The Apple Beat: Industry focuses on Apple Watch event

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Many companies have had a head start in the wearables race and so far, there hasn't been a clear winner. 

We're a few days away from Apple's 'Spring Forward' Event which will likely be heavily focused on the company's next product category and first wearable, the Apple Watch. Everyone will be watching with great interest.

Wearables, specially smart watches, have been around for years. Various companies have given us their versions of what a proper smart watch should be, what it has to offer, and a lot of functionality offloaded from our smartphones to our wrist.

There have been some compelling devices, but no breakthroughs. 

The smart watch landscape right now is like the Wild West. You have a wide disparity of models from health trackers to traditional watches with notification features as well as more refined and connected experiences like Pebble and Android Wear. Pricing is everywhere and everyone is bogged down by battery life limitations.

Many companies have had a head start in the wearables race and so far, there hasn't been a clear winner. The devices out there today still look like gadgets, not timepieces. They don't just import the functions of smartwatches, they also try to cram similar interfaces into smaller displays and it just doesn't work that well at all.

There are some cool features like notifications, turn-by-turn directions, mild  integration with health tracking apps and voice recognition.

These are hardly enough to get most consumers interested and the hard core watch enthusiasts, who will gladly pay thousands for a timepiece, have no interest in what they perceive to be disposable baubles.

A New Paradigm

Apple Watch, as it was presented to me last year by Apple reps, offers a whole new paradigm in wearables. It has a whole new operating system (Watch OS) and development kit (WatchKit). This means that aside from creating specific hardware for Watch, Apple has designed the entire platform and feature set from the ground up. 

In contrast, Android Wear is pared down Android, and is designed to run on a gamut of devices with different specs so some features will work, others will not, depending on what the hardware supports.

Apple also developed an entirely new user interface, their created that Digital Crown which is to Apple Watch was the clickwheel was to iPod and they developed Force Touch which measures sensitivity of taps and presses to expand on functionality. They didn't just cut and paste the iPhone's interface and shrink it.

By having a bespoke way to interact and navigate a watch, users should find it easier to respond to notifications, get stuff done  quickly as well as spend less time futzing around with their iPhones, which offers many distractions of its own.

From what I've seen of the early Apple Watch prototypes, the functionality of the wearable isn't just to serve as an  expensive adjunct to an expensive phone, it is designed to fundamentally change the way we interact with technology on a personal level.

Not just a product, a platform

Apple Watch isn't just a series of products, it represents an entire platform. This is likely the replacement of the iPod for Apple (and something much bigger and longer term). The first Apple Watch models will be impressive for many reasons. They already look and work unlike anything I've seen, but that's the beginning. There's a multiple-year plan in the works here and even more choice in terms of models, sizes, functionality and accessories. 

All my research on Apple Watch and its development has shown me that aside from releasing a new and innovative product, Apple's been focusing a lot of its energy on partnerships and tie-ins where Apple Watch is actually the star and not the supporting player. Apple Pay, Apple's securre mobile payments system, is one such application.

The StarWood Hotels App (go straight to hotel room and unlock with Apple Watch) and leaked Tesla app (lock and unlock your Tesla, check battery charging progress) are two examples of wearable uses that transcends how we use wearables today, and make Apple Watch a potentially invaluable device to own. Of course, selling this idea to millions of consumers is a monumental task and it begins with informing them of the benefits of Apple Watch. I predict this is what Monday's event is all about.

Since I'm not covering the event live this time, I'll be coming back with my overview and analysis of the Apple Spring Forward event next week to discuss announcements and any other product launches.