#dnaEdit: Taking the bite

Apple’s late entry into the wearable devices segment with its new smartwatch has predictably stirred up a sensation, as it did when the company under the iconic Steve Jobs introduced the iPod, iPhone and the iPad. Neither of these three products were among the first digital music players, smartphones or tablets to hit the market. But with their focus on aesthetics, intelligent design and usability, they quickly became synonymous with customer satisfaction and set the bar so high for industry standards that competitors have since struggled to play catch-up. Interestingly, the Apple Watch is also facing a similar set of challenges. The smartwatches that have already been launched have not exactly set the fledgling market on fire, raising doubts about the future of the wearable devices segments. 

Dogged by poor user-interfaces, shoddy designing, and limited stand alone functionality that so far has extended only to fitness trackers, mapping, and messaging, the slew of smartwatches released since 2012 have hardly inspired confidence. As in the past, the burden is clearly on Apple to show the way to competitors. But the pet grouse of consumers that present-day wearables can only be used while coupling with smartphones will dog the Apple Watch too. In contrast, Samsung’s latest Gear S smartwatch has its own 3G wireless connectivity, thus dispensing with smartphone or tablet pairing. Moreover, Google’s new operating system for wearable devices, Android Wear, will be the Apple Watch’s biggest challenger. But Apple seems to have anticipated this eventuality and is offering a software development kit for third-party developers to build Watch apps beyond the company’s proprietary built-in apps.

Despite just 9.7 million wearables sold in 2013 and sales of 22 million units expected this year, some optimistic estimates have pegged sales at a whopping 250 million by 2018. Not surprisingly, big companies like AT&T and Intel have signalled their intent to make wearables. For Apple, which also launched a new payment system and two new smartphone models, the iPhone6 and iPhone6 Plus, the shift is justified by the struggle to find fresh revenue streams in the near-saturated smartphone segment in developed markets. The two smartphones, with larger 4.7 and 5.5 inch screens, also represent a climbdown from Jobs’ design and aesthetic principles, after the loss of significant market share to phonemakers offering bigger screens. For CEO Tim Cook, this change in smartphone design and the four launches on Tuesday mark a definitive milestone and a departure from the Steve Jobs-era. Microsoft, Blackberry and Nokia rested too long on proven technology only to be laid low by the rapid incremental changes in the mobile devices ecosystem.

The lack of new announcements, the slide in share prices, and the gains by Samsung, with which it is locked in ongoing patent disputes, had made Cook’s position shaky. But the initial reviews are giving the Watch’s functionality and its fashion quotient a thumbs-up. Cook, who by his own admission, invested a greater part of the past two years on the smartwatch and the new payment system, will have to convert this favourable reception into products with inherent utility to consumers. Wearables like Google Glass evinced great consumer interest at launch but have since floundered. Unlike the smartphone, there does not appear to be a mass-market appeal for wearables, as yet. But if Google and Apple can bundle more apps into their wearables in the years ahead, even the mighty smartphone of today could be rendered obsolete.