The Potential Future of Apple Watch
It’s time to stand up, Apple!
The Apple Watch isn’t a fashion statement, nor is it a high-end gadget that people in fashion will covet as a status symbol.
It’s a very powerful tool.
At Gyroscope, we spend a lot of time thinking about fitness and health, which for the average consumer is still dominated by Fitbit. We are seeing a split in the ecosystem, where Fitbit is on both iOS and Android. Apple caters to the iOS community, and various other wearables break up the fragmented Android community.
Having been focused on the Apple Watch pretty much since its release, we have heard all the complaints and hard edges around the Apple Watch and its use cases. HealthKit is starting to enable some incredible things, but on the device side things are still in flux. When it comes to the Apple Watch, the polite thing to say is that it isn’t inspiring confidence.
We believe in a future where everyone uses these devices, and our software helps to make a huge difference in people’s lives. But for that to happen, all parts of the experience need to be great.
Here are few things I would like to see in the rumored update coming to Apple Watch this fall…
Plastic Unibody
Don’t get me wrong—the current Apple Watch is durable, beautiful and strong. I have been playing sports with it for over a year and it is as new as the day I bought it. On the other hand, I always worry that is today going to be the day I shatter it running down the court for a lay up. 🏀
If it was a more durable and replaceable plastic, I would be a lot more rough and rugged with my watch. This would have obvious effects on the pricing, but more on that later.
I don’t see this as something that is possible for the current form of the Apple Watch, but potentially something that akin to Fitbit Charge HR, which fills the band type wearable market with a focus strictly on fitness and health.
Internet Connectivity
This is very much a nice-to-have, but hear me out.
You are out on a run — several miles deep, or you left your phone in the car to grab something from the grocery store. Your Apple Watch instantly goes from the all “connected” tool on your wrist to this glorified egg timer. Siri, notifications, and all the other things you were relying on stop working.
I do love that all the fitness and health functionality continues to work and processes seamlessly once you are back within range of your cell phone. With a little internet connectivity this could be a fitness junkie’s dream; stream all your music through your watch to your wireless ear buds and go H.A.M on some weights or reach new personal records on your daily runs.
Improved Battery Life
I am fully aware I just asked for internet connectivity just a second ago, and that is likely going to restrict physical space for the battery…
But damn it, I hate having to remember to charge my Apple Watch every single day and sometimes twice a day depending on usage.
After a typical two hour workout, I can easily deplete more than half my battery life. This is not ideal. We should at least be capable of two days usage without the need to charge. Make the watch a little thicker need be — we will survive. A Fitbit can last for days, if not a whole week, which makes it infinitely better for traveling or using regularly for workouts.
If you want to know how to keep your watch charged 24/7, check out our list of tips for the Apple Watch.
Price Point
It is simply too expensive.
At 299 USD and an iPhone coming out every year, there is a lot of pressure on the consumer to drop that much more dough for what most consider and accessory to an iPhone.
I would like to see a cheaper Apple Watch, or a band type device for the masses, at a max of 199 USD or more ideally at 159 USD.
I think a band of this nature should be strictly focused on fitness and health and should skip all the extra features and customization to get the price down; we need a workhorse here. Think Macbook meets Apple Watch in terms of utility.
No one cares about replying to emails or messages on an Apple Watch. No one.
Better Heart Rate Data
One of the most frustrating things in the world is when you are in the middle of a tough workout, and then check your wrist and it can’t get a heart rate reading—or worse, it thinks you are still at 60 bpm.
The current heart rate sensor is a decent start (better than having no data), but there is still a long way to go before it gets good coverage without major gaps or inaccuracies. Off-by-2x errors are pretty common due to how the measurement works, as well as long gaps where a reading can’t be found. We actually had to add a dotted feature to the graphs on Gyroscope, due to how many huge gaps there were in the readings.
All of the key scenarios—sitting around during the day, lying down when asleep, and vigorous workout that may be very sweaty—shouldn’t skip a beat when it comes to heart rate sensing. Currently they all have bugs and edge cases when it comes to reliably sensing your heart rate.
Some of this is due to limitations of being a wrist-based device, and many serious athletes rely on chest strap sensors instead.
A decent compromise would be to have much higher resolution of data, checking your heart rate at least every minute to find subtle changes throughout the day. By comparison, Fitbit checks heart rate much more continuously and typically generates more detailed data throughout the day.
Exciting Times
This was a tough critique, but this is an exciting time for health & fitness. There is so much more potential here, that depends on great devices & experiences being easily available. The world is definitely headed that way, and we are hoping to hear big things from Apple in the next few weeks.
Looking to visualize your health and fitness data? Get the Gyroscope app to start seeing insights from your Apple Watch & other devices.
