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Comment by 40acres | Hacker News Reader

Perhaps it's naive of me to think that Apple will ever detach the Watch from the Phone and allow set up and full use cases for users who don't have an iPhone. I'd definitely buy a cellular enabled Apple Watch and ditch my phone if possible.

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This is exactly why I purchased the Apple Watch. I leave my phone at home more often than not. The Watch does just basic comms and I've removed notifications of everything else. It's the essential communication/navigation device that I need and all I really want. For anything else I'd much rather open my laptop. Hoping one day it can be a standalone device.

Hoping one day it can be a standalone device

With all the watchOS 6 stuff that makes it more independent (App Store on watch, iPhone-less apps, etc), I was thinking this might be the year. Oh well, bet it happens next year.

I’m optimistic too; remember the iPod and iPhone required a computer to get them set up initially too.

I don't think it will ever happen if I'm honest. Would take away from iPhone sales.

I think this depends on whether other manufacturers go that route. Apple would rather have their own Watch cannibalize iPhone sales than some Android Wear gadget.

It looks like their long term strategy, i.e. put smartphone functionality into a watch, put tablet functionality into a phone, put laptop functionality into a tablet.

One could argue that the iPad is intended to do the same thing to the MacBook line. Obviously the iPhone is a bigger driver of Apple's business, which changes the circumstances somewhat.

Worth to note that you can't setup new Apple Watch without iPhone. Even version with virtual sim.

Isn't that like going back 10 years, when phone were small and will do all the basic stuff? (Of course they weren't "wearable")

Looking at the trend, I wonder if a time will come when the good old "Nokia" phones will be the new "hip".

Check out the Palm companion. I believe we have already started heading in that direction, and couldn't be more excited.

Can you look for restaurants and order uber with it?

You can specifically only order an Uber X, so, it wasn't worth it for me. I tried building my own app to do it, bit at the end of the day the cellular reception just wasn't good enough for daily use.

I'm currently using a palm companion, and seeing if I can use it for most of my daily tasks.

They've definitely expressed this as a goal, and have moved in that direction, but they're not there yet. Maybe next year. Or the next.

It took a while for iPhone, too.

I'd like it to be a primary device where you can also use it with an iPod Touch optionally for just rare moments when you want to either take a decent photo or interact with a screen.

For this to work well for me personally, though, I think Siri needs to be better.

My only Apple device is an iPad. If I could use the Apple Watch with the iPad I might do that! My health insurance company (Aetna) will pay for $150 of it.

wait, how will Aetna do that??? That might change things for me

I think it came as part of the Peerfit plan where you get free fitness classes. I'm not sure about that though.

IIRC, there's a 90 day window once a year right after enrollment time where you can buy a watch through Aetna.

Apple has tremendous incentive to make the watch fully independent: once that happens, it's not hard to imagine fully independent glasses are far behind.

That is Apple’s plan: make the Apple Watch a stand on its own device.

I think the watch + AR glasses/contacts will be what they move to. The same way the watch is now tied to a phone, the AR glasses will be tied to a watch.

I wonder how compact AR glasses can get, near term. My wife and I just gave our Oculus Go to our grandson and bought an Oculus Quest which is portable, has a sort-of AR ability because of external lowers video cameras, and is comfortable. But, the Quest is a long ways away from glasses.

A little off topic, but I worked in VR in the mid 1990s for SAIC, and Angel Studios/Disney. I am so very happy to see inexpensive consumer VR rigs like the Quest. Some of the media produced for the Quest is very good, Vader Immortal being my favorite entertainment ever.

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