Letters From 9914

The following are notes I’ve taken on Day One, regarding the Apple wearable.

I’m a huge Apple fan and this upcoming Apple wearable has gotten me really excited. I wanted it to be more than just a glorified pager - something that’ll make it less ‘nerd-centric’ and for the masses.

Expectations #

I read the article on 9to5mac on the movements within Apple on the development of this product and I wanted to watch to be so much.

Looking at HealthKit that has metrics like blood pressure and sugar levels got me so excited - what if the  Watch can be the device that monitors and files all these important vitals for your doctor?

Important health data collected once every blue moon now continuously being monitored. That’s definitely going take us really far and we’ll know when we really need to see a doctor. It will also help a doctor make better diagnosis.

An electronic consumer product that will finally be able to capture people of all ages - especially the older generation.

The Show #

I’m going to skip this bit - cold hard facts are boring.
If you want my reactions, you can take a look at my tweets as logged in Day One.

Post-Show #

I remained skeptical, somehow quite convinced that it’s going to stick around as a ‘nerd-centric’ thing. Admittedly it brings certain interesting use cases that ultimately stems from a health-centric point of view, but just about the only thing it can do that the iPhone can’t already achieve is the ability to measure heart rate. (most general stuff on activity can already be monitored by the new iPhones)

I was disappointed that the only fitness-related thing that the WATCH monitored was heart rate. The UI on the watch is nice, digital crowns a great idea but it still wasn’t the WATCH I yearned for. $349 for the base model will be a high barrier to entry for most people who wouldn’t care about these activity-monitoring features.

However, I’ll remain agnostic about it until I see the watch. iPods, iPhones and iPads weren’t exactly the most cost-friendly or compelling thing to get back in 2001, 2007 and 2009 respectively. And perhaps in 2014, the Apple Watch might carry something for the epoch of personal computing that we’ve yet to see yet.

I’ll be getting the iPhone 6 now that my contract is coming up. I like the Apple Watch, I’d love to get it, but my reasons are just not worth $349 and months of McDonalds to save up for it.

At least for now.