Apple Watch: the good, the bad, the unexpected, the question marks

After months and months of speculations, Apple Watch is out. Analysis, discussions, and speculations will go on till the product will be eventually available and reviewed in early 2015. Here are my first thoughts on the announcement.

The Good 
- design: Apple understood much more than other companies how much personalization and design variation is an intrinsic element of a watch, introducing 3 ranges (Watch, Watch Sport, Watch Edition), 2 sizes (38 and 42mm), a large amount of bands of different materials to match the models, and a set of beautifully designed virtual watch faces. Surely not enough to cover all the variety of existing watches, but way better than what done to date by competitors.

- interface: the addition of the digital dial (albeit as usual a way too fancy name) and the possibility to detect taps vs pressing against the screen make a very good combination. The UI with the "universe" of icons representing the different apps seems also pretty intuitive, and the possibility for 3rd party app developers to create new apps makes it a very versatile device. Also the attention paid to the design of the watch faces is great to see, with simple ways to personalized colors and information displayed, once again confirming that Apple understood that a watch is all about design.

- sensors: the focus on health is clear and was stressed by Time Cook. Little was revealed in terms of specs, but from the large openings on the back, and the fitness app mentioned, it seems clear Apple Watch should be able to measure accurately heart rate also during movement (one of the pain points of most other smart watches).

The bad

- GPS (lack of): no integrated GPS, so no way to keep track of distance and path traveled when running without an iPhone: Similarly, it was not clear if the barometer, introduced in the M8 processor of iPhone 6, which allows to measure altitude, is also embedded on the Apple Watch. A lack of of it would imply a person would have to always carry an iPhone 6 when going running to keep track of the altitude traveled.

The unexpected
- taptic engine: the addition of the "taptic engine" allowing to both sense pressure from the screen, and recreate the feeling of a tap is unexpected yet perfectly meaningful. It allows to notify the user in a much less noticeable and disturbing way than the more common buzz of vibration, effectively a similar feeling to someone tapping your wrist. And it also open the door for the more futuristic 1-to-1 communication in which a user can feel taps from the person he or she is communicating with. Very romantic indeed and surely opening a new space for developers to create new forms of more personal interaction.

The unknown

- battery life: no mention of the battery life was done, most likely as Apple engineers are still working hard to improve and refine the system. Consumers' feedback has been very clear on the news of a 1 day battery for the Moto 360, making it the single most criticized characteristics of the smart-watch. Obviously the same counts for Apple. Furthermore, one of the fundamental aspects of health is the quality of sleep. For a device which is clearly able to monitor sleep status, a battery lasting less than 2 to 3 days would imply the watch would spend most of the nights resting on the charging base, making sleep monitoring not possible. Battery life remains therefore the big question mark, and possibly one of the reason of the delay in the launch.

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