one of the few companies that build out the tech that will eventually replace them.
iPod was worth millions/billions, lets build a phone that will replace all MP3 players. Hell, even intra-line.... they killed the Mini (our fave hard drive player) then introduced the flash based Nano, then the iPod touch. There's sure to be a large amount of cannibalization up and down the iPod touch, iPad Mini, Ipad, iPhone 6, 6+ line. Hey, we'll sell you whatever, as long as it has an apple logo on it.
I see the watch as a toe in the water of a phone screen replacement. Maybe you use the watch all day. Maybe you use the phone.
So now Apple already has a hedge. So you're saying people may buy one, and have a high margin watch on their arm? Hey, we have one with an Apple logo on it. Or you say, people want to stick to their phone? Hey, we have one with an Apple logo on it, (surprisingly high margin compared to the industry).
It's a hedge. A very interesting hedge with a brand new UI (I'm a fanboy for any new UI interaction - taptic engine + Force touch kind of makes me say WOW, i'm a UI geek like that).
Maybe it will be a Newton (don't think so, it's already way past Newton numbers). Maybe it will be an Apple TV, nice, good numbers for any company besides one the size of Apple. Or maybe it will be iPad. But Apple should be congratulated for taking the risk, for having enough foresight to see possible competitors and neither ignore nor buy them, but create them. And it has the cash to let this one percolate a bit.