It’s hard to believe that the Apple Watch was first announced almost a year ago even though it didn’t go on sale until April of this year. But since the time it’s been available…we actually don’t know how well the Apple Watch is selling. Apple hasn’t released any official sales numbers, which is a bit odd since they love announcing iPhone sales numbers. Various estimates put Apple Watch sales numbers at 3 million in June. If true, that wouldn’t be bad considering it's an all new product and that the first iPhone took 3 months to sell just one million units.
Still, many people have said they are holding off for the second Apple Watch in hopes of better design, better battery life, and, well, just better everything. But it looks like those people are going to have to hold off a little longer. After all, it's now almost been a year since its announcement, yet no new Apple Watch is in sight–that’s in spite of Apple releasing a swath of new products in September. One area where of great contention is whether or not Apple can get away with releasing an Apple Watch every year. I mean, a watch is usually for life and while I do appreciate the Apple Watch is a smartwatch it does cost A LOT more than many premium wristwatches — and this could be a prickly issue for many early adopters. Particularly if Apple makes the Apple Watch 2 A LOT better with improved hardware, better battery life and a similar price tag to the first-generation model.
The Apple Watch does look nice, I’ll admit that. But no more so than the recently announced Pebble Time Steel. It costs a lot too, around £300 for the base level Sport model. And then there’s the Apple Watch Edition that will set you back £8000. I mean, who in their right mind would pay THAT much money for a piece of consumer electronics that probably won’t work in six years time? Don’t worry, though, that one apparently isn’t meant for mere mortals like you and me –– it’s for the super-rich and famous. Anyone outside the 1%, however, can “view” the Apple Watch Edition at select Apple Stores, though it will be locked away inside a glass box to keep your disgusting, grubby, proletariat fingers from smudging and/or stealing it.
I get that its limited edition and that limited things, like gold, tend to hold their value. I’m also not very knowledgable about jewellery and living the high-life, so while I will admit the Edition may hold –– and perhaps even appreciate –– in value, I’m still fairly certain that if anyone was putting money into something as an investment one of the last things they’d look at is consumer electronics, unless, of course, they were buying shares in a consumer electronics company. I guess a lot of this will depend on just how SCARCE the Apple Watch Edition turns out to be. The Apple Watch Edition was faced with opposition inside Apple HQ, however, as execs were worried it would make the company appear, well, a bit up its own arse. Former Apple SVP of technologies Bob Mansfield told The New Yorker that Ive faced “a lot of resistance” because Apple’s goal has traditionally been to “build products for everybody.”
“But Ive won the argument, and in 2013 the company announced the high-level appointments of Angela Ahrendts, the former C.E.O. of Burberry, and Paul Deneve, the former C.E.O. of the Yves Saint Laurent Group.” Moral of the story? Now Steve’s gone, you DO NOT MESS WITH THE IVE. But the question still remains whether Apple can get away with releasing a new model Apple Watch just 12 months after the first one? This is will irritate A LOT of users. But Apple will almost certainly update the hardware on a yearly basis — that’s just the way the consumer electronics space works. And nothing sells quite a like a new Apple product. Especially if the new Apple Watch features a more traditional, circular face. Circles have worked since the dawn of time with sundials and right up to modern day on watch faces and clocks. Apple should respect this and release an Apple Watch model with similar properties. This is also the most obvious thing Apple could change about its Apple Watch. Hell, it could do this and change nothing else and people would still flock in droves to buy one.
Apple is looking to pick up a second manufacturer for the next-generation Apple Watch apart from Quanta Computer, reports Apple Insider. The company is currently in talks with Inventec, Wistron, and its primary partner Foxconn, according to the Chinese-language Apple Daily, quoted by DigiTimes. The Daily suggested that the new Watch won't be available until after the second quarter of 2016, which conflicts with some recent rumors calling for a launch within that quarter. Apple apparently initially ordered 6 million Apple Watch units for the December quarter of 2015 but has since then scaled back production to 4 million following softer than expected sales. Apple has yet to officially comment on exact sales of its first wearable but industry watchers suspect the Apple Watch has out-sold everything else in the wearable space by quite a considerable margin.
In addition to this, word on the street suggests that Apple will unveil the Apple Watch 2 during Q1 2016 — March, to be specific. But it’s not just the Apple Watch that could feature, either. No, according to 9to5 Mac’s Mark Gurman — a guy with an excellent batting average re: Apple rumours — the event will see both a new 4in iPhone, likely the iPhone 6c, and the Apple Watch 2. The Apple Watch will then be released in April, more or less exactly a year after the first model. Gurman says the iPhone 6c is an outside chance at present, but it confident we’ll see a new Apple Watch unveiled at the event, which brings us handily round to our wish list for what we want from Apple’s second-generation Apple Watch.
Apple Watch 2: No iPhone Required & Android Support
You may be seeing a theme here with our wishlist: we want the Apple Watch 2 free of its iPhone ball and chain. It’s currently such a cool device, but it loses that cool and usefulness when your iPhone isn’t around. If it could do almost everything your iPhone could do think how amazing–and truly innovative–it would be. An iPhone on your wrist without the iPhone: calls, Apple Pay, Internet connectivity, you name it. It would be amazing. Similarly, it’d be awesome if Apple would allow Android phones to connect to its Apple Watch OS. Google now supports iPhone inside its Android Wear platform and this is great news for iPhone users and Google’s hardware partners as the former have more choice and the latter have a larger potential market.
Android Wear devices are cheaper and because the whole wearables thing isn’t exactly a done deal, those looking at getting a smartwatch might first test the water with a cheaper model — and that means an Android Wear device. This isn’t likely to happen, however, as it goes against pretty much everything Apple stands for. The Apple ecosystem is a walled garden and Apple likes it that way — so don’t expect support for Android phones anytime soon.
Apple Watch 2: Better Battery, Obvs!
This is the most frustrating thing about the current Apple Watch. Less than a day’s battery life SUCKS big time. However, Apple Watch’s battery life issue isn’t entirely within Apple’s control. Battery technology just isn’t to the point where batteries can both be small enough and powerful enough to fit in and charge a device that’s as small as a smartwatch for days at a time. Still, there are ways via software and hardware that you can prolong battery life. Apple does this to great effect in the iPhones and to some effect in the first Apple Watch. Hopefully they’ll be able to make Apple Watch 2 more power efficient, which could give it 48 hours of battery life.
Apple Watch 2: More Shapes?
Apple Watch 2: More StorageThe first Apple Watch has 8GB of built-in storage. That’s okay–especially for watchOS 1, which basically ran lightweight companion apps tethered to the iPhone. But now that watchOS 2 allows for dedicated apps (to some degree) more storage is going to become more important. Since Apple loves the 16 GB storage option on their iPhones, why not bump up the storage of the Apple Watch 2 by that much?
Apple Watch 2: Better SiriSiri has gotten speedier in watchOS 2, but because it still streams Siri’s data through the iPhone it’s slower than it could be. We’d love to see a native onboard Siri with the Apple Watch 2. Of course in order for that to happen Apple Watch 2 would need the following…
Apple Watch 2: Built-in Cellular and GPSYeah, for now if you want an Internet connection or working GPS, your Apple Watch needs to be paired with your iPhone. In order for the Apple Watch to be a truly stand alone device, it would need both a cellular connection and built-in GPS. Of course if it had a cellular and GPS chip, you’re talking about components that eat through battery life, which doesn’t make the first item on our wishlist any more plausible.
Apple Watch 2: More Sensors
Apple Watch 2: FaceTime Camera
The last thing on our Apple Watch 2 wishlist is also probably the most obvious. We want it to be Dick Tracy’s watch. We want that FaceTime camera at the top of the Apple Watch 2 so we can video conference with anyone anywhere from our wrist–and look damn cool doing it.
Writer - Liam McClelland | @Liamicy