After a decade of development, Apple Watch is basically the same as it was when it was launched in 2015. Yes, the technology inside has undergone significant improvements its early days for a dacade since. Larger, brighter screens. More powerful processors. An ever -growing package sensors to discovering everything from your heartbeat to incredibly fine movements.
But outside, Apple Watch still looks like Apple Watch – more than any other Apple product. From 10 meters away you would not be able to tell if anyone has a new series 10 or an old series 4. Maybe it is by design, but with large new health technologies like blood glucose monitoring, which is still years away and even the blood’s oxygen sensor “on a break” for over a year and counts, it is difficult to find something to look forward to in a new Apple Watch.
Apple doesn’t need a new health sensor to make Apple Watch exciting again. It should take some risks.
Shake the mold up
The form of the Apple Watch has not changed in a decade. There has been small Variations of thickness, size or curvature, but you would be hard pressed to tell the difference without holding one next to the other.
Imagine if the first decade of iPhone was like that! When the iPhone X celebrated the ten -year anniversary of Apple’s smartphone, the device was already drastically different from the first few years.
So play with the shape, Apple. Give us a clock with flat sides – I loved the mockups people made from such a clock as it was jerked that the series 7 would have such a look.
Jon Prosser
Or offer two kinds of Apple Watch, one rectangular and one – Round – Round! Android -ure has been circular for year Now without major compromises with features or battery life, Apple could certainly make it happen with a few adjustments to us.
And what happened to colors? Of course, silver and black are the most popular watch colors, but these days Rose Gold is the only other option. Where did the colorful green, blue and red offers go in the series 7? Or the pink series 9? Like iMac, Fashion-Forward Apple Watch is an opportunity for Apple to have fun.
Doing something with bands
There is a million Apple Watch band out there, but they are kind of … well … the same. The materials and colors may be different, but none of them add anything to the other watch than a small style. How about a new knife mechanism that allows for a small amount of power and data transfer just enough to drive some small microelectronics and send a few kilobyte data every now and then. Add a pair of developer frames and both Apple and third-party developers could do Smart bands.
There have been various rumors over the years about a new mechanism, and one would imagine that smart tapes added custom sensors to specific kinds of activities or even a small, thin secondary screen showing a “complication” of kind. An Apple Watch that supports new “smart bands” would be an important reason for upgrading – more than another health sensor, really.
Heck, I would buy a smart band that just had a button on the wrist side that I could set for one of a dozen different features, as well as the action button on the iPhone and Apple Watch Ultra.
Software, software, software
Of course, there is a lot of Apple can and should do with software on Apple Watch, starting to make Siri big. Even before Apple Intelligence, the experience on Apple Watch was not as good as the one on our iPhone. Since none of the current Apple Watch models support Apple Intelligence, it will only get worse. Apple has to find a way to bring the new Siri to Apple Watch. If the Siri models are too big to run completely on the clock, the clock could simply act as a “speaker phone” for Siri on your iPhone most of the time.
When I see people using their Apple Watch, I am affected by how much of the core interface goes completely unused. Control Center is as bad on Apple Watch as it is on the iPhone – so many people don’t know what it is or where it is, don’t know what it can do and when you tell them, they are actually struggling to actually access it. It takes a lot of core iPhone (or Apple Watch) features and consciously filling them in a hidden and confusing menu, and in terms of the average user, it might as well not be there.
Then there is the weird Honeycomb grid that is like an annoying little game to find what you are looking for (List View really should be the only option), the limited watch surfaces … With basic customization that still appears beyond the average user. Most people I see just stick to the default settings, maybe change the color, but have no idea what complications are or how they work at all.
But all of these things – use that at the same time do too much and not enough and whose best features are opaque for the average user – must be corrected on all existing Apple Watches. Maybe the switch to the new design with iOS 19 will spur Apple to reconsider Watchos 12 as a turning point for a reconsideration of the Apple Watch interface.
But new software goes only so far. It’s a new direction for hardware needed to really make Apple Watch exciting again. Apple seems so laser-focused on the next Big Heath and Fitness Sensor that it seems to ignore all the other ways it can change the Apple Watch Line on-light fun and some outside box thinking.