Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
It’s not often that I am right when predicting the future. In fact, if memory serves (a dubious assumption) I am never right on predicting the future, thus my time as a professional lottery player was short-lived.
With that, I am here to say that with Apple set to (finally) launch its Watch device, the smart watch market is going to be huge. HUGE! I’m talking people will be wearing multiple smart watches at once. Most will be Apple, but all those other crazy smart watches out there, and soon to flood the market, will also get some wrist love.
I am talking Swatch fever all over again.
I know I have gone on record as stating I do not in any way understand this whole smart watch phenomenon even after having demoed several of the non-Apple alternatives. But, I was wrong! And I know I was wrong because I am always wrong. (See above regarding lottery history.)
This market is real, and Apple is going to unleash that pent-up demand for something you strap to your wrist, can tell you what time it is, interact with your cellphone that has become too large to carry and/or is buried in your pocket because you never really use it that much, and only occasionally needs to be hooked up to a power source.
(Side note: The cellphone interaction is key here and yet another reason why Apple is smarter than your average bear.)
For years, Apple stuck with a mantra that its iPhone product should allow for one-handed operation and thus kept their device at a size allowing for such operation. Remember when Apple came out with the iPhone 4 with the 4-inch screen that was really just a smidge taller than the iPhone 3G series? It still allowed for one-handed operation and was kept for years through the iPhone 5 series.
But, with the latest iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple has joined the two-handed bandwagon as well as opened up a whole new market for its Watch. Now, people can bury their larger-than-life iPhones in their purses/satchels/backpacks and still know what time it is. Brilliant!
And that need to charge yet another device? Don’t you know, people have come to love charging their electronic devices. It allows them to feel “closer” to them and who doesn’t want to feel closer to an electronic device.
(VIDEO CLIP CENSORED!)
Sure, analysts were less than impressed with the Apple Watch after hearing it would retail for at least $350 and, at least at launch, would not provide some functions expected of other wrist-based “smart” devices costing but a fraction. But, they are wrong! They just don’t understand the nuances involved with both the Apple Watch and the smart watch market in general.
People scoffed at the iPad when it was launched, and we all now know those people were idiots. The masses love anything Apple puts out, regardless of its questionable usefulness.
I have a family member who bought an iPhone 6 Plus and had to buy a man-purse just to carry it around in. He is primed and ready for an Apple Watch. And if I have learned anything from “scientific” polls, it’s that one person can be used to gauge the habits of millions of people. Imagine if I knew of two people who just had to buy an Apple Watch.
Look, many of you will remain skeptical of at least this first generation of smart watches. But that won’t matter. Apple will make it work. The masses will buy them, or at least the Apple versions. This segment will become the focus of the consumer electronics space for the next 3-5 years.
So to those doubters, I say follow me in just giving in to smart watch fever. It will be like going to a baseball game: You won’t really understand what’s going on; you won’t really understand why it costs so much; but thanks to all those over-priced beers and hot dogs, you will definitely not feel well.
https://youtu.be/1siRWxkoyf8
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
• In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Apple’s SVP of design, Jonathan Ivy, let it be known that the company is indeed more interested in form over function. Just in case there was any doubt.
Ivy reportedly said the company was all good with customers having to scramble for a battery booster to keep their iPhones powered, as putting in a battery that would allow customers to actually use their iPhone would make that iPhone too heavy and thus less “compelling.”
It’s science.
So, be sure to thank Ivy for creating such a compelling device the next time the two of you are huddled at an electrical outlet near that men’s rest room at the far end of an airport terminal.
• Finally, the Federal Communications Commission late this week released full contents of its net neutrality ruling, which thankfully is a nice, tidy 400 pages. My guess is that while those 400 pages of regulatory legalese will be a daunting read (I know what I am doing over the weekend!) it will be nothing compared with the wood spilled and bandwidth chewed up connected to the legal challenges, dissenting opinions and approving support set to fly forth over the coming days/weeks/months/years.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
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