That made today, March 9, 2015 a very interesting day for me since both of these topics coalesced into Apple's Spring Forward event.
So first there was the watch. Apple Watch carried no surprises and was just as predicted. It is tied to your iPhone or WiFi for it's internet connection and makes sure the wearer never again has to reach into his or her pocket for their phone just to tell what time it is. Wow. Ok, so there are a couple other nice things about it as well. The Apple Watch is very good for the health conscious with lots of gimmicks to monitor heart rate and let you know when it is time to get up and walk around before your body stagnates from living a sedentary life, The Apple Watch is also the best looking smart watch money can buy. In case you missed it, that was the couple nice things... nag you about your health and looks real purty. Apple is moving out of the realm of personal electronics and into the jewelry market. My prediction is that the best money maker will be the 18k gold Apple Watch Edition going to the rich that can afford to drop $10,000 on a piece of jewelry. In fact there is not really that much great jewelry around for men to wear so those high class fellows will now have something to buy for themselves instead of another pair of diamond cuff links.
As I said in Why no iWatch in 2013? and The 2015 Apple Watch is proof that Steve Jobs is dead the critical technology that was missing in 2013 and is missing still now is the ability for a watch to be a standalone communication device. I will summarize this into three key technologies that are missing for a smart watch to be the "next iPhone" or the "next iPad" which, in their day, revolutionized personal computing as we knew it:
- The battery technology for a very small battery that weighs only a few ounces to carry enough power to run a cellular wireless radio for 18 hours without a recharge to allow for true "all day battery life" with moderate bandwidth usage. You are not going to be streaming HD video on a screen with 340x272 resolution but you will stream music at a couple hundred kilobits per second, check your email and stock prices, and do the occasional facetime video call.
- Seamless wireless charging. The way to charge the 2015 Apple Watch is to "simply hold the connector near the back of the watch, where magnets cause it to snap into place automatically". Look at the thing; it is not the least bit elegant. Apple Watch needs to be able to charge wirelessly from a charging access point plugged into the wall 15-30 feet away so all you need worry about is getting into the bedroom where you left it plugged in for a few hours a day. The thing should also be smart enough to learn your habits and warn you if it is about time for charging and you are at home the charger is not sensed when it usually is around so you can dig through the cables under the desk and see if one of the pets ran through wrecking electrical cord havoc again.
- The right wearable headset that is as visually appealing as functional. Clearly no one is holding their wrist to their ear to talk and not just every call can be a speakerphone affair. Even the bejeweled earpieces that musical performers wear at awards shows are still pretty gawky looking for everyday use. For audio only we need a bluetooth earpiece as small and attractive as an earring yet still functional. It would even work to get a unit small enough to fit behind the ear that tucked the audio piece near the ear canal and draped a tiny camera over the top of the ear or even something google glass like that offers a tiny personal viewscreen for augmented reality.
During Spring Forward Apple also released the details of this year's line of laptops. Nothing surprising there either, just thinner and lighter with a better keyboard and better trackpad. Just more of the same.
Now here was the real big deal. Right at the beginning of the event they brought out HBO CEO Richard Plepler to drop the real bomb. The HBO Now service will launch in April in time for the season premier of Game Of Thrones and be exclusive to Apple devices for 3 months. HBO Now will not require you to have a cable or satellite service account; you just pay your $14.99 a month to HBO and get access to their entire catalog of content on demand as well as new releases of their exclusive content. $14.99 may seem like a high price but if you love HBO content then now is the time to unplug and send a message to Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, and Verizon that you don't want to pay $100 a month for their bundled channel packages any more. Pay HBO to support the model. Once the cable providers have their backs broken by services like this they will either wise up and start offering customized channel bundles or they will go the way of the record store chains and dinosaurs.
