Apple Wants to Free Apple Watch from the iPhone

I don’t need a “smartwatch” that just displays information and notifications from my smartphone. My smartphone is already immediately accessible 99 percent of the time, and does a much better job of showing me that same information in most cases. The Apple Watch–and other smartwatches–need to be fully functional on their own and provide unique value I can’t already get on my smartphone.

Apple is bringing down the hammer. The company has notified developers that beginning June 1, 2016 all new watchOS apps submitted to the App Store must be native apps build with the watchOS 2 SDK. The move will sever the dependence of the Apple Watch from the iPhone so it can function effectively as a completely standalone device.

I have two things to say about that. Thank you, and it’s about time.

I don’t yet have an Apple Watch. It is on my wish list, and it’s something I’m confident I will have in the near future. I made a conscious decision not to invest my money in the inaugural 1.0 version of the device. I wanted to give Apple some time to gather real world telemetry on how the device is being used, get feedback from users on what works and what doesn’t, and hold out for the more refined version 2—and this is why.

In early 2015 while we were all waiting breathlessly for Apple to unveil its Apple Watch, I wrote an article about smartwatches in general—and what it will take for a wearable device like that to gain the traction necessary to move from fad to revolution. I have used / reviewed a wide variety of smartwatches, and I had come up with a short list of things that, in my opinion, are required for the investment to be worth it: unique value, seamless interaction, and battery life.

The Apple Watch nailed seamless interaction out of the gate. Some of the devices I’ve reviewed had flaky touchscreen displays that did not respond well to touch—sort of a critical flaw for a device that only works by touch input. Battery life is marginal for the Apple Watch. It could use some improvement, but I also understand there is a very fine line there between providing excellent features in an extremely compact form factor and extending the battery life.

Read the complete article on Forbes: Apple Watch Will Soon Be One Step Closer To Ideal Smartwatch.