For the first time as CEO of Apple, Tim Cook delivered the famous line “One more thing,” coined by his late predecessor, Steve Jobs. The phrase stands for inspiration, excitement and a brighter future, with the help of our friends at Apple. After years of refusing to use the phrase, Cook decided the company finally had a product innovative and inventive enough that he could utter the iconic idiom without becoming an iconoclast. This purported revolutionary product is the Apple Watch.
Long-rumored and highly anticipated, Jony Ive, senior VP of design at Apple, introduced the Apple Watch in a voice-over film at Apple’s Keynote Event on Tuesday. Ive promises the wearable technology will be for everyone, touting the new device as “accessible, relevant and ultimately personal.”
It is difficult for me to accept this as a truly universal device. Apple convinced the world in 2001 that mobile music listening should be simple, powerful and enable listeners to carry their entire music library. Apple convinced the world in 2007 that smartphones are not only the future, but they can be powerful and easy to use. Apple convinced the world in 2010 a mobile tablet, which provides features similar to the company’s smartphone, could be beneficial and open up even more possibilities with the technology.
What Apple did with each of those products was innovate. Merriam-Webster defines the verb ‘innovate’ as “to do something in a new way; to have new ideas about how something can be done.” Before the iPod there were mp3 players. Before the iPhone there were other smartphones. Before the iPad there were PC tablets. Their innovation wasn’t creating a new device: it was delivering the best experience.
Of course, Apple doesn’t deviate from this principle of innovation. Ive talks about the experience Apple Watch will afford.
“We conceived, designed, and developed Apple Watch as a completely singular product. You know, you can’t determine a boundary between the physical object and the software,” Ive said.
The problem with the Apple Watch is not that the experience won’t be great. Even if Apple has another fiasco similar to their release of Maps, the company can still make all of their customers feel good by reminding them they’re a part of the Apple family. The problem with the Apple Watch is even plainer than the product itself: fashion.
Fashion is of fickle form. It changes constantly and unpredictably, and it is extremely personal in nature. Designing wearable technology isn’t universal like all of the other products Apple has produced. Anyone can use an iPhone. A watch is not for just anyone. Is something like the Apple Watch even welcome in the fashion community?
Sarah Sullivan, a model for MSU Fashion Board, commented on the nature of smartwatches and devices like them.
“I personally don’t think that wearable technology will become a fad anytime soon. I see wearable technology as simply technology. I see the product—whatever it may be—as a functioning part of our everyday lives and not necessarily a fashion accessory,” she said.
Fad or not, wearables like the Apple Watch already exist and still fight to prove their worth. While there are obviously merits to the Apple Watch, my concern is that Apple is stepping into a world for which it may not be prepared. Fashion and technology cannot coexist in the current climate of both worlds. The Apple Watch might change that — just like Apple changed the music industry, just like they modernized the cellphone industry and just like they shifted the tablet market — but I doubt it. And as a longtime fan of Steve Jobs, I am disappointed that Tim Cook’s first invocation of “one more thing” was to introduce a product that is sadly underwhelming and unexciting.
