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The APPLE WATCH Explained

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Yesterday, in the city of Cupertino California, Apple demoed it’s latest creation- The Apple Watch but it has left many in the tech world a bit confused.

The watch tethers to iPhones (5S,5C, 6 and 6 plus) to receive calls and messages, serve as a digital wallet (goodbye cash), play music, and monitor heart, pulse and steps taken through an elegant circular array of light-based sensors.

The new Apple Watch is segmented into bourgeois classes of affordability, from the low end stainless steel baseline of $349 to an ultra-lux high end- 18 karat gold option. The Apple Watch, Apple Sport and Apple Edition represent separate collections and all have their own families of interchangeable gorgeous bands for an unparalleled degree of customization.

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Despite it’s premium design, many of the critics are skeptical about the device. How is it better than Apple’s smart-watch competitors? What does it do? Is Apple really charging $349 for a gimmicky device that simply displays notifications from your phone? Apple did answer these questions but they concealed the answers in developer-jargon for those that needed to know.

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Tim Cook noted, that he uses his watch to control his Apple TV. Their software engineer pointed out that a development company is working on an app that controls smart locks, smart lighting systems and thermostats for the home with the watch. Cook and Co. meandered slowly through a garden of distractions obscuring the devices most important feature— it’s App Store!

The release of the watch’s SDK- software development kit means that “W” hotels worldwide will use the Apple Watch as a room key. Other hotels will follow suit.

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If we just consider Apple’s -already done deals- we begin to see the watch’s potential. The next time you go to McDonalds, Starbucks, Whole Foods, A Restaurant through an Open Table reservation, or take a flight- your watch will be used to pay and guide the experience. Your bill for most services will likely be paid with Apple Pay (a service that manages your credit cards and cashless payments).

Tim Cook may have buried the lead but he made the potential of the watch as a control platform for other devices perfectly clear for those that know the parseltongue of developers. The Apple Watch is the perfect universal remote.

Tim Cook’s most important point was to note that the watch does so much, they didn’t have time to go over it all at the event.

So why not boast? Why not demo all of your tricks? Its because while the Apple Watch will be revolutionary it isn’t light years ahead of it’s competition. The Apple Watch won’t be ready until 2015 and Android Wear is just one software update away – and a few key partnerships behind- catching
up.

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MORE THAN THE IWATCH: What Is Apple Planning

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The iWatch will debut on Tuesday, September 9th. As tech enthusiasts salivate over the possibility that the iWatch could usher in cashless payments at stores, and serve as a universal remote for home automation devices, unlocking doors, activating smart lighting systems, and turning on tv’s, they’ve lost sight of the one function we know the iWatch will be designed for: fitness!

Most smart-watches are poor fitness devices. They use pedometers that don’t accurately measure steps and heart rate monitors that loose contact with the skin or don’t work if your moving!

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There are better ways to measure running distance and better ways to measure heart-rate. Fitness bands fail because they are trying to find one approach and one place on the body to measure disparate fitness tasks. The alternative has always been to strap ungainly wires to every part of the body- and strangely this is precisely what we believe Apple will propose. Apple will indeed propose strapping sensors to every part of your body! This won’t be as unpleasant or ugly as it may sound. We believe that developments in tech and fashion have made it possible for wearable fitness devices to measure your exercise activities without being cumbersome, inconvenient or unattractive. The iWatch will serve simply as a relay device that collects data and communicates with other wearables specifically designed for each fitness task.

The best examples of our prediction are ironically found in non-Apple products. Intel recently announced a smart-shirt. According to the New York Times, “The shirt comes with conductive fibers that can track your heart rate and will be able to deliver information to a smartphone.” Ralph Lauren has similarly developed smart compression tops. They have “conductive threads that allow it to sense breathing and heart rate” (http://www.fastcodesign.com/3034808/can-ralph-lauren-take-smart-clothes-mainstream#1).

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We imagine that Nike could develop sneakers with simple pressure sensors that measure “actual” steps and actual distance travelled. We imagine Nike running shoes that prevent shin splints and injuries by telling your iWatch when runners are accumulating too much pressure on their feet.

Apple may not be going into fashion as a manufacturer but we believe Apple wants to usher in the era of smart wearable clothing, and position the iWatch as the defacto communications hub. Imagine trendy weightlifting gloves that communicate via bluetooth, how much weight you’re lifting.

The applications for an iWatch that communicates with smart clothes goes beyond fitness. We imagine that EXISTING products like the Mimo baby romper, which measures breathing, body temperature and sleep patterns in toddlers while relaying that information via Bluetooth, could work with the iWatch in the future.

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What we have come to believe is that the most powerful iWatch imaginable isn’t necessarily packed with sensors. It is in reality a rather simple communications device that speaks to home automation devices, store checkout counters through NFC or IBeacon and fitness wearables. The beauty of Apple’s device will be that any developer with virtually any product will be able to craft an interface that allows users to control a device with the iWatch. Smart stoves, smart clothes, smart guns, and smart cars alike will tap into the iWatch as a universal remote.

WILL THE iWATCH WORK WITH ANDROID

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The iWatch is coming and the speculation it has provoked has been epic. The Internet has been flooded with blogs and articles speculating on the devices possible features. Would be product designers have even developed fully animated videos showing off their own iWatch concepts. We, at Worthy have even posted several articles on our own predictions, many of which seem poised to come to fruition. We have decided that there is no reason to quit while we are ahead. Buried in the fine print of our predictions in the print edition of Worthy, was an easily overlooked but far reaching prognostication. The iWatch Will Work on Non-Apple Devices.

At first, this prediction seems at odds with Apple’s reputation for not playing well with other tech platforms. However, this is a shortsighted perspective. Whereas, other publications see the iWatch as a portal for the iPhone 6, we (and a few others) think of the iWatch as a portal into Apple’s cashless payment system. The long term goal for Apple is to conquer the world of cashless payments. It would be uncharacteristically shortsighted of Apple to make enrollment in their cashless system dependent on adoption of the iPhone. By offering the iWatch as a stand alone device Apple gives Android’s fan base exposure to it’s ecosystem and exposure alone should convert some of the errant. But more importantly Android users of the iWatch will “give” Apple health data which can be commoditized and it will expand the universe of Apple’s cashless payment system. If Apple recruits Android’s hoards into it’s army, the war for dominance in the cashless payment sphere will be over before it starts!