I’m by no means an apple fan, I don’t own any apple products, but I can’t deny the huge influence that apple has on the technology market. The IPhone revolutionised smart phones, the Macintosh having a giant impact on the customer market, turning people that use computers from people who invested a huge amount of time to get it working, with limited options for the average consumer, to putting computers in the “mainstream” so to say.
I’m not excited by the watch itself, I’m not rich enough to buy it, and the Apple Watch “Edition” which includes a 18 carat gold casing is just a better way of putting a giant “I’m Rich, Mug Me” target on you then wearing a giant gold medallion saying exactly that. What I am excited for however is the prospects that it brings to the table.
Sure, there’s been smart watches before, Samsung released the galaxy gear earlier this year to a very modest (to say the least) reception. The problem with it was that it looked, well it looked like something a cut and paste business man wears to his meeting, to match with his Bluetooth headset.
Apple have been really clever in how customizable the watch is. Similar to IPhone cases, you can customize the watch straps in a wide variety of apple owned mechanisms, through classic leather straps to magnetic straps, similar to IPad cases, and the clever thing that they have done is allowed it to be removable, meaning that if you get bored with your normal leather brown strap, you can just replace it with a better looking metallic one, or however you like. You can even customize the clock face.
And if there is anything people want, it’s to look unique. You don’t want to be another face in the crowd, you want to have something that says you. This is why I think that the Apple Watch is marking the start of a great revolution in personalised electronic equipment. Sure there have been others before, but usually personalisation is kept to a minimum, sure you can change the layout of your computer, but it’s still the same, sure you can have a new case for a phone, but you’ll only show it off to your friends once or twice and then they’ll forget about it, and unless you’re extremely unsociable, they won’t see it a lot.
The Apple Watch is the start of a personalised revolution in the both physical and online media. Whether it’s the best Smart Watch it’s left to see, but I’m expecting a lot more customizability in future brand new electronics, and who knows? Maybe soon enough we’ll have complete customizability, set any layout, icon; start up sound, even shape that you want, all it needs is an easy way to do it.
If you’re listening google, I’m expecting a share of the profits.
Damian Bemben
Columnist
