Great combination of New Consumer’s research (“Almost one in five US consumers — 17% — say they’ve used an Apple Watch in the past week,” and “Men and women report using an Apple Watch in nearly identical proportions. Trump and Harris voters, too”), Frommer’s personal observations of wearing ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜ for the last 10 years, and some analysis:
In its first decade, I’d say the Apple Watch has proven both that there is a mass market for these things and that they, so far, aren’t revolutionary devices. The Watch makes the iPhone better, and therefore strengthens Apple’s ecosystem (and platform lock-in). But its magic feels limited. … There are no Watch-native messaging platforms, network effects, nor unicorns. The iPhone (and cloud) is still where innovation is most potent. Most of the best Watch tools are built into the operating system (notifications, Apple Pay, “Live Activity” trackers, watch face widgets) or are simple extensions of iPhone apps (buttons, remote controls).
I recently took mine off, powered it down and put it away in a drawer. I had just one screen too many in my life, and the one that tapped my wrist had to go.