Apple Watch 8 – Sensors
Apple Watch 8 – SensorsI’m having one of those early-onset, very childish ‘I told you so‘ moments.
Reports today from Bloomberg seem to confirm that, once again, Apple has only meagre plans to incrementally update the Apple Watch in September later this year.
The company is planning to add a body-temperature sensor to the watch as early as this year. Bloomberg
I’ll come back to that quote but the rest of Bloomberg’s article suggests that WatchOS 9 will also “expand its [existing] atrial fibrillation detection feature” and introduce a battery-boosting low-power mode that can actually show something other than the time; yep, the time is all you get in the current WatchOS 8 low-power mode.
Reminder: What Apple Does Each Year With Its Watch.
In the summer Apple announces the next version of the WatchOS and that is when we get a first look at new software features which are usually supported all the way back to Series 3 where the hardware allows. Then we get the new Watch Series in September perhaps with a little something extra on the features-front, enabled by a new bit of previously-secret hardware.
Almost always that new Apple Watch gets to officially sense one (and only one) new ‘thing’ and last year that thing was respiration rate. There are also unannounced changes that are silently made like, for example, the new WiFi chip and new GNSS sensor that were almost certainly both introduced in Series 7 but not reported on. The Series 7 GNSS performance is simply not as good as the prior year’s Series 6, that’s why I reverted back to using Series 6 for my comparative testing.
From a sports perspective, Apple’s newly announced sensors often encroach on irrelevantly boring territory. Admittedly atrial fibrillation is useful to some and can save a few lives…handy if it’s your life that’s saved. If you Google the net you will find one or two reports of just that happening.
Watch 7 Hopes Weren’t Dashed…They Were Trashed
Apple and the entire tech industry can be forgiven for 2021, if you haven’t got the people or the parts you can’t make the watches. Apple clearly struggled to get Watch 7 out on time with some nonsensical reports saying the 4-week (or so) delay was due because Apple reverted back to a previous design. Pure nonsense! They just found it a bit harder to get the planned design out on time.
For several years, sports tech lovers (me and you) hope and expect more and the media, including me, seem to think that the mythically wonderful Apple will create the best-ever, techy watch whilst simultaneously landing Tim Cook (CEO) on Mars. They won’t.
And with the Watch 7 came confirmation, if it were ever needed, that change for Apple means creeping, incremental change. It just didn’t live up to even the lowest of expectations.
Hopes of blood pressure sensing, lactate sensing, core temperature sensing and blood sugar sensing seemed destined for 2030 with a favourable wind.
Bottom line. Two years ago, I predicted the Temperature sensor would be the next (only) sensor for aiding female health tracking and sleep tracking. Sadly even that scaled-back prediction was a year too early and too optimistic in its hope for a boost to Apple’s sleep tracking abilities.
So. I told you so. Kinda but I was too early and half wrong :-). Apart from that, the prediction was probably still a bit better than many of those from much of the Applephilic media.
That said, I still like the Apple Watch 7 but am begrudging not being able to wear the awesome Garmin Epix 2 24×7, there are just too many good tech watches out there right now.
Post Script
If you’ve got this far, here are some links to non-standard and, I think, interesting takes on some of the stuff you can do with the Apple Watch 7.
Turn your Apple Watch7 into a Fenix 7 (kinda), like this…
If you like batteries and the Apple Watch 7, you will re-read this twice daily for the rest of your life. If batterytastic was a word it would describe this article…
14 Tips: Apple Watch 7 battery – the interesting guide to everything you need to know
How to make even the cheapest of Apple Watches rival the supposed beauty of the Hermes Edition (well…kinda)
Rant: Apple Watch 7 – made your Watch extremely good looking with the best accessories
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I think Apple was wrong with their original Dick Tracey conception of a smart watch as a wrist-sized iPhone. I’m not sure very many people want that or not most of that. Hell I don’t even want one single wrist notification ever!
I think the market has solidified around health, activity tracking, quantified self, and related more advanced endurance sport and training doo-dad-ery. The viable market for apps (even for Apple Watch) is pretty constrained as well and largely to audio services and extensions that tie into hardware accessories and health or wellness services.
Apple should continue to add sensors and make their stock apps and services target the center of the bell curve. Their watch band strategy is genius. But this also means that the advantages of an advanced UNIX OS with unlimited capabilities and first party access to the iPhone are not definitive advantages. I think they will continue iterate yearly and each edition is not an enormous upgrade but 2-3 years of upgrades are significant.
A side effect of all of this is that there seems to be a tolerance of diversity of devices, bundled services, form factors, and price points in the market for now that range from faceless sensors like Oura and Whoop, to cheap fitness bands with no service component to Apple Watch which is quite modular in pricing and capabilities (including a Apple+ fitness service subscription) to endurance sports and outdoor watches focused on different disciplines from Garmin and Coros. Some companies are failing and others quite successful but it doesn’t seem to be consolidating on a single winner like the PC market or a duopoly like iPhone+Android.
I don’t think that one all-purpose “smart watch” is really a thing that the majority of people want in the way they want a “smart phone” or a laptop. And a significant number of people resist having the thing that looks exactly like the thing everyone else has on their wrist. Wearing something on your body in public makes it a different thing.
Brian. Brian. Brian. We used to agree all the time 😉 !
I take on most of what you say and disagree with the ‘most people’ bit, clearly, most Apple Watch buyers want a glorified phone extension that can also do the sensing piece that a phone will never be able to. The sales figures are proof in themselves.
Apple is very focused on what areas they go deep on. I remember a presentation from a while back saying something like they do it when there is a conversion of tech, subscription, mass appeal (something along those lines) … hence why Fitness+ was invented. For other areas they seem to want to provide the core data and then let 3rd parties add value to it.
Sleep is the interesting example. there is a LOT of interest in sleep tech, Apple bought Beddit maybe for the staff or maybe for the product. they keep adding to the sleep offering but could clearly make it better in several simple ways (like more HRV readings in the night) but they chose not to ostensibly either for commercial or performance reasons. I suspect that maybe ‘sleep’ just didn’t tick all their boxes whereby if they went for a full sleep solution and readiness solution who would pay for it? few people perhaps. then again respiration data followed this year by temperature data might just be the building blocks that they are slowly assembling?
Maybe they are waiting to release an Oura-like Ring. That strategy would work as its another thing that would generate revenue (a la virtual headsets they are also pursuing)
watch straps: agreed! cost 50c, sale price $30 or whatever it is. Number of sales?…a lot. #MarginsBaby
notification. I used to hate them but as the months pass I somewhat relish a ping from telegram or whatapp,
Anyway, as always, thank you for the intelligent and thought-through comment.
sorry the reply was a bit disjointed.
I think Apple thought people wanted a Dick Tracey phone-on-wrist but in reality the mass market is health stuff. Listen to their marketing since Apple Watch Series 2.
It’s all about lifestyle fitness, incident detection, arrhythmia detection, health research feel good stories, saving grandma, and the like. Meanwhile general apps have withered and pulled out — see Uber.
I suspect but can’t substantiate that cellular enablement has been a disappointing selling point. This doesn’t even work where I’m living so my perspective is skewed.
One of the main points of iOS 15 is controlling and silencing notifications. If people don’t want them on their phone, they sure as shit don’t want them on their wrist.
Fitness+ however is a recurring service revenue extension point.
A plethora of bands to individualize sold at high margin and changing with the seasons is also a great way to up the ARPU.
People want the Apple Watch but Apple is demonstrating with their focus and marketing the reason people want it is for health and wellness aspiration and for fashion. Arguably the most successful feature is the 3 rings gamification of activity. They don’t have Kevin Lynch on stage demonstrating apps and the honeycomb launcher anymore.
Most people in the general population cannot run 5km non-stop and do not attempt to run more than once or twice a week. Apple is selling to all of those normal people and Garmin is selling to the people that aspire to 3x a week or more (or some other niche fit aspiration). Apple Watch is also way-cooler in industrial design than a Fitbit and much less intimidating than the Garmin Forerunner brand. And they cost as little as $200 for the Series 3. And they have co-marketing with Nike and Hermès.
hmm ok yes,
phone feature augmentation on the wrist PLUS wellness.
i’d agree on those two things.
cellular enablement – IDK either but agree in principle
iOS 15 notification controls – yes. that’s a good feature tho, very advanced for what it is an, i belive, scheduled to be further expanded in the summer
“They don’t have Kevin Lynch on stage demonstrating apps and the honeycomb launcher anymore. ” I don’t think he’s big in the UK (who is he?) but take your point. I would say the connected features are a ‘given’. How often do Garmin et al advertise steps and stairs? the world has moved on in many ways
“Most people in the general population cannot run 5km non-stop…” for sure I generally agree with that paragraph. I think this is the key aspect where you say “Garmin is selling to the people that aspire to 3x a week”, it is precisely some sort of middle ground around there where the future of these companies lies garmin has obviously kinda won the upper end, many aspirational people in the middle don’t exercise 3x a week but want to. this whole middle area is a BIG market and confusing…do you just buy a Garmin for your 1-3 workouts a week or will your apple watch suffice (of course it will). however garmin absolutely needs this middle ground as well as, let’s call it, the upper middle ground to get the volumes. As I’ve said several times Apple and others are encroaching ever-upwards to get volumes and market share and Garmin appears to be retreating slightly upwards in order to maintain margins. Will there be a Garmin Edge 140/150, FR65/75? Will vivoactive/venu thrive?
we see this aspect of competition today with Polar. both Pacer products are pretty good for the lower end of the fitness/wannabe athlete scale but so are many others. how do you compete? features?price?brand/trust? or do you buy from your corporate wellness scheme or insurance plan or because a friends recommends something?
and we see it, more interestingly, with Garmin’s AMOLED screen (and battery life that I still can’t believe alongside it). That tech is where Garmin might be able to hold off those coming up from below BUT against that is the relatively awful garmin user experience and it being less than perfect a smart watch. ultimately garmin will lose the middle ground, i suspect even with their flavour of amoled.
Super interesting thoughts., So glad you took the time to write them. Garmins AMOLED/battery tech is truly bonkers. Just bonkers. The fact that it’s getting so consistently so many, many days is just astounding. I think Garmin could change some of the broad industry competition aspects by incorporating this technology into a watch for the broader masses. Sure Venu 2 accomplishes that to a degree but I definitely think they have to continue along the line of the “Plus” aspects, enhancing the smart watch experience to do so.
well that’s not strictly true 😉
just started a 2 hour bike ride with Epix. at the start i had about 90 minutes of juice left so i chose the extended mode that advertised to me 3 hours.
after one hour and 50 minutes the watch died. grrrrrr
so that stats are patently wrong. in this case they were wrong by a third
maybe i had the backlight bumped up…but the predicted figure should have accounted for my existing setting or change its recommendation…it did neither (or was just wrong)
Kevin Lynch was the executive in charge of the Apple Watch project. In the original demo and other demos he is the guy on stage during the keynote. The original Apple Watch pitch had a lot about apps and the app selection UI. And also sharing heart beats with your sweetie.
Google revealed less likely candidates !
Super interested in why you begrudgingly are not able to wear the awesome Garmin Epix 2 24×7. Thanks for letting me know.
i only have so many wrist and its a bit big for bedtime wearing for me.
that said I am happy to accept that Epix 2 is probably the best sports watch ever from any manufacturer.
You are so spot on, I completely agree. It’s a bit tragic that they don’t come out with full-fledged sleep analysis and recommendations, coupled with HRV information/actionable-suggestions. Sometimes it feels like they make great sensors, but then at the end of the day they say “here’s all your information, go have somebody figure out what it means and tell you what to do”.
but in a way that’s a good strategy, they can’t do everything. and they can’t do every niche thing. they have to draw the line somewhere. generally that line is drawn at getting the base data correct. and i think that’s fair enough.
sometimes, as i say above, they go deep when there is a need and money to be made