Apple's iWatch USP: no umbilical cord?
Why will iWatch take off, while other smartwatches haven't? It might be by making it untethered to the smartphone. In other words, you won't need your smartphone around in order to use it.
3G and Push
How will that work? Well, Apple already puts 3G connectivity on non-phone devices (e.g. iPads), and push notifications already get routed through Apple's cloud servers.
Apple could extend its push infrastructure such that an app developers that want to send a notification to your iWatch simply uses a mechanism they're already familiar with - and with 3G connectivity, Apple would take care of the delivery of these notifications.
Small App Footprint
Further, the newly expanded cross-app-communication work done in the context of iOS 8 could have a bearing here. In iOS 8, apps can implement a 'mini' module of sorts that provides parts of its functionality to other apps - e.g., the the Pinterest app can allow the inbuilt Photos app to share a photo via Pinterest.
One can imagine using this approach to 'export' a mini version of an app to the iWatch device - this approach would allow services have a much smaller footprint (something that's not a necessity for the iOS 8 usage scenario, given the ample storage/compute available on iPhone/iPad)
This is important because other smartwatches are relying on tethering to, in some sense, offload computing to the smartphone - if the iWatch has to exist standalone, it needs to have a lightweight computing environment, without adding undue programming burden on developers. This approach could work.
Sapphire enclosed
One last thought - before some reports broke, I had speculated that the iWatch would be enclosed in Sapphire - which of course would mean it would have to be charged wirelessly. Should look awesome.
Can't wait!
Amit
Fintech & Product Partnerships Europe - Fintech | GameTech | Web3 | VAS | Emerging Tech | Startups
9yIm looking forward to seeing the potential next generation technology in a form of a watch - Im also hoping that the iwatch takes off and Rolex drop their prices by 50% due to the demand in competition!! We can only hope!!
Director, Project Management at Privacera
9yWhile I applaud attempted innovation, I just can't get behind the idea of a watch, let alone a smart watch. I quit wearing watches a decade ago when mobiles became prolific. I suppose there are a few who might be enticed to get such a device and use it, but I'm just not taking the bait. Fossil made a Palm OS based watch a decade ago, and there were likely intelligent watches before then. I doubt Fossil sold many of them.