This is a brief review of what's stunning and what needs to be improved in Apple Watch.

1. Apple Watch – Review
06.06.2015

2. Background…
• Used Apple Watch for 4
days. That was enough!
• Been lover of Apple
products since 2007.
• Been getting iPhone
upgrades without a miss.
• I hate notifications; disabled
all my iPhone notifications
(even before I got Apple
Watch).
• My two kids play a *lot*
with gadgets.
• I consider myself an early
adopter.
• I care less about the HW
specs and more about
overall UX.
• I never owned a Watch in
the last 10 years.
* All these are my personal opinions and nothing related to work – past, present or future.

3. Super Cool Things

4. • Overview: Date, Time,
Temperature, Activity Status,
Battery %, Time Zone, Next
Meeting are just a configuration
away.
• Security: Every time you take the
watch from your wrist, and wear it,
you got to enter a password.
People just cant steal your Watch.

5. • Simplicity : As with any other Apple
product, the Watch is simple and
ultra intuitive. If you are a iPhone
user you would find the Watch UX
to be just an extension and familiar.
• Elegance : Details are given much
care. The Watch has all the curves
it deserves both front and back.

6. • Activity: Move, Exercise and
Standup. Define your goals and
work towards that everyday.
• For fitness freaks, the dashboard
is just a tap away.
• Haptics works great to motivate
you to do more. Very subtle hint
(tap/vibration) on your wrist.

7. Activity Dashboard

8. Activity Dashboard from iPhone’s Watch App

9. • Glances
– A way to look at
the static data
that you care
about.
– You have a good
deal of
configuration on
this.

10. • Apps: It’s the eco-system of
wonderful apps. Some great
Apps are already built for the
Watch.
• Most are companion Apps and
data syncs from Phone to Watch.
• E.g. Browse through the pictures
from phone

11. • Glances
– A way to look at
the static data
that you care
about.
– You have a good
deal of
configuration on
this.

12. • Phone Contacts :
You can add your
Favorites and send
*simple* messages
and emoticons.
• Pretty good
interface and
experience with the
messages.

13. • Induction Charging : This is super
cool way to change any gadget
that I have seen till now.
• It’s a magnetic connector and
that’s it.

14. Pain Points

15. • iPhone Companion: Without
iPhone, Apple Watch is nothing
(in theory, that’s not bad but in
practice it sucks)
– The real cost is “iPhone+Watch”
• Notifications : As I turned off
most notifications, I couldn’t do
much with Watch for the most of
the day.

16. • Monochrome Screen: For $400+ would
I get only a monochrome screen? Most
expensive watches are colorful,
carefully crafted and Apple Watch does
not look like one.
• For the battery conservation, the
display is turned off until you raise it,
and that *looks like* my watch is not
working to others. It just looks weird
when someone is wearing a watch with
blank screen.

17. • Bluetooth :
– The most painful aspect of Apple
Watch.
– Watch looses Bluetooth for small
distances and after than its
practically *useless*.
– Many times it *doesn’t* reconnect
when I go to phone proximity.
– Because of the Bluetooth the iPhone
battery *drains* pretty quickly.

18. • Answering Phone:
– I answered twice and I looked like
an idiot doing that.
– The Watch speaker/mic are not
good enough and others felt my
like was choppy.
– If that was not meant to be used, it
should not be there.

19. • Hey… there is no fingerprint
sensor. So, you got to enter
password every time.
• As long as you are wearing the
watch, it knows you are using it.
Once you take it off, every
interaction needs a password.

20. • Mail : Just shows
the preview of the
email; For most
emails it points to
my iPhone.
• Apps : Most of the
Apps are built in a
way to show a
notification and
take you to iPhone.

21. • Each time I wore the watch, I
ALWAYS felt that it might fall.
• It just doesn’t *feel* as secure as
conventional watch strap.
• Note : Of course, this is the sport
Watch but not sure if I want to
spend more $s for a
conventional strap.

22. • The base version is “$436.91” in
CA after tax == The cost of any
scratch and accident.
• This issue mostly with
perception – I have huge
problems with iPhone and iPad
shatters so far. Apple Watch
becomes another one in the mix
that I should worry about.

23. • My 3 year old asked me if
there is a difference
between the Spiderman
watch he owns and what I
own?
• He couldn’t understand
that it could be a gadget
without having the ability
to play games.
• My 6 year old daughter
didn’t understand why
bought an expensive watch
when I could get a
Spiderman watch for $15 in
Target.

24. Summary
• Low Utility without iPhone
• Drains the iPhone battery
• Most tasks are still done on iPhone
• The price point is much higher for the utility
• Not trendy enough (for that price point)
• Forcing more interactions on Watch that are not
meaningful