A Revolution

We are witnessing nothing short of a revolution with Apple Watch. The device holds the potential to become more disruptive to the current computing paradigm than even Apple may want to acknowledge. This potential is becoming easier to see as time goes on.

Apple Watch is designed to initially pick the low hanging fruit from the iPhone and iPad trees in terms of handling relatively simple use cases like receiving notifications, checking the time and weather, and tracking our daily activity. The device handles these tasks by approaching touch screens in a unique way. Apple Watch is designed for glances instead of prolonged viewing or watching.

For companies with business models based on grabbing as much of our attention as possible, Apple Watch does not represent a preferred revolution. This is likely one reason why Android Wear has failed to amount to much for Google. There just isn't much incentive for Google to put Android on the wrist. Apple Watch will also likely end up being quite disruptive to Apple's existing ecosystem. Apple management doesn't mind this future. Instead, they are embracing the unknown.

The same can't be said for a segment of the iOS developer community that ranges from indies to multinational companies. This group is becoming nervous about Apple Watch because it's not clear how the device will support the existing app ecosystem. In fact, this explains why a small portion of the Apple community has been so dismissive of Apple Watch from the start. News of major companies backing away from Apple Watch support has led this community to think that Apple Watch is in trouble. In reality, this is backwards. The current app ecosystem, not Apple Watch, is in trouble.

While Apple sees what the Apple Watch can become, management likely isn't sure of the exact path that will be taken to get there. For example, the honeycomb pattern of apps on Apple Watch is likely based too much on the present state of technology. Meanwhile, Apple's ongoing quest to figure out what to do with the Apple Watch side button is another sign of the company trying to capture the genie in the bottle in terms of how we will use apps on the wrist.

The reality is that Apple Watch likely won't support the same kind of ecosystem that we are accustomed to with iPhone and iPad. Apple Watch ends up being designed more for what may come after the App Store. Instead of relying on a collection of apps on my wrist, most of my interactions with services and features on Apple Watch end up being through the Siri watch face and various cards featuring glanceable amounts of information and data chosen for me by a digital assistant. These cards are personalized for me based on the time of day and my schedule. The implications of this computing experience are immense. We move away from pulling data from various apps and getting pushed mostly useless notifications to being pushed a curated feed of data that is always changing and tailored to the day at hand. Every app developer will be impacted by this dynamic.