Apple's first smartwatch will flop unless it nails eight things: a week of battery life, wireless charging built into furniture, an always-on display, a thin design, compatibility with Android and BlackBerry, deep service integration, fun features, and ruggedness that survives water and drops.
Chapters
Clearly the Apple Watch is going to be a thing. But will it be as big as the iPod, iPad, and iPhone? Eh, I'm guessing not at first. But it will be the beginning of an Apple-led revolution in wearables. The first Apple Watch will probably disappoint. But here's what they need to do for ultimate success. 1. Battery life. For a truly useful wearable to work, it needs to last for a week or more, not less than a day. Wearable technology needs to be unconsciously portable, not something you have to think about all the time. Until Apple solves this battery life, or power consumption problem, the watch just won't be mainstream. Charging. This is a corollary, but the watch needs to be both quick chargeable and wirelessly chargeable as well. I'd love to see Apple's watch support IKEA's upcoming line of furniture with built-in wireless charging too. 3. Always on. A wearable watch needs to be a watch first. That means no shutting off the display to save power. 4. Thin. Sure, some folks love those big bulky wrist bling things that proclaim, "I'm rich!" or "I'm overcompensating!" But for everyone else, we want our wearables to essentially disappear on our skin. The less bulky, the better. 5. Compatibility. From what I've heard, Apple's Watch will just work with iPhones. If they want it to be a success, they gotta work with Android phones as well. And BlackBerrys and Windows Phones too, don't forget about those. 6. Ubiquitous. Just as the iWatch needs to support more than the iPhone, the built-in features needed to support a variety of other systems as well. To be truly magical, the iWatch needs to work with all those services seamlessly. 7. Whimsical. Oh, don't forget about humor and whimsy! The iWatch needs to be able to support fun stuff as well, including silly and sophomoric humor. 8. Unbreakable. Finally, this watch had better be pretty rugged. The iWatch had better be almost bulletproof and nearly waterproof too. Because you know, if I have to worry about whether I'm going to ruin my $400 piece of jewelry if it gets caught in the rain, or if I'm going to bust it by banging it into a wall, I'll probably just leave it at home.
