[burnte]

The whole article is viewing things through some heavily tinted glasses.

1. Apple was early - Nope, Apple came late to the party, years after first movers were there.

2. Voice computing distraction - Again, nope. Amazon Echo devices and Google Home devices are HUGE. Headphones and earbugs come with Alexa and google Assistant integration. Apple tries with Siri but it's consistently far behind Amazon and Google there.

3. Wearables require design expertise. It’s not enough to just throw together some leftover smartphone components and ship wearables. -- Yet, that's what Apple did with the first gen of Apple watch. Gen 1 was also dead in three years. Gen 1 was a pilot project.

4. Ecosystem and technology advantage. - These are Apple advantages, but not ten year leads.

5. No price and feature umbrellas under Apple. - Well, there are a lot of people still wondering what utility they have aside from a few "health" measures. I personally don't care about my heartrate all day, nor my steps, or a bad idea of calories burned. I don't need to monitor my O2 levels, nor get instant EKGs. I personally stuggle to see the point of smart watches. Notifications? I can see them on the phone screen, it's just as easy for me to look at it. Music controls? If I'm in the car the controls are on my steering wheel. At home I just say "Alexa, stop" or whatever. When I have headphones/earbugs in? I can tap the button on my headphones just as easily as I can tap my watch. What else would I use it for?

There certain is a price umbrella, too, because you have to have an iPhone and be bought into that ecosystem.

[D13Fd]

I was with you until #5.

The Apple Watch is very useful. That’s why people keep buying it.

It’s nice to get notifications on your wrist if you don’t have your phone out 100% of the time. The alarms are silent and dead simple to set, and it can function as your wake up alarm in the morning, and sync with your phone as a backup alarm. It lets you unlock your phone while wearing a mask. It lets you pay for things instantly without taking your phone or wallet out.

If you are someone who exercises, the utility goes up even more. It’s great to control your podcast or music while out walking or running without digging around in your phone. It’s perfect for tracking your workouts, because it’s always on your arm and it tracks your heart rate.

I agree that the EKG & O2 level features are pretty much a gimmick. But the watch generally is an exceptional piece of technology.

[CharlesW]

> I agree that the EKG & O2 level features are pretty much a gimmick. But the watch generally is an exceptional piece of technology.

They are until they aren't, you know? https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-watch-lifesaving-health-feat...

[D13Fd]

None of those people were saved by the EKG or O2 features (other than that one person noticed a slow heartbeat while playing with the EKG feature). They are talking about the "fall detection feature, heart rate notifications, exercise tracking and even the ability to make a call from your wrist."

[malwarebytess]

You didn't read far enough.

The article includes a story on the watch detecting Atrial fibrillation. Presumably this used the EKG feature, since an EKG is the standard clinical tool for diagnosis of AFib.

[burnte]

Just to be clear, I'm not saying they have no use, I'm saying I can't find a use for them. I just want to be very clear I'm saying me personally and not others.

Wrist notifications are kinda nice, yes, but I almost never don't have my phone. I've also had one broken screen in 11 years of carrying Android phones, so I'm not the typical user. Always having it with me kills most of the utility of the watch for me, I think.

I also use finger unlock, because I'm Android. I don't use face unlock even though it's available because I think finger is far superior, to the point I won't buy a phone that doesn't have it. I skipped th ePixel 4 totally because of the lack of fingerprint. If the Pixel 6 has no fingerprint, then I'll skip that too.

[JohnTHaller]

> It lets you unlock your phone while wearing a mask.

I'm really glad I passed on the Pixel 4, mainly because I hated the concept of face unlock on a phone (slower and less reliable? sounds great!). And this was before the age of masks. I love having a fingerprint reader on the back. The phone is unlocked as it's coming out of my pocket. Google switched back with the 4a and 5 so I picked up a 4a 5G. It's a shame Apple won't stick a fingerprint reader on the back, too.

[dariusj18]

But aren't those features (notifications, alarms, exercise tools, music controls) in a bunch of other smart watches?

[D13Fd]

> But aren't those features (notifications, alarms, exercise tools, music controls) in a bunch of other smart watches?

Yes, definitely. I was replying to:

> I personally stuggle to see the point of smart watches.

I do think the Apple execution and hardware is generally better, but really I was just comparing the benefits of wearing a smart watch vs. not wearing one.

[lscotte]

It's unfortunate that the Apple cult has enough power on YC to downvoted anything that's not positive towards it. Sad that only pro-Apple opinions are allowed here.

[arcatech]

It’s more likely that the usual anti-Apple arguments that are used in these conversations just really aren’t very good.