CHRISTIAN HARTSELLE | OPINION COLUMNIST
You can pre-order the game-changing Apple Watch starting April 10. Apple recommends ordering online to avoid the chaos of its stores on product release days — at 3:01 a.m. for the Butler community.
Apple advertises the watch as luxurious and personal: “You’ll feel a gentle tap with each incoming message.” With 38 choices in design and material ranging between $349 and $17,000, the company has never offered more variety, especially for a new concept.
“The Apple Watch seems really convenient,” freshman Matthew Griffin said. “But it’s too expensive.”
The features are numerous for a tiny device: a Digital Crown to zoom and see apps more closely; making and receiving calls from your wrist; generating easy responses to iMessages; a Siri indistinguishable from the one on the iPhones.
“We think people are going to use it so much you will wind up charging it daily,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a conference.
He was certainly rationalizing the machine’s short, day-long battery life compared to the typical watch. But he also made an important point about the purpose of the watch — to be pervasive, but in a good way.
It mirrors the effect of the iPhone.
On its website, Apple acknowledged its attempt to transform lives with its new iDevice. For Apple Watch users, pulling your phone out of your pocket to check notifications will be a thing of the past. Roll up your sleeve and see them on your watch. Apple is always there for you. Expedient, and also kind of weird. The line between pervasiveness and convenience becomes an important question in our lives.
As far as whether or not you should buy it, Gizmodo makes the obvious argument that the first model of every Apple product has historically frustrated consumers. The original iPad, with no camera at all; the original iPod Touch, with no Bluetooth; the original MacBook Air, with only Intel Core Duo processors; and of course, the original iPhone, without 3G or a front-facing camera.
Freshman Claire Goudie dismissed the Apple Watch as superfluous.
“They look really cool and have a lot of interesting features,” said Goudie. “But it doesn’t make sense for me to spend that money on something I already have with my iPhone.”
The company confirmed the Apple Watch can only be purchased through appointment at one of their stores or online. The rationale for this decision is unclear, but it primarily gives me the vibe Apple is focusing on the luxury aspect of the watch. Whether or not this will result in more or less sales is yet to be determined.
I find myself in a predicament common to the devoted Apple fanboy. I want an Apple Watch like a child wants a Game Boy — but I know it is better to watch the first model fail, and watch the users of the first model fail in using it, as they shower with the Apple Watch on and struggle to see pictures on the watch-sized screen. And maybe I want friends with Apple Watches to send my heartbeat to before I get one myself.
