I’m pretty bullish on the future of the Apple Watch. If I was working at Apple in an advisory role I’d be making the case that the Apple Watch should be Apple’s number one or close second priority and deserves an unlimited budget for research. As the vocal interface becomes more and more robust, the wearable will take on an increasing share of the workload from the smartphone. I was thinking about how to articulate why the watch is so important and what it brings that the iPhone can’t when it hit me. Advocates of the Amazon Echo have already made the case for me.
When discussing why I like the Apple Watch so much it usually boils down to the fact that I’ve started to see pulling my phone out of my pocket and pressing a button or navigating menu items as too much of a bother. And if I’m running, an activity which I do frequently, the sweat of my fingers renders navigating my iPhone touch screen impossible. The Apple Watch allows you to totally bypass all of this. All you have to do is turn your wrist and say “Hey, Siri….” No touch required. I love that!
I got lost on a run yesterday and I simply said “Hey Siri, where am I?” There was my mapped location on my wrist without me touching anything with my sweaty fingers. And the crown allowed me to zoom in despite my sweat. Show me someone who never uses their Apple Watch crown and I’ll show you someone who never sweats. Or if I’m driving, I can almost feel the eyeballs around me staring into my head with disapproval should I raise my phone to my face. But with my watch I can respond to texts via my wrist and no one ever sees a phone in my hands. The hands-free voice interaction is a big part of why I enjoy the Apple Watch.
This is the allure of the Amazon Echo. A completely new paradigm of human interface that does away with both keyboards AND touch screens. Without fail, every single person who likes the Echo always boils it down to being able to conveniently summon Alexa to do tasks without pulling out their phone. They don’t want to push a button, and speaking a command seems so much more futuristic. When I hear Alexa fans talk about why they like it, I nod in agreement, because those are the same reasons I like my Apple Watch.
But Alexa makes no financial sense to me. If I wanted to purchase one for each part of my house and my office the cost would be more than buying a single Apple Watch. But even if I was willing to swallow that cost, I sure wouldn’t want to upgrade when the inevitable Echo II comes out. Upgrading multiple Amazon Echos increases the obsolescence tax. For the sake of argument, let’s say that I was willing to buy multiple Echos and upgrade every single one of them when a better system came out. All that money still wouldn’t help me while I was at someone else’s house, at the gym, shopping mall, out on a run etc.
What’s funny to me is that some of the people who say that they don’t think to wear their Apple Watch because they always have their iPhone handy are some of the same people raving about the Amazon Echo. So which is it? Is pulling your phone out of your pocket a big deal or not? Also, a lot of these same parties speak about the Apple Watch as if they are unaware that it can also be a completely touch-free device.
Regardless, Amazon Echo fans are answering the question for me of what can possibly be better or more convenient than a smartphone in many situations. A voice-activated device that you don’t have to hold. That’s the future. Where I diverge is that I think that a wearable trumps a countertop device. Especially if it has Internet access, can follow you around, and you only have to buy one.
Solving the barriers to using Siri on the Apple Watch to accomplish all manner of tasks should be an all-hands-on-deck priority at Apple. The watch is where the smartphone is headed. If I was Tim Cook, I’d regularly be asking people to justify their employment and answer how they are making Siri more powerful or the Apple Watch better to use. This is more important than AI, Virtual Reality, and way more important than an electric car.
I got lost on a run yesterday and I simply said “Hey Siri, where am I?” There was my mapped location on my wrist without me touching anything with my sweaty fingers. And the crown allowed me to zoom in despite my sweat. Show me someone who never uses their Apple Watch crown and I’ll show you someone who never sweats. Or if I’m driving, I can almost feel the eyeballs around me staring into my head with disapproval should I raise my phone to my face. But with my watch I can respond to texts via my wrist and no one ever sees a phone in my hands. The hands-free voice interaction is a big part of why I enjoy the Apple Watch.
This is the allure of the Amazon Echo. A completely new paradigm of human interface that does away with both keyboards AND touch screens. Without fail, every single person who likes the Echo always boils it down to being able to conveniently summon Alexa to do tasks without pulling out their phone. They don’t want to push a button, and speaking a command seems so much more futuristic. When I hear Alexa fans talk about why they like it, I nod in agreement, because those are the same reasons I like my Apple Watch.
But Alexa makes no financial sense to me. If I wanted to purchase one for each part of my house and my office the cost would be more than buying a single Apple Watch. But even if I was willing to swallow that cost, I sure wouldn’t want to upgrade when the inevitable Echo II comes out. Upgrading multiple Amazon Echos increases the obsolescence tax. For the sake of argument, let’s say that I was willing to buy multiple Echos and upgrade every single one of them when a better system came out. All that money still wouldn’t help me while I was at someone else’s house, at the gym, shopping mall, out on a run etc.
What’s funny to me is that some of the people who say that they don’t think to wear their Apple Watch because they always have their iPhone handy are some of the same people raving about the Amazon Echo. So which is it? Is pulling your phone out of your pocket a big deal or not? Also, a lot of these same parties speak about the Apple Watch as if they are unaware that it can also be a completely touch-free device.
Regardless, Amazon Echo fans are answering the question for me of what can possibly be better or more convenient than a smartphone in many situations. A voice-activated device that you don’t have to hold. That’s the future. Where I diverge is that I think that a wearable trumps a countertop device. Especially if it has Internet access, can follow you around, and you only have to buy one.
Solving the barriers to using Siri on the Apple Watch to accomplish all manner of tasks should be an all-hands-on-deck priority at Apple. The watch is where the smartphone is headed. If I was Tim Cook, I’d regularly be asking people to justify their employment and answer how they are making Siri more powerful or the Apple Watch better to use. This is more important than AI, Virtual Reality, and way more important than an electric car.
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