A friend of mine asked me if I was planning on picking up the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE when it became available. He's a fan of his Apple Watch, and he's had one on his wrist ever since the original model launched. He upgraded to get the GPS when the Series 2 launched, and I had no doubt that he'd be pre-ordering the LTE variant. Which he did, and he's excited to get it on Friday when it's scheduled to arrive.

And then he read the reviews.

If you hadn't kept up on the reviews that were released today, the basic gist is that the Apple Watch is still one of the best smartwatches on the market, watchOS 4 is fantastic, and it's a powerful little wearable. But cellular connectivity can be wonky at best, and trying to connect to the cellular network might simply end up failing more often than not.

Of course, some reviewers didn't have any issues at all, and others had quite a few issues. So many, in fact, that they got replacement Apple Watch Series 3 units during their review period, and even those didn't work. For what it's worth, Apple has addressed the issue, and has confirmed that there's a problem with some Apple Watch Series 3 units that connect to a Wi-Fi network that doesn't actually have a working connection, and then can't transition to a cellular network.

Not having LTE work on a device that has its main selling point, and even costs extra per month for owners, is a big issue. Apple says it's working on a fix, and that a software update will apparently alleviate the issue, but there's no telling when that update will actually arrive. If the software doesn't arrive by Friday, well, some folks might not have a working LTE-equipped Apple Watch that they paid at least $399 for.

This is genuinely bad timing, too. The Apple Watch Series 3, with and without LTE, went up for pre-order last Friday. The smartwatch will go on sale this Friday. Between those big days for Apple the company has admitted that there's an issue with the cellular connectivity -- the only reason to spend more money on this particular variant.

I saw people ask how Apple could have missed an issue like this, and, well, I asked myself the same question, too. I'd like to think that the company genuinely just missed it, though. Stuff happens, especially when it comes to technology, and maybe Apple didn't think it would be an issue out there in the real world. Unfortunately for them it is. The focus for the company at this point has to be to get that software upgraded, and the problem patched, before it goes on sale to the public.

I can't imagine that someone would give a good review on a product they bought and its main selling point doesn't work. I don't think Apple wants to leave it to chance here, hoping that the majority of units work while only a small amount don't. Social media will be blown up with complaints. (I'm sure there will still be complaints from the folks who don't know this issue has been addressed, and, hopefully soon, fixed.)

Still, it is bad timing. Maybe Apple can right this particular ship before it gets away from them. It will be interesting to see how quickly the software update that Apple says is coming arrives. Will it happen before the Apple Watch Series 3 launches? A week after? A month? One has to hope it's sooner rather than later.

Did you already pre-order an Apple Watch Series 3? If so, did you go with the LTE variant or the one without? Let me know!