Out of FAANG, I find Apple the closest to capitulation because they need to keep their luxury product audience buying their product instead of competitors who seem more willing to take risks.
Every Apple announcement seems more like an 'evolution than revolution' per the article, and this doesnt seem any different.
Is this the best watch on the market?
EDIT: whoops- PRAISE APPLE, thank you steve jobs for your sacrifice.
Apple has been about continual incremental improvements for longer than about revolutionary changes. Look at how many years passed between the introduction of new product categories and this becomes clear.
In the current context, if introducing an FDA approved ECG in a consumer device is not revolutionary, then I don’t know what you mean by that term.
Some quotes from articles on this topic of incremental changes on Fast Company and Daring Fireball.
> When critics ding Apple for its failure to introduce “breakthrough” devices and services, they are missing three key facts about technology: First, that breakthrough moments are unpredictable outcomes of ongoing, incremental innovation; second, that ongoing, behind-the-scenes innovation brings significant benefits, even if it fails to create singular disruptions; and, third, that new technologies only connect broadly when a mainstream audience is ready and has a compelling need. “The world thinks we delivered [a breakthrough] every year while Steve was here,” says Cue. “Those products were developed over a long period of time.” [1]
> But even when Apple enters new product categories, they don’t invent the categories themselves. The iPad wasn’t the first tablet. The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone or touchscreen handheld device. The iPod wasn’t the first digital music player. [2]
> Historically, those sorts of big new things have only come two or three times per decade. [2]
Without a doubt. Google Wear lacks focus, Pebble is dead, and there's more offerings like Garmin or Fitbit that are nice but have a smaller scope. But yes, this is still an "evolutionary" release.
There are still a lot of tradeoffs in the space. The Garmin Fenix is arguably better for serious runners and backpackers in part because of better battery life and probably being more rugged.
But they're huge even for 6 ft. large-limbed me.
And I could never get my remanufactured Fenix 3 to consistently measure distance accurately on twisty turny trails no matter what settings I played with.
Battery life is definitely still an issue. In fact, I often travel with just a cheap Timex so it's one less thing I need to bother with.
The tracking issues have largely been cleaned up on the Fenix 5. It works well enough day to day for me, showing notifications from apps on my phone, allows me to blacklist apps, and has all of the features I need as a "serious" runner and backpacker/hunter. The Apple Watch isn't playing in that space though.
I was a bit on the fence between Apple and Garmin before a trip earlier this year where I really wanted a new GPS watch. I decided to spring for the Apple Watch but I wouldn't be surprised if there were another Fenix in my future at some point.
Evolutionary, sure, but I've been happy with mine. I bought the cheapest one since I wasn't sure it would be useful, ended up liking the damn thing so much I'm going to buy an S4 shortly. Cellular, because I'm getting to where I'd rather not carry the phone around but I want to maintain minimal connectivity (and most of that connectivity these days is non-voice).
Everyone is absolutely entitled to their own use case and should buy whatever suits them. It's a free market.
Out of FAANG, I find Apple the closest to capitulation because they need to keep their luxury product audience buying their product instead of competitors who seem more willing to take risks.
Every Apple announcement seems more like an 'evolution than revolution' per the article, and this doesnt seem any different.
Is this the best watch on the market?
EDIT: whoops- PRAISE APPLE, thank you steve jobs for your sacrifice.