Reviewing Apple Watch Series 2

Apple-Watch-Series-2-Edition-White-Ceramic-aBlogtoWatch-22

The Apple Watch Series 2 is the second generation connected wearable “smartwatch” (not Apple’s term) device from the Cupertino, California, tech giant. When the original Apple Watch came out in 2014, an oft-asked question was “what would Steve Jobs think of it?” Before I talk about the new features of the Apple Watch Series 2 debuted in 2016 over the original Apple Watch, I’d like to spend a bit of time considering how Apple’s iconic leader would have felt about the company’s first wearable device.

What Would Steve Jobs Think Of The Apple Watch?

The Apple Watch was the first major product family to be introduced after Steve Jobs’ passing, and given the novelty of smartwatches for the general public, people have debated back and forth over what the famously picky and clever Silicon Valley personality would have felt about it. People can’t ask him, and it’s amusing to hear heated arguments at opposite ends of the debate claiming he would have loved or disapproved of “the Watch.”

Apple Watch Series 2 Review Wrist Time Reviews

I never met Steve Jobs, but I’ve spoken to people who worked with him and have read a lot about him over the years – including the excellent account of working with and befriending Jobs written by Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull in his 2014 book Creativity Inc. Something that would be hard for anyone to deny about Steve Jobs was that he was incredibly image-focused, at least when it came to Apple. How Apple products were perceived, and how they made people feel was often just as important (if not more important) than what they actually did.

Apple Watch Series 2 Review Wrist Time Reviews

In my opinion, Steve Jobs wanted Apple to create products that were uniquely Apple in personality, uniquely designed, and much more relatable to human beings than most other tech products out there. A reoccurring theme that seemed to dominate Jobs’ product development philosophy was to create technology that people already knew how to use without having to learn new a lot of new behavior. Jobs was aiming squarely at mainstream consumers when much of the rest of the tech industry was focused on specialized users who were willing to accept learning a lot of new skills in order to use a new tool. He seemed to want things to be simple and rely on input methods humans were comfortable with such as touch, movement, and visual cues, as opposed to code, studying new operating languages, and other abstractions. I’m generalizing, sure, but I don’t think many people would disagree with the overall premise of what I am saying when it came to Jobs’ design preferences which took into consideration user experience way more than the products of many other companies.

Apple Watch Series 2 Review Wrist Time Reviews

So how does that all fit in with the Apple Watch? People look to the novelty of smartwatches as well as the fact that mainstream consumers haven’t quite fully figured out what to do with them as a sign that they are not performing as well as some investors seem to feel Apple should be aiming for. Some people argue that because Apple Watches haven’t been a dominating “must-have” item that Steve Jobs would not have approved of them. That can’t be true because clearly not all the products Steve Jobs backed were successful and, in some instance, they never even got made. So I don’t think one can argue that Steve Jobs would have taken issue with the Apple Watch on those grounds. In fact, I think he would have been utterly intrigued by the possibility of it.

Further, I look at how a product like the Apple Watch fits into some of the things that Steve Jobs valued. From an image perspective, he would have clearly approved of the intense level of fit and finish, as well as meticulous production quality of the Apple Watch. The materials and techniques used by Apple for the Apple Watch clearly set it apart from pretty much all competitor smartwatches on the market. Apple can easily say that they make the best-built smartwatch around, and on top of that, the Apple Watch has thrust Apple into new markets such as fashion and lifestyle much more than pretty much any other product they have released to date. So in terms of image, I think Steve Jobs would have heartily approved of the Apple Watch.

Apple Watch Series 2 Review Wrist Time Reviews

Jobs himself was not a wristwatch-wearer, so it’s hard to say if he would have liked it as a watch. Though, as a practical man by nature, I think he would have approved of producing a device that goes on the wrist and is analogous to the user experience many people have had with a watch. Clearly, the act of wearing something on your wrist is both natural-feeling and often quite comfortable. Society as a whole has, for the most part, become accustomed to wearing devices on their wrists, so the Apple Watch did not require new behavior to be learned. It also didn’t require learning any new methods of data input or a learning curve of how to use the information that it offered. In fact, the Apple Watch – along with many other smartwatches – might have some shortcomings, but I don’t think a lack of intuitive utility is one of them.

Apple Watch Series 2 Review Wrist Time Reviews