There was a time when it could be said that Apple “punched above its weight” in terms of both mindshare and influence on the tech industry. Although its market share, revenues and market capitalisation were small compared to the Microsofts, Intels and IBMs of this world, it still managed to hold its own. The victory of the GUI over the command line is proof enough.
Even in 1998, when everyone thought the Cupertino fruit company was gone and irrelevant, the iMac sparked a trend in translucent plastic tech that everyone followed. Weird.
The later trends in smartphone and tablet design that have clearly been influenced by Apple are less obviously a matter of above-weight pugilism, since the company was riding high on a wave of Jobs-led recovery by the time these innovations came along. Sure, Apple was not a player in either telephones or tablet computers before iPhone and iPad, but it was big. Really big. Those devices made it gargantuan.
Now, rather than follow Apple, numerous industry players have made a sport of trying to anticipate it. Where Apple rumour sites were once the preserve of fanboys and hopelessly devoted nerds, they’re required reading for R&D departments hoping to get early on the next wave.
Nowhere is this more true than in so-called “smartwatches”. I use the term “so-called” because watches have always been kind of smart. They can tell the time, you know. And they can keep the time by modulating their internal movements with precisely engineered cogs and gears. Geez, it’s clever stuff. Anyway, now to be a “smartwatch” you also have to be able to tell me if I have email, and what the weather’s going to be, and stuff like that. Stuff I never wanted my watch to do. Oh well.
In fact, smartwatches – almost without exception – are pretty dumb. They’re big and bulky and heavy and hard to use and ugly. Very, very ugly. If you watched the coverage of this year’s CES you know already that smartwatches were there in great number and variety. And no doubt you also know that there was nary a one you would personally be seen wearing in public.
Oh, you might pop one on to show people your new smartwatch and get some techie nerd-cred. But honestly, you don’t want one. It’s OK, you can admit it. We’re friends here.
What has that got to do with Apple? Well, nothing – Apple doesn’t make a smartwatch and has never publicly said it had any intention of ever making one. But there are persistent rumours about the iWatch, and there have been for years. Even longer than the fabled Apple television. It’s pretty obvious that a lot of the present efforts in smartwatch design are attempts to beat the iWatch to market – to make Apple look like the follower rather than the leader, for once.
The irony is inescapable.
Of course, I’m not saying Apple won’t ever make a smartwatch or some similar wearable tech thing. I honestly don’t have any inside scoop on that for you. I suspect, though, that if Apple does plan on making an iWatch, it will be very grateful to all of those who have gone ahead and made unsaleable junk ahead of it. Smartphones and tablets were mostly junk before Apple got them right, too. Smart people learn from the mistakes of others.
Since I got my iPhone, I don’t wear a watch. I wouldn’t start wearing one again just for the Apple imprimatur. I imagine I’m probably not alone in that. Apple has done well for most of its life by observing what people actually want to do with technology, and the fact that many people who have smartphones have stopped wearing wristwatches is observable. It’s not that big a leap to say that people – not techies who read rumour sites and love technology for its own sake, but actual people – don’t want to wear technology. They want it to be easy to carry, so they can pick it up when they need it, but they want to put it down when they don’t.
It’s a possibility, isn’t it?
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