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.

Comments

Translation

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple Watch is still a solution in search of a problem.

Re:Translation

[asylumx]

Wait! Your shirt has a back pocket? Tell me more about this marvel of modern fashion.

I can't tell if you're serious, but in any case cyclist's shirts have pockets along the lower hem on the back because they are out of the way when you lean forward and because pockets on your legs would be difficult to used due to leg movement. It has nothing to do with fashion and everything to do with function.

Agree with the rest of your comment though -- bike computers that do everything have been on the market for decades. Not to mention existing fitness watches that also fill the same market.

How does an Apple watch owner know it's midday?

[Rik Sweeney]

The battery has gone flat :P

Pebble Time

[xantonin]

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?

Re:Pebble Time

[narcc]

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.

Just not useful for apps

[ConfusedVorlon]

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.