When designing a new device, it is tempting to create more and more and add function after function. However, Apple has demonstrated that sometimes, more is less adding a function or feature increase the value of your watch or devalue it. For instance, having a microphone on your smartwatch that allows hands-free (okay, kind of) calling using your watch will mean that the watch wouldn’t be as water-proof as one without a microphone.
In the same way, attaching the clip to your watch’s back will allow convenience, but at the expense of increasing the thickness. What is the best option? There are always compromises that must be made, and it’s all an act of balance. The most successful products will be able to select those features that people would like and remove features that are only added to add the appearance. Why should it be included if no one would want to chat with the watch?
Notifications are an essential part of the watch 3. In the beginning, they have to be reliable and pushed out to the user in the required manner. If notifications are frequently missing, users will not be able to trust the watch and have to check their phones, which defeats the goal of the watch. Additionally, notifications should be clear and easy to access. The correct information should be displayed on the watch’s face without getting too overloaded. One problem with Pebble is that the watch shows only the most recent notifications, making it difficult to use the device.
Finally, reliability is another crucial aspect of the puzzle. Since smartwatches are mini-computers that run on an operating system, they could crash or even freeze just like our computers do. For smartphones, like the iPhone connecting your device to a PC and synchronizing with iTunes typically solves the issue.
However, since smartwatches aren’t able to perform the same function and sync directly to computers via an interface that is hardware-based, they should be able to self-rebooting to restore functionality or, at the very minimum, be able to get the basic functions such as the watch’s face and Bluetooth functioning. Imagine you’ve damaged your watch and couldn’t make it restart.
One thing I love about the Agent watch is its redundant systems to minimize the risk of bricking the watch. It utilizes two memory banks in firmware for failsafe and a secondary processor that can start the watch in recovery mode. This assures that everything will be well, even when something goes wrong with your watch.
Many people believe that in the absence of having the Apple SDK and App store, it is likely that the iPhone 3G and subsequent models could not have had the same success as they are now. Apps allowed third-party developers to enhance the capabilities of the device.
In reality, with the many third-party developers worldwide, new apps and functions are added at a much faster pace and at a higher quality than what manufacturers can provide. However, keep in mind that watchmakers must concentrate on the core operating system and hardware design, and the development of these apps must be left to outside developers.
