Ben Bajarin, writing for TechPinions, homes in on the value of hands free computing and the Apple Watch.
What has stood out to me the most about this experience is how the Apple Watch allows me to be “hands free” but still get value from the digital world.
On this point, I believe an important framework is worth establishing. To get value from the digital computing world with devices like a PC, tablet, or smartphone, you have to be looking at and engaged with the device. In the case of the smartphone and tablet, you are likely to be holding the device in at least one hand but frequently both. This means your hands and full attention are on that screen. There are absolutely times for these experiences. But if the average person spends about 2 hours using their smartphone daily, how does one get value from the digital world in all the other hours of the day? This is where I think a wearable screen begins to establish its value proposition.
This is all about efficiency, about reducing interface friction, the time cost of having to pull out your phone to check for a progress notification or seek some reportable data.
It is also about freeing up your hands. Imagine doing the dishes, with your hands full of suds. Or in the middle of some messy cooking, where you have sauce or some other cooking concoction on your hands. If you get a text, or some other notification, the best you can do is either interrupt the process, clean up, get out your phone, then get back to your hand-messing activity. The Apple Watch is like a remote signal tower for your iPhone (and for the Apple ecosystem).
Another use case is for people who have to silence their iPhone at work and don’t keep their phone in their pockets (or don’t have pockets), so they don’t have access to the notification vibrations. The Apple Watch is a boon to those folks, as well as to the people trying to reach them.
Funny that this “value proposition” discussion wasn’t necessary when iPhone and iPad were introduced. Yet, a watch, which people buy frivolously, needs to be justified.
All things need to be justified. However with a phone the justification had already been made years before. Adding functionality and power simply enhanced the value prop that already existed. The iPad absolutely had to make it’s value prop argument. There were naysayers from here to the horizon asking why anyone needed an iPad when the already had a laptop. The iPad made it’s argument over time and the value prop was clear. The Watch has a bigger hurdle than even the iPad since it occupies a space many abandoned long ago or is currently utilized by a watch that is loved by the wearer. The Watch has to make the argument that it can provide value enough to be on your wrist either adding to or supplanting the items you already own.
Yes, “funny” how he forgot all that, eh?
Both the original quote and the follow-up post contain truly depressing comments:
“But if the average person spends about 2 hours using their smartphone daily, how does one get value from the digital world in all the other hours of the day?”
Perhaps we should instead be thinking about how to enjoy the non-digital world while we have the opportunity rather than slapping on a watch so we can be jacked in constantly.
“Imagine doing the dishes, with your hands full of suds. Or in the middle of some messy cooking, where you have sauce or some other cooking concoction on your hands. If you get a text, or some other notification, the best you can do is either interrupt the process, clean up, get out your phone”
Or maybe the “best you can do” is ignore the message and continue living your life. Are devices and notifications really more important than all the other experiences in life. Can you not finish washing the dishes before returning to slave over a device?
“Another use case is for people who have to silence their iPhone at work and don’t keep their phone in their pockets.”
On the other hand you could do something like focus on your work rather than return to your digital obsession. No doubt you get the necessary notifications pertinent to work via email, if you work in an environment where such communication is essential to your job. Otherwise, simply put the notifications aside for a couple of hours and experience something other than looking at a personal screen.
The only case being made above is that the watch affords a level of self-indulgence that is frankly pretty disgusting. there is more to life than little beeps telling you to “check me now! check me now!”