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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.
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.
No one wants to see ads on their wrist.
No one wants to see ads anywhere, ever.
Doesn't seem to stop the advertisers, though.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
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.
"I'm not sure what would count as the killer app for the PC"
Spreadsheets. (Lotus Notes, Excel etc).
As far as word processing is concerned, in my time something called WordPerfect was the market leader.
So... what's the difference? What are you getting when you trade a Pebble for an Apple Watch? Do those features make-up for the trade-offs, like the dramatically reduced battery life? What about the difference in price?
From what I've seen, the Apple watch does less and costs more.
Required reading for internet skeptics