#20 • First Impressions: Apple Watch

Apple just shipped their first wearable, which has huge implications for the consumer-facing Internet of Things.

In this episode we talk about Apple Watch after spending some time with it, and ultimately recommend whether or not you should buy one.

Topics

* The “stand up” problem, and how to fix it

* Apple Watch is Apple’s MVP (minimum viable product) wearable

* 20 million units of a 1.0 product

* Launching with 3,500 not-very-good apps

* Incredible scale: 885 million iTunes accounts as of fall 2014 (source: Bono)

* Apple Watch is to Fitbit, Jawbone, etc. as iPhone was to Palm OS phones — a different species

* Compared to Apple, none of the other players has an ecosystem

* Fashion

* Close to 40 models, confusing naming

* “It’s called Apple Watch, but it’s not a watch.”

* It’s really not for people who buy watches for the time

* “Take your phone, take notifications and messaging, put it on my wrist.”

* Apple watch as a needy extension of your phone

* We are Pavlov’s Dogs, but with notifications

* Health and HealthKit

* Siri sucks less (!?)

* Related to Siri 3rd generation?

* Hypothesis: Apple deployed to Apple Watch first

* Payments and security

* Water and scratch resistance

* Will traditional high-end watch buyers buy Apple Watch?

* Price means not a wearable for “the rest of us”

* The near and far future of Apple Watch

* Apple’s App Store schizophrenia

* Should you buy one?

Stuff we learned after recording

* Apple Watch measures your heart rate every 10 minutes while at rest unless you go to the Heart Rate glance. [Apple Support] It measures your heart rate more often (every 5 seconds when running, for example) when you exercise. [@bradlarson]

Links

* Apple Watch: Consumer Reports’ First Test Results [YouTube]

* The science behind smartwatch scratch resistance: Is the sapphire crystal on the Apple Watch worth the extra money? [Consumer Reports]

* Mechanical watchmaker on the Apple Watch: ‘I wouldn’t say I consider it a threat’ [The Verge]