[temdisponivel]

Which problem did the Apple Watch (specially the first version that launched) solve? Or the HomePod? Genuinely curious. I can personally understand the problems that all other products did solve, but not for these 2 examples in particular.

[zie]

The apple watch is a health device masquerading as a watch with digital enhancements(Apple Pay, Notifications, Messaging/Phone calls, etc)

You may not remember(or been alive), but in the 90's there was a whole slew of these Life Alert type devices that would call 911 for you if you were an old person that fell and hurt themselves. The Apple Watch is basically the ultimate replacement for that, along with exercise/health features AND it happens to tell the time.

The first version you had to call 911 yourself, but they quickly figured out how to let the device just do it for you, which is where it sits today.

I don't know anything about the HomePod, so I won't comment on that, but Amazon seems to sell a bunch of those speaker devices, so someone must be using it for something?

[alberth]

Apple Watch:

* People for over 100 years, wore mechanical watches to tell time.

* This solves that same customer need + (digital enhancements).

---

HomePod:

* people want to play their music for others (not just for themselves), for parties/events/hanging out.

---

EDIT: replaced "hundreds of years" with "over 100 years"

[SllX]

You’re overplaying the hundreds of years part. While the first wristwatch dates back almost 200 years (developed for the Queen of Naples), pocket watches were the rule until World War I, when they were mass produced and marketed at soldiers in the trenches. The mass market wristwatch industry developed from that point on.

I like my Apple Watch, but it’s an iPhone accessory. It doesn’t fulfill a specific need, but provides a suite of enhancements to my phone and can take over a few functions from it.

(This comment was written in response to an earlier version of your comment, but the main part still seems to be there but reformatted).

[saagarjha]

Nobody bought an Apple Watch because they wanted something on their wrist that told time and were underserved by that. I say this as someone who bought the first version and actually does like something on my wrist that tells time. People bought it for the digital enhancements, which started out kind of confused but got more clear with time (health, notifications).

[temdisponivel]

I mean.. sure, but those are hardly "problems" that needed solving with an Apple Watch. Another digital watch, simpler / cheaper would do just fine. Same for the HomePod, solutions to those "problems" have been around for a while.

If you compare the solution/problem pairs you described and take into account how good of a solution those products are to those problems, I don't see how they "solve" the problems significantly better than an already existing, cheaper alternative, which is not the case for the iPhone, iPod, AirPod, mac book, etc where they (on their initial launch) addressed a particular market need significantly (very significantly) better than the alternatives.

And I'm speaking this as someone that owns 1 of every product category Apple currently ships, so I'm by no means dismissing the quality of the watch or homepod, etc.

[edit/addition]: Furthermore, the Vision Pro could just as well solve similar problems to similar results as the ones you described -- for example, the need for a incredibly high quality media consumption device, portable. Or an infinite canvas that seamlessly pairs with your other Apple devices, etc. If that's true, then I would say the Apple Vision Pro should has the same utility to its target audience as the other products Apple's released on the last decades years.

[alberth]

> Another digital watch, simpler / cheaper would do just fine

You're conflating being unique vs solving a problem.

You don't have to be unique in what you solve.

There's lots of blue cars sold every year, why does Ford/GM/Toyota exist if they all do the same thing - which is sell blue cars? Then Tesla 10-years ago starting selling their version of the blue car and are doing exceedingly well.

It's because the fundamental problem being sold is actually, people wanting transportation.

What fundamental problem/need is the Apple Vision Pro solving?

Again, I'm not being a hater of the device. I'm genuinely curious to understand.

[chaostheory]

“What fundamental problem/need is the Apple Vision Pro solving?”

Screens are too small especially portable ones.

[alberth]

That's interesting, maybe that's it.

Hypothesis:

People want/need larger displays, and larger display would allow for full immersion experiences on whatever task it is they are doing.

And since 99% of people have never participated in full immersion digital experiences, they don't know they want/need it - until they try it.

That's possibility it.

[temdisponivel]

I don't think I was.

I do agree that one doesn't have to be unique. My comment was more about the grandparent point about Vision Pro being the only product in the last 20 years to not solve a problem. My point was that if Vision Pro addresses no problem, neither does the Watch or HomePod. If Watch or HomePod do address problems, I don't see how the Vision Pro doesn't.

[skywhopper]

Notifications and the current weather on my wrist. I don't have to take my phone out or even have it with me.

[temdisponivel]

Sure. I would say that's fairly minor thing, although I admit that's subjective. But given the comment I grand-parent comment, I presume they were referring to more substantial problems / solutions.

[edit] Don't mind to downplay how useful that feature is to you, as it is also very useful to me. Just wanted to make it clear I was trying to find more substantial problems that the Watch/HomePod has solved.

[ghaff]

My Apple Watch is definitely the most optional of my Apple devices. I mostly just wear it hiking. Day to day I don't get a lot of notifications and I just wear a cheap Timex that goes years on a battery.