I love Apple products including my MacBook Pro, iPhone, and iPad. But the Apple Watch is a different story.
Don’t get me wrong. I think the Apple Watch is really cool with many interesting use cases. But there are two big reasons why I can never see myself owning one.
I don’t wear watches, period.
I have not worn a wristwatch since high school. That’s over 30 years ago.
For whatever reason, a watch never really felt comfortable to me, so throughout the day, I would frequently take it off and put it back on my wrist.
Well, I lost two watches in three years because I forgot to put the watch back on, and unfortunately didn’t realize it until long after. So no more watches for me.
Stealing others’ product ideas
Often I will not purchase products because I have philosophical issues with the actions of their makers.
When it comes to the Apple Watch, it’s because the company has been known to steal product ideas and concepts from other companies, investors, and entrepreneurs.
If you don’t believe me, then I would suggest this very good insight from the Wall Street Journal, titled “When Apple Comes Calling, ‘It’s the Kiss of Death’.”
The report dives into stories about how Apple approached third-party companies about designing capabilities into the watch, including heart activity monitoring and blood oxygen measurement.
Reading the article, you’ll learn that Apple has been known to initially court them about potential development or licensing opportunities, leading to many hours of meetings and discussions between them.
Then later, Apple would abruptly end the talks and create their own product – after getting lots of crucially relevant information from the other party.
In another instance, discussed in the WSJ article, Apple initially adopted the other company’s technology until they were ready to release their own product. Then, Apple closed off access to the other product.
Furthermore, Apple has been known to poach key employees from companies initially approached for Apple Watch collaboration opportunities.
Businesses have often responded by suing Apple, claiming patent violations. Apple in turn has fought back by dragging the other entity into a sea of legal morass, aggressively seeking to invalidate their patents, and often successfully.
For business entities that went through the time and effort to try and team up with Apple, it’s been a costly nightmare.
Hitting my personal limits
I’m a longtime admirer of Apple’s products and I really like the ecosystem between the Mac and iOS devices. But the Apple Watch doesn’t fit into my personal needs, and my annoyance with their apparent business practices make it a glaring exception.