Earlier this morning, like a lot of people, I was busying myself with reading reviews. I loaded up as many as I could find, from a wide range of publications, and began reading and watching. Eventually, as the morning waned on and I had seen plenty of words on the subject, plenty of beautiful imagery on the content of the review, I came up with a conclusion:
The Apple Watch isn’t for me.
Earlier today, on April 8, Apple let loose the figurative floodgates and opened up reviews for the Apple Watch, the company’s first all-new product in five years. The Watch is an important, personal device for Apple, and it’s the company’s answer to a market that has exploded over the last few years. Of course, with Apple’s entry into the market a lot of people were asking, “Do any of those other companies need to even try?”
The short answer is, yes, yes they do. Because despite the fact that the general consensus at this point regarding the Apple Watch seems to be that the wearable is the best of the best, and easily trumps any smartwatches available right now from any manufacturer, it’s still just not there yet. While many reviews praised the watch for several different reasons, there were just as many admitting that the smartwatch from Apple has a lot of room to grow, still.
It’s very clear that the Apple Watch, and the Watch Sport and Watch Edition, is very much a first generation product. Not that that’s been any kind of secret, of course, but the reviews really drive home that point. This is a product that tells people, quite brazenly depending on the model you get, that you, more than anything else, just want to be on the bleeding edge of technology and gadgets. I can’t even count how many times I saw, or saw inferred, that if someone buys the Watch, at this point it’s mainly a statement of “I got one!” rather than any testament to the market, or the watch itself.
Of course, the fact that Apple’s smartwatch is the best of the best at this point, and probably will be for quite some time to come, is a testament to the folks over at Cupertino and the hard work they put into this new device. As I mentioned earlier, this is an important device for Apple, and I have no doubts that they’re going to sell millions of these things.
I’m just not going to be one that buys one just yet.
When I finished reading and watching the reviews, I realized that my compulsion to buy the newest thing has faded over the years. Sure, I still get the twinge sometimes, and sometimes it’s very hard to ignore, but I’ve done a pretty good job of doing just that as of late. And the Watch isn’t the product that’s going to break that trend, either. I’ve been going back-and-forth for weeks now, and after sifting through the reviews I’ve finally made up my mind.
I want the Apple Watch, but I’m more than comfortable, even happy, with the idea of waiting until the second- or third-generation wearable, rather than slapping down cash for this one. I’ll wait until Apple gets some more battery life out of the wearable. I’ll wait for the Watch to run its own native apps, rather than have to watch loading screens more often than not as it loads from the phone.
At the most basic level, I just don’t think I’m ready to bring another device that notifies me of things into my life. I’ve tried it more times than I can count at this point, and I just haven’t kept it. I don’t think I’m in the market for a smartwatch, even one that does so many things right like Apple’s. I’m perfectly okay with responding to things via my phone. And, simply put, I don’t agree with one review that said the phone “belongs in the pocket.”
In any event, how do you feel about the Apple Watch now that the reviews have landed? Are you swayed to buying one now? Or are you waiting for the next iteration? Let me know!
