Moto 360 Smartwatch + Apple wearable

While I do agree that this is one of the first smart watches that actually looks pretty decent, the deal killer is that it needs to be charged TWICE DAILY.  If Apple were to release their wearable device with this kind of battery life, no one would buy it except the most diehard Apple collector.  And they would be rightfully skewered by both the tech and financial media.

Also, at $250, that’s a rather tall order for something which still needs a larger smart device to function with.  To put the prices of these both the Moto 360 and Samsung Gear S into perspective, an off contract/unlocked 16GB iPhone 5C goes for $550.  While miniaturization does have a premium, there’s a difference between shrinkage while maintaining actual functionality without sacrificing usability versus something like this.  The review notes how large the watch face display is on smaller wrists; and one of the big challenges Motorola engineers had was location of the ambient light sensor and display driver which required some design tradeoffs on the display itself.

This is the same kind of issues facing all wearable makers and more so for Apple given their design ethos of simple and thin.  The other aspect as noted is the software.  And this integration of hardware and software is Apple’s forte.  I mentioned previously the upcoming features in OS X 10.10 and iOS 8 (Continuity and Handoff) that are just small pieces of the puzzle for whatever wearable form factor that is on the horizon.

I noted before that just trying to shrink the functionality of a smartphone into a wearable device, isn’t going to be feasible when it comes to energy consumption.  I just do not envision Apple heading down this route.  The first iPhone was a perfect example of an initially widely panned device that even former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, infamously shrugged off for being too expensive and lacking a physical keyboard:

That first iPhone supported only GSM 2.5G (EDGE) data, the original iPhone OS lacked a native SDK and only supported web based apps, and compared to other phones on the market at the time, did not have that great of a camera (2 megapixels).  The lack of Adobe Flash support and a non-removable battery were key con arguments as to why the iPhone would not do well against other smart phones.

Touch support wasn’t anything new either; but Apple’s design when taking into account both the hardware (using a capacitive touch screen versus resistive which is what most touch screen devices were using at the time) as well as a touch user interface specifically designed for the form factor.

What it initially lacked in technical specs and certain features was a result of design iteration.  Over time, Apple added in features they initially had to omit while continuing to further refine the design.  And this is the exact same approach that is going to accompany their wearable product while also potentially using things within their patent portfolio to solve problems.

Like they do have patents related to solar powered flexible multitouch displays for example.  It’s possible this could be technology much more suitable for something like a wearable device as supplementary power.  Another is one related to kinetic energy which was touched upon in a comprehensive patent filing and actually makes even more sense.

Again, these aren’t anything new; it’s just that no one has really found ways to maximize their abilities and utilize them in designs at price points which make sense.  But this is what Apple in recent years, has gotten very good at doing.  And I guess we are all kind of find out September 9th, exactly what their vision of the wearable device is going to be (if rumor holds true that they will indeed be talking about such a device).