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Comment by martythemaniak | Hacker News Reader

If Apple releases a wearable, it'll be an interesting test to see if competitors have learned from Apple's success. As in, will the iWearable be as fundamentally different from other watches/bracelets as the iPhone was from prior smartphones? Or will it be essentially the Apple version of the Pebble/Jawbone Up?

Being late to the game didn't stop Apple from dominating smartphones and mp3 players, but at those times (6 and 12 years ago respectively), they were the only ones focusing on design, simplicity and ease-of-use.

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I don't think it's fair to say Apple was the only company focusing on design, simplicity and ease-of-use prior to 2001. For example, the palm treo was much easier to use than other "smart" phones of the day. The difference between iPhones and other phones was epic, but it was also generational.

There were people at Motorola focused on these things and they made the RAZR, which dominated the world mobile market for years. Compared to other "feature" phones of the day, it was remarkably awesome (granted some people hated it but its hard to deny its success).

Apple did it better, but they weren't the only ones trying. The fact that they did it much much better than their competition does not necessarily indicate that other companies weren't trying.

/end rant

In other news, Apple watch should be a solid touch screen bracelet. IMHO.

And don't forget Google, who got famous for some of their design decisions early on. E.g. the minimal design of google.com, and the "undo replaces confirm dialog" pattern.

Your "undo replaces confirm dialog" quote blew my mind the second I read it. Is there a specific article discussing this design element?

It's crazy how something simple goes unnoticed when you use it, but when pointed out you realize the thought process behind it.

I'm sure it's not the first documented instance of the principle, but it's part of Android's Design Guidelines. "Decide for me but let me have the final say." - http://developer.android.com/design/get-started/principles.h...

Aza Raskin discusses the feature in 2007: http://alistapart.com/article/neveruseawarning . I don't know if there is more/better material on the topic.

Personally, I have a very positive memory of when I discovered this feature in the early days of Gmail.

Edit: Guide van Rossum also wrote about this in 2005: http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=97581

Aza Raskin's father Jef incorporated the idea in his design for the Canon Cat, released in 1987. Notably, he felt Undo was such an important operation that it deserved its own large key[1]. He discussed many ideas behind the design, including universal undo as an alternative to confirmation, in his book The Humane Interface[2].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Canon_Cat_keyboard.jpg [2] http://books.google.com/books?id=D39vjmLfO3kC&q=undo

Apple's ability to turn relatively new product categories into caché products is impressive. But one thing to consider is that the wearable market has been around far longer than the other markets that Apple has moved into.

For instance, the long term existence of a wearable time keeping device has allowed others to cultivate over time the caché market that exists today. Think Rolex, Cartier, etc. Apple is going to have a hard time breaking into that high margin market.

Would you consider the prior portable music market (Walkman, Discman, etc) a parallel?

Of course, time pieces have a much longer history. But as far as the modern consumer/brand marketplace is concerned, portable music devices certainly predated earlier MP3 players by decades, at least.

Underestimate Apple at your peril, as has been amply demonstrated.

It's very unlikely that any Apple product would be designed to compete against the ultra-luxury brands you cite. With consumer oriented products, Apple shoots for the high-middle, where they can capture a high margin on a vast scale. Think BMW 3-series, not a Rolls Royce or Veyron.

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