The smartwatch has always been disappointing to me
Don’t get me wrong, they’re cool! You can read text messages, check your calendar, heck, I’ve even heard they’ll tell the time. But as a child, I always thought it’d be cool to talk to my friends through my wristwatch. You know, like a spy, or Dick Tracy. So naturally, one thing that’s always left my 8-year-old inner self-dissatisfied is that the smartwatch is utterly useless without that 6-inch blocky cell phone weighing down your pocket.
You left your phone in the office while you stepped outside? Hope your boss doesn’t try to call you.
You went for a run and didn’t want to strap your giant iPhone 7 Plus to your arm? That smartwatch will track your run, but you’re going to miss that important text—and don’t even think about streaming music!
Keeping up with one device just to be able to use another has just always seemed a drag to me.
Enter the next Apple Smartwatch
What’s that you say, Apple? Your next smartwatch will be a standalone device? It’ll have an embedded SIM allowing cellular connectivity?
This is great news for that little part of me that never grew up and wants to talk into his wristwatch like Dick Tracy. But will we be able to shout things like crime tips and dinner plans into our Apple Watch? Not quite… Mark Gurman with Bloomberg Technology says the cellular technology would be more like what you have on your iPad—meaning cellular LTE data connection, but not necessarily voice call support.
Does this mean our dreams are dashed again? I think not. Or, at least not yet… It wouldn’t be the first time Apple has been accused of withholding features only to release them at the next big launch, and the smart business move might just be to release them without the feature and include voice calling on the next device after building up a second round of hype. Even so, it’s quite possible that apps like Skype could help fulfill our dreams a little bit faster.
This isn’t the first time Apple has toyed with the idea of producing a standalone Apple Watch, but battery life was always a concern. More chips mean less energy to go around, and what will really be exciting to discover is whether Apple can pull off full LTE connectivity while retaining strong battery life—a tall order for a tiny device that fits on your wrist. Will we be pleasantly surprised? We’ll find out come September!
