The Apple Watch made smartwatches the wearable of choice

Ten years ago, aft announcing nan iPhone 6, Tim Cook had 1 much point to show nan world. Cue nan first-ever sizzle reel for nan Apple Watch.

It’s funny watching that video today, particularly erstwhile you zero successful connected nan features Apple claimed would revolutionize nan smartwatch category. There was nan Digital Crown — a alleged breakthrough successful input exertion that would fto you scroll and zoom connected what was fundamentally a mini wrist computer. It had a Taptic Engine that would discreetly buzz erstwhile a matter aliases notification came in. Glances were expected to beryllium digestible tidbits of information, a benignant of position update for your apps. Also, retrieve Digital Touch? That weird characteristic wherever you property 2 fingers connected nan surface and nonstop a friend an animation of your heartbeat? 

Fast guardant a decade, and nan sizzle reels for nan Apple Watch are wholly different. Now, they’re afloat of group sharing stories astir really nan Apple Watch saved their lives. Year aft year, astir of nan caller features attraction connected caller ways to adjacent your rings. Whatever you deliberation of nan Apple Watch, it’s now nan astir celebrated smartwatch successful nan world and has been for years. In 2020, it outsold nan entirety of nan Swiss watch industry. It is an undeniable success. But 10 years in, wherever does nan Apple Watch spell next?

The first Apple Watch arrived during nan aureate property of nan fittingness tracker. Fitbits and devices for illustration nan Jawbone Up reigned ultimate pinch their agelong artillery life and simplicity. Smartwatches benignant of sucked. Pebble was beloved for its simplicity among gadget nerds, but nan institution ne'er achieved mainstream appeal. Google was adjacent to nan segment pinch Android Wear successful 2014, but arsenic a platform, it was plagued by laggy interfaces, questionable search accuracy, bulky shape factors, and piddling artillery life. Samsung had a fewer options connected its Tizen OS, but it struggled pinch galore of nan aforesaid issues. So did the first Apple Watch. For astir people, nan smartwatch was an overly costly instrumentality that couldn’t switch a fittingness locator aliases your smartphone. So, what was nan constituent successful buying one?

Nobody had a bully answer, including Apple (which is astir apt why truthful overmuch of nan Apple Watch’s early trading focused connected fashion, of each things). And it wouldn’t commencement figuring retired nan reply until 2017.

That’s erstwhile Apple added LTE pinch nan Series 3. Suddenly, nan Apple Watch wasn’t tethered to your phone. You could still telephone for thief successful an emergency. I retrieve calling my roommate to springiness myself nan illusion of information while freaked retired connected a walk. Safety was a persuasive argument, albeit 1 tempered by still laggy performance. It surely didn’t thief that making that telephone perfectly zapped my artillery life successful a specified 30 minutes. After I vanished testing nan Series 3, I went backmost to my Fitbit Alta HR — but my cognition of nan instrumentality arsenic an unnecessary luxury had shifted.

And past nan existent industrywide crippled changer came successful 2018 pinch nan Series 4. Now nan Apple Watch had FDA-cleared EKGs that could observe atrial fibrillation. It could fig retired erstwhile you had a difficult autumn and telephone for thief connected your behalf. On apical of that, you could get alerted if your bosom complaint abnormally spiked erstwhile it shouldn’t. Your telephone can’t do that. Suddenly, nan Apple Watch wasn’t a fancy artifact that, astatine best, helped triage notifications. It could prevention lives. And did. 

It turns out, wellness is what’ll get nan mean personification to bargain a smartwatch. Anecdotally, it’s nan number 1 logic why friends and family inquire maine astir smartwatches. I’ll get texts from folks worried astir their parents’ wellness or, arsenic we get older, concerned friends pursuing a less-than-stellar doctor’s visit. It’s why I personally made nan switch, too. It’s why it’s so difficult to find anyone making fittingness bands anymore. 

The only problem is that tech moves fast. Health is notoriously slow.

The Apple Watch has gotten much clever updates than I tin count. So galore that the Series 9, Ultra 2, and second-gen SE are vastly different devices than nan original watch. (I, for one, americium a large instrumentality of past year’s double pat gesture.) But moreover nan astir ardent Apple Watch fans can’t contradict nan updates consciousness much iterative pinch each passing year. Aside from introducing nan Ultra successful 2022, location hasn’t been an industry-shaking update since nan Series 4. 

Not for deficiency of trying. There person been respective rumors that Apple’s been moving connected features for illustration high humor pressure and sleep apnea detection, positive nan beatified grail of each wellness tech, noninvasive humor glucose monitoring. But nan raison d’être that catapulted nan smartwatch — nan truth that it tin prevention lives — is besides nan very point that’s kept it successful limbo. If group judge this tech tin prevention lives, it has to walk a higher regulatory barroom than immoderate different user gadget. 

This is simply a bully thing! FDA clearance is location to protect consumers and guarantee guardrails are successful place. But it does mean Apple is benignant of stuck. For amended aliases worse, it group user expectations sky-high successful this space. Yet, precocious wellness features require companies to tread nan bladed statement betwixt regulatory clearance, accuracy, and patents. All this takes an unthinkable magnitude of resources and time. (You request look nary further than Apple’s ineligible conflict pinch aesculapian instrumentality shaper Masimo complete humor oxygen tech to spot why Samsung hit Apple to an FDA-cleared slumber apnea feature.) 

In essence, nan Apple Watch is benignant of wherever nan iPhone was a fewer years agone — solid, but insignificant updates pinch nan vague consciousness that thing large mightiness beryllium astir nan corner. But wherever generative AI has breathed caller life into smartphones, nary one’s figured retired really champion to worldly it into a smartwatch yet. Based connected what we saw astatine WWDC, Apple Intelligence isn’t headed for nan Watch anytime soon, either. So, wherever does that time off nan Apple Watch complete nan adjacent decade?

There’s ever a chance that Apple will propulsion an industry-first wellness characteristic retired of bladed air. Just a fewer days ago, Bloomberg and 9to5Mac some reported nan long-delayed slumber apnea characteristic mightiness make an appearance. But without health, Apple has to spell nan much accepted route. Bigger screens. Better artillery life. Upgraded sensors. More in-depth fittingness features to compete pinch nan likes of Garmin, Polar, and Suunto. More ways to merge pinch different Apple devices. New, non-health ways to make your life better. Apple’s successful a tricky spot, but successful nan lawsuit of nan EKG, it was worthy nan wait. The adjacent clip Tim Cook steps retired onstage mightiness not beryllium to show disconnected exertion that saves your life, but springiness it time.