Smartwatches Are Dying Because They Are Worthless | Hacker News Reader

Smartwatches Are Dying Because They Are Worthless

gizmodo.com

34 pointssounds30 comments

The Apple watch and its health application which gamifies trying to close some rings has led to me losing 3 pant sizes (46 -> 40), and almost 40 lbs. I've put on a lot of extra muscle mass and spend a lot more time being healthy.

Is that worth $250? It absolutely is to me, and I wear it on a daily basis. The extra features are nice to have, I use Apple Pay on my watch quite a bit, and the notifications are nice to remind me of meetings.

First, congrats on the wt loss!

However, I think you might want to do some calculations on the weight loss.

Consider that running for 30 minutes is about the same number of calories as one big mac(300 Cals), depending on a lot of things.

Apple watch was released ~1.5 years ago. To lose 40 lbs in say 80 weeks that's 0.5 lbs/wk. If apple watch was, in fact, the cause it would have to induce about the equivalent a 30 minute minute run every day. So if you miss a day the next you have to do a crushing 60 mins.

Maybe I'm projecting but even if the device gave me an extreme shock for not running I expect i'd miss a lot of days.

My guess is that likely your wt loss is due mostly to changes in diet. Maybe the watch made you more concious of meal choices?

. See some numbers here: http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/lose-1-kg-weight-per-week-74...

You might want to consider that human behavior can be difficult to calculate on an abacus.

Beginning to realize success toward a goal with a single behavior change (changes due to an increase in exercise) will having reinforcing effects on other behaviors (such as dietary choices).

By gamifying a key factor that likely led to a cascade of behavior changes, the watch played a critical role in improving his chance of success toward a goal.

Whether accurate or not, your point does not negate nor diminish the value of the watch as the critical factor.

So you're advocating:

. gym memberships

. fitness products

. supplements

. etc?

Because all those could fit into your gamification argument. How well in general do those work? My points are:

1 Again congrats to that person on the wt loss.

2 Likely it was their focus on changing their behaviour that was responsibile and not the watch. Probably a journal would suffice.

Also your statement "...the watch as the critical factor" is surprising, emphasis mine. I think only if I knew that person really well and had witnessed the transformation personally could I make that statement.

Movement on the scale does not necessarily equate with fat lost. In my case I have put in a lot of muscle mass in the mean time. I am lifting more, and have more stamina than ever before.

That's why I mentioned the pant sizes, because changing clothe sizing is a better indicator of things moving the right direction.

I haven't change my meal choices much at all, but getting the 30 minute work-out ring closed means I walk an average of 4 miles a day, every day (little over an hour). This also burns a bunch of calories, gets my aerobic exercise in, raises my heart rate, and gets me moving.

I keep a food log, and looking at the calories consumed before the Apple Watch and after they are very similar, the only real change has been the Apple Watch. Now that I get much more exercise in (it was simpler to ignore when I didn't have a watch with a watch face that shows me my rings), my nutritionist actually upped the amount of calories I need to eat a day.

Side note: Also, I have to keep my weight loss to a minimum due to losing weight too fast exacerbating other medical conditions. My doctor is happy with my progress, and that is what matters way more than some back of the envelope calculation you've done here.

I think you misundertood my comment. Anyhow, congrats again on your accomplishments.

I have asked this before in various contexts but never got a good answer - why are smart watches so smart (but in return clumsy, expensive, power hungry etc)?

I don't need another smartphone I might need a companion device. It should just display a few things from my phone, e.g display navigation, notifications. My phone already has a big arm CPU and a GPS receiver, I don't want to carry another one!

It should cost peanuts and have weeks of battery.

Do these exist? If not, why? Because they can't be made? Because no one apart from me wants one?

Pebble existed for a while, and it was basically what you ask for. There weren't really enough buyers.

The closest the industry came to what you're describing, unfortunately, was Pebble. They were cheap (IIRC the OG Pebble was around $99); while they didn't last _multiple_ weeks you could get 7-10 days out of a charge depending on model.

I use my Pebble Time Steel pretty much exactly how you're describing; to glance at the time, weather, and notifications, so I can keep my phone on silent in my pocket.

Apparently nobody except you and I want that, though :(

I'd want it to have the kind of integration and polish that e.g Apple could pull off if it was their product. I think it could be a thing, especially if it could work reasonably well on its own (watch, fitness features etc).

I can't agree more. I use mine for the same reasons. I'm hoping the remaining pebbles will drop in price so I can buy them all up.

I'm looking for the exact opposite. I don't need two devices to read my notifications. Make the watch a phone replacement or just don't bother me! I think the fitness enthusiasts are happy enough with a fitness band with basic/core fitness apps.

Agreed. For me the appeal of a smart watch would be to minimize the amount of times I actually have to take out my phone, which is always a potential distraction. Smart watches are interesting to me if they reflect a trend towards more limited devices that help instead of hindering focus---rather than so many devices that do everything...

I have mixed feelings about the article, partly because of Gizmodo (which loves clickbaity titles to an extreme) and because I find my Apple watch actually useful in daily life - meeting reminders, discrete messaging, street directions and the ability to dictate replies - much easier than unlocking the phone and typing them out when on the go.

(It can actually cope with both languages I speak/write daily, and got me using Siri and dictation more, with very reasonable accuracy).

I had a Pebble and a Sony Smartwatch previously, and it was an exponential improvement - although my ideal smartwatch would be something like the Pebble Round with full Apple integration and fitness features.

They're not for everyone, they're expensive (all of mine were eBay or discount purchases) and they might not make for a sizable business volume, but they are useful - but, again, not for everyone.

I was looking for a watch for running a few months ago. I waited for the new Apple Watch 2. After looking at it, I decided to go with Garmin. It is a lot cheaper and does exactly the things I want: tracking time, distance, steps, heart rate etc. I can see the value of smartwatches as fitness trackers. For other things, a smartphone does it better.

I'm currently in the same situation as you were - currently trying to decide between an Apple Watch 2 and a Garmin. Fitness is my main concern, though I'm not super intense and wouldn't mind getting light notifications (just texts and incoming calls maybe) on the watch either. Which one did you end up getting?

I really don't agree they are worthless but until about last week I was really considering dropping my Apple Watch.... In favor of going back to a Pebble (I had a Pebble steel). Now that Pebble is no more I'll be sticking with the Apple Watch. I love having the time on my wrist (never knew how useful it was, I was never a "Watch guy") but even more so I love the notifications. Pebble had an awesome product but living in an Apple ecosystem I decided to go for the Apple Watch and while I like the look and finish a lot more than the pebble I'm not sure it justifies the cost in the end. My Pebble vibrate could be heard across the room while the haptic feedback from my Apple watch is silent. My Apple watch looks nicer than my Pebble but my Pebble blew away the Apple watch on both battery and cost.

I agree with some of the other comments here, I want a companion device not another smartphone on my wrist. I have used apps on my watch 1-2 times ever because the screen is just too small to really do anything on. With one of the new updates texting with drawing made it useful for responses again (I never got into canned responses) but really I want the time and notifications. I has hoped for better siri integration but it's failed me enough times I just reach for my phone to use siri at this point.

I think of smart watches as a product that is 2/3rds of a smartphone, targeted at people who don't want to take a smartphone out of their pocket, with an affinity towards people who are fashion conscious, for whom the form factor itself is a selling point.

It's a market, but not that big of one.

You could say the same about V3 and the market was not that small. Nice things are not only for fashion conscious. They just need to have the right price.

That's the thing...part of their identity as a fashion accessory means that a low price would be a bad thing, like wearing a timex instead of a Rolex.

It's a bit self-limiting.

I ordered a Pebble Time 2 on Kickstarter and a Core hoping to find the perfect smartwatch and run tracking combo. When the Apple Watch 2 came out, I figured I'd hedge my bets and get one of those, then keep whichever one I ended up liking more. Well, the Pebble + Core is never arriving (thanks for the quick refund!) - and I've really become found of the Apple Watch.

Built in GPS for run tracking is awesome, and with wireless airpods, I'll be able to run and listen to music/podcast with minimal extra weight.

A few other minor things I've liked about the Apple Watch 2:

- Setting a timer with Siri (use multiple times a day now) - Weather on the watchface - Check banking balances from watch - PagerDuty notifications on watch vs. phone (my wife very much appreciates this!) - phone now stays out of the bedroom

I'm sad there isn't a good open source watch OS out there (with any decent looking hardware) - but until then, the Apple Watch 2 has been a pleasant surprise. I did have pretty low expectations going in, so that could be part of it.

Is Android Wear OSS?

AOSP is not really the same thing you run on your phone/watch.

I strongly blame the Apple watch for the demise of the smart watch. People, including this article's author, look at how unfit for purpose the Apple watch is and draw conclusions about all smart watches. And the Apple watch is the most visible, so that's all most people see.

To my eye, Apple's advertising push for the Watch tried to sell it as a replacement for other primary mobile devices rather than as supplementary (you never see an iPhone in those ads).

One limiting factor that went ignored by a lot of people is that many basic tasks (calls, texts, browsing ) that can be done with one hand with a phone constrain both hands when operating the watch.

I guess I'm weird as I don't have my phone on me 24/7. For people like me, smart watches have a lot of utility.

The Apple Pay is fantastic when you are on a motorcycle and pull up to the pump. Quick responses to texts and heart rate tracking making a smart watch a pretty good but yes expensive gadget. So many will find it useless but many find a lot of extra features on smart phones useless as well.

One big advantage the apple watch has over eg garmin is looks. For people who either dress professionally or value their appearance, the apple watch seems far better. This was a top concern for my partner when she wanted a fitness tracker.

Agree. I had a garmin XT but it looks like a teenage gameboy on my wrist. The apple watch does the same thing but looks sleek and professional.

>>...big reason I’d purchased it was ... to turn my lights off and on with my watch, but in practice, the Phillips Hue light switch app was so slow it was easier to pull my phone out instead.

Or you could do it by getting off the sofa and using the switch. No wonder so many people are morbidly obese these days. Spending several hundred quid so you don't have to walk to the lightswitch!

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