“ The Apple Watch is available on April 24 , ” Apple CEO Tim Cook declared on stage during Apple ’s March media event , officially mark the launch particular date for Apple ’s extremely anticipated new ware . And yet when you consider all the facts , it ’s laborious not to conclude that the Apple Watch truly arrives this fall , and its first six months have been only a prologue .
I wear my Apple Watch every day , and I enjoy it . The fitness feature have made me more active , and I enjoy being able-bodied seeing notifications from my iPhone and responding quick when I feel the need . But as with so many Modern Apple products , the former user are on the shakedown cruise , before all the regular passengers come aboard . This was true with the iPod and the iPhone , and it feels true about the Apple Watch , too .
“ Now , our object for the poop was n’t primarily sales , ” Cook said during hisconference call with fiscal analystslast week . If not sales , then what ?
First , consider that most altogether novel Apple production suffer from shortages , and not just because of write - up demand . Building a new spell of high technology in big numbers , especiallywith Apple ’s specifications , can be fraught with difficulties . So part of the objective of the first few months of Apple Watch production was to increase manufacturing book . First came fulfilling demand in the Apple Watch launch land ; then as the initial requirement has been converge , Apple has added in new countries with their own initial demand and rolled the watch out to Apple ’s retail stores . The destination is to reach the holiday time of year with an power to take every Apple Watch fiat that ’s made , and to have enough watches to sell at Apple Stores ( and other retail organisation ) .
Third - party complications in watchOS 2 will permit exploiter get info and launch apps without hunt for the right bubbles on the crowded home projection screen .
Then there ’s watchOS itself . The version on the Apple Watch today is so new , it does n’t really even have a name . It ’s an impressive while of work , but software – unlike hardware – is a constant work in progress . Apple needed the Apple Watch hardware to be rock solid on the launch date , because once that watch hardware is out in the world , it ’s never going to get any better . But the software , that ’s a continuing story .
Getting to version 2
With the announcement at WWDC 2015 ofwatchOS 2 – finally , a name!–we can see how the Apple Watch will function commence this fall , and how vacation check buyers will experience it . The big story is funding for standalone watch apps , but there will be plenty of other feature article tweaks as well , precisely what you ’d expect after six month of continued development of a brand - fresh production . ( Not to note , watchOS 2 will benefit from what Apple has learned from the first users of the Apple Watch outside Apple . The troupe screen the intersection extensively in menage , but there ’s nothing better than hearing from substantial customers about what they hope and what let down them . )
This gloaming ’s Apple Watch will also gain from six calendar month more consideration and experimentation from third - party app developers . The first wave of Apple Watch apps were create mostly on spec , without much idea of how the Apple Watch would really be used by steady masses day to day . The second wave come whendevelopers used their apps on real Apple Watchesand realized that their initial glide path were n’t appropriate for the literal product . This fall we ’ll see a third wave of apps : Some will take great vantage of the novel features of aboriginal apps on watchOS 2 , some will be better interlingual rendition of exist watch apps , and still others will be first releases from app developers who have been watching the mistakes and successes of other developer and waiting for the right present moment .
“ We ’re more unrestrained about how the [ Apple Watch ] is lay for the long full term , ” Cook said in that analyst call . “ We ’re confident that the vigil is going to be one of the top natural endowment of the holiday season . ”
I ’m delight my sentence with the Apple Watch , but it seems absolved to me that the real start gun for this product will be fired this fall with the release of watchOS 2 . Its winner as a product wo n’t be measured this summer , but after all the tinsel and ornament have been taken down and Apple ’s reviewing its number from the holiday quarter , which is traditionally its good quartern by far .
The Apple Watch : Coming this September .
