Apple Watch likely outsold Amazon Echo during the holidays despite Apple Watch selling for nearly 10x more money.
.. Based on unit sales, the Apple Watch business is currently about the size of the Mac business.
.. the device has become a bridge between the present and future. By including a screen, Apple Watch retains the familiarity found with smartphones, tablets, and laptops/desktops. At the same time, Apple Watch is giving wearers a glimpse of the future by introducing new ideas around how artificial intelligence, voice, digital assistants, and smart sensors can come together to produce a new kind of experience.
.. We are witnessing nothing short of a revolution with Apple Watch. The device holds the potential to become more disruptive to the current computing paradigm than even Apple may want to acknowledge. This potential is becoming easier to see as time goes on... For companies with business models based on grabbing as much of our attention as possible, Apple Watch does not represent a preferred revolution. This is likely one reason why Android Wear has failed to amount to much for Google. There just isn’t much incentive for Google to put Android on the wrist... a segment of the iOS developer community that ranges from indies to multinational companies. This group is becoming nervous about Apple Watch because it’s not clear how the device will support the existing app ecosystem.
.. News of major companies backing away from Apple Watch support has led this community to think that Apple Watch is in trouble. In reality, this is backwards. The current app ecosystem, not Apple Watch, is in trouble.
.. Apple Watch likely won’t support the same kind of ecosystem that we are accustomed to with iPhone and iPad. Apple Watch ends up being designed more for what may come after the App Store.
.. most of my interactions with services and features on Apple Watch end up being through the Siri watch face and various cards featuring glanceable amounts of information and data chosen for me by a digital assistant. These cards are personalized for me based on the time of day and my schedule.
.. We move away from pulling data from various apps and getting pushed mostly useless notifications to being pushed a curated feed of data that is always changing and tailored
.. thinking of a product or feature that may one day serve as a legitimate iPhone alternative, there is a small but passionate group who thinks a paradigm around voice is the answer.
.. Unlike Amazon and Google, who are desperately trying to position voice as a way to leapfrog over the current smartphone/tablet and app paradigm, Apple is approaching things from a different angle. Instead of betting on a voice interface that may push some information to a stationary screen, Apple is betting on mobile screens that are home to a digital assistant. Apple is placing a bet that consumers will want the familiarity of a touch screen to transition to a future of greater AI and digital assistants.
.. Apple Watch will eventually become completely independent of iPhone.
.. Apple also has invested significantly in getting the health, fitness, and medical industries to embrace Apple Watch. Items like GymKit allow Apple Watch wearers to pair their device with fitness equipment.
.. Later this year, there will be more than 40 million people wearing an Apple Watch on a daily basis.
.. As competition for our attention moves away from smartphones and tablets, it will soon become evident that Apple holds immense power in being the largest wearables software provider in the world. This power will manifest itself in Apple’s digital assistant occupying a growing role in hundreds of millions of users’ lives.