Love them or hate them, Apple is a company like few others. Their ability to influence trends in technology has been demonstrated time and time again.
The recent announcement of the Apple Watch is something that is going to have a similar impact I believe.
Personally, I’m not 100% on board with that Apple Watch just yet. I stopped wearing a watch when I started carrying a smart phone and I’m not particularly in to fitness and related products which it seems like this first generation of devices is going to be strong on, but to consider the farther reaching impact of this device is an interesting contemplation.
Consider the impact that iPod had on an entire generation of users, and on portable music, the impact that iPhone had on the smart phone industry, or iPad on tablets and mobile computing.
Apple has a long history of not being the first ones out of the gate. Sony’s Walkman was the catalyst for portable music for example, and there were a number of tablets out before iPad burst on to the scene. The idea I have is that they’re a company that looks at what people are doing, and what users want, and consider it carefully, then revolutionize a particular segment of the marketplace.
Similarly, Apple Watch will be a slow starter I believe. But as people start using it, I think they’ll discover more uses for it, and by second and third generation, I can imagine all sorts of things being done with the watch. I wonder if 5 years from now, we won’t be carrying cell phones at all, but will be using smart watches instead? There was a time in the not so distant pass that the idea of carrying a phone in your pocket seemed silly. Today however, many people don’t even have land line telephone service.
As people begin to embrace wearable technology, and we can do things like dictate e-mails via things like Siri, is the idea that a watch could become a mainstream point of connectivity really seem that far fetched?