14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is eyeing an early-2015 launch for its revolutionary smart-watch, while the company’s retail boss has been quoted giving an even more precise launch-frame: spring 2015. Which pretty much keeps the device off the market until March.
There’s a 10 percent demand for the device among existing iPhone 5 owners, according to a recent study carried out by investment bank Morgan Stanley. But something tells us there will be many people waiting in line to buy the thing.
It’s a new Apple-something
I’m not going to cite history as an indication that we’re going to see crowds in front of some iconic Apple stores on launch day. It’s pretty much a given. After all, they do it every year and, more often than not, it’s for a small incremental update. An all-new iDevice, however, will attract a new wave of anxious buyers who are just dying to get their hands on new Apple technology.
Is the smartwatch a new concept? Not at all. Is Apple the first to make relevant use of the idea of wearing a small computer on your wrist? Hardly. But will the Apple Watch be revolutionary? Most likely, yes. Here’s why.
Apple is rarely first to any game these days, but they somehow do everything a lot better than competitors. Well, actually, it’s not that surprising, considering their resources and the partners in the Far East just drooling over their annual manufacturing orders. But they prefer to stay put and refine. And that includes sacrificing bigger screens for an overall better experience down the road, or keeping a moderate megapixel count in the cameras in exchange for advanced optics.
With the watch, the same modus operandi has been visible right from first reports regarding its development. Apple didn’t rush it to market solely to beat Samsung to the punch. The California-based company worked with so many scientists on this project that you could compare the effort to NASA’s space program. In a few months, the Cupertino company will have its say. Hopefully, it will be a good one.
Jailbreak incentive? You bet
So here’s a forecast I’ll make before anyone beats “me” to the punch. With big-name watchmakers sending cease-and-desist letters to makers of smartwatch faces, how big of an interest do you think there will be to slap an Omega or a Cartier theme onto the thing? My guess is there will be a lot of it.
How about third-party apps that can do a lot more neat tricks with the communications APIs, such as send naughty messages to fellow iWatch users, or even to other smartwatches? Yep, there will be a lot of those as well.
Games? Huge market for that. I can see a bunch of Tamagochi’s and Flappy Bird clones just in the first year. And we all know how people hate paying for them. If Apple doesn’t solve the current state of the freemium system, something tells me that piracy will have its day on the Apple Watch.
Let’s not forget Apple’s restrictive nature and how it only allows integration with other devices based on its interface / design guidelines. Say the watch takes the world by storm just like the iPhone did back in 2007. There’s a good chance that the hacker community won’t resist opening up the platform’s full potential.
There’s also the matter of being the first hacker to do it, like Geohot with his original iPhone unlock seven years ago. And once that Pandora box is opened, imagination will be the only limit to the hacks targeting the small wrist-worn computer. Not to mention the amount of personal data these things will hold.
In fact, hacking may take a new form altogether when the Apple Watch arrives. Especially since the device promises to integrate with every other Apple device, and an onslaught of third-party hardware. The more functional it will be, the more incentive hackers will have to breach it.