Hey guys it’s Greg with Apple Explained,
and today we’re going to take a peek inside the secretive Apple Watch development process
and the updates it’s received since its introduction. This topic won last week’s
voting poll and if you didn’t get to vote, make sure you’re subscribed, that way the
voting polls will show up right in your activity feed and you can let me know which video you’d
like to see next. When Tim Cook unveiled the Apple Watch in
September 2014, it ushered in a new era for the company since Apple had never made a wearable
device before. And as you can imagine, it was no overnight project. In fact, the foundation
of the Apple Watch stretches all the way back to 2002, when Apple’s design team requested
several high-end sportswatches from Nike. Apple ended up receiving a couple different
models including the Presto Digital Bracelets and the aluminum Oregon Series Alti-Compass.
This may have appeared to be an odd request for Nike, but Scott Wilson, who was their
creative director at the time said, "[I] was flattered that they were requesting them.
We thought they were only personal requests but their materials guy followed up with many
questions on the materials and processes. They definitely drew upon watch industry techniques
and manufacturing in their products since the first iPhone.” This solid base of knowledge
and experience in mobile devices eventually led to Apple giving smartwatches some serious
thought. But before we get into the development of
the Apple Watch itself, you might find it interesting that Apple sort’ve already made
a smartwatch back in 2010. And it was called the 6th generation iPod Nano. Now obviously
Apple didn’t market it as a smartwatch, but this iPod nano did include a variety of
watch faces. And third party manufactures actually made watch bands for it. So many
users wore the iPod nano on their wrist as a watch and this became a popular trend among
Apple fans at the time. And perhaps this further encouraged Apple to create a proper smartwatch
since users demonstrated interest in that type of technology. Now let’s talk about
the early days of Apple Watch development. In 2011, Apple filed for several watch-related
patents including a wristband which harnessed kinetic energy from everyday wrist movements
in order to recharge its battery. Patents also suggested the device would include a
curved touchscreen made from flexible glass, along with numerous sensors for monitoring
exercise patterns and heart rate. And since many of these features were eventually included
in the Apple Watch, we can assume the Apple Watch project was official formed in 2011,
shortly after Steve Jobs death. During this time, Apple invited a series of watch historians
to speak at their Cupertino campus, likely as a way to educate their employees and spark
ideas for how their own smartwatch should function. Now the following year, in 2012, rumors about
an Apple smartwatch were already growing. Most of this speculation was founded upon
a Chinese news site which claimed Apple was working on a new device with Intel chips,
low-power Bluetooth technology, a 1.5” touchscreen, and voice controls. And this information would
turn out to be quite accurate, although no one was sure of it at the time. I should also
mention that the Apple Watch was referred to as iWatch, both internally at Apple and
externally by suspicious consumers. It wouldn’t bear the name Apple Watch until its introduction
in 2014. And when Tim Cook was asked why it wasn’t named iWatch, Cook simply said, “I
think Apple watch sounds better, don’t you?” Now 2013 is when the Apple Watch project reached
a big milestone. It was moved out of the experimentation phase and into official production. This meant
Apple began investing more resources into the Apple Watch and had to prepare for mass
production. And more suspicions about an Apple smartwatch were raised when an unnamed employee
claimed Apple held discussions with their manufacturing partner Hon Hai Precision Industry
regarding the production of a device that was neither a smartphone nor a tablet. Now because of all the chatter and anticipation
surrounding Apple’s potential smartwatch, some companies wanted to beat Apple to the
market and position themselves as a pioneer in the industry. One of those companies was
Samsung. They released their own smartwatch called Galaxy Gear in September 2013 and it
was a huge flop. Only 800,000 units were shipped around the world and we’re not sure how
many of those unit were actually purchased since Samsung never released those numbers.
But what we do know is that at least 30% of Galaxy Gear watches sold at Best Buy were
returned by unsatisfied customers. Critics were also unsatisfied with the device, some
of their complaints included an uncomfortable, inflexible strap since some components were
housed inside it, it’s limited functionality of apps, an inconsistent notification system,
and poor battery life. I think The Verge it summed up quite well
when they said, “as with industrial design, software engineering isn’t among Samsung’s
strengths, and the results on the Gear are a painful mix of unreliability and inadequacy.”
The Unofficial Apple Weblog compared the Galaxy Gear to the sixth-generation iPod Nano, considering
the three-year-old MP3 player to be a "better, cheaper smartwatch" than the Galaxy Gear because
it wasn’t dependent on a "host" smartphone or tablet, and contained more features than
the Galaxy Gear. Now, by mid 2013 Apple had already filed for
79 watch-related patents and they registered the name iWatch in Japan and Russia. And during
an interview at the AllThingsDigital conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted at the possibility
of developing a wearable device. He said, ”It's an area that's ripe for exploration,
it's ripe for us to get excited about, lots of companies will play in this space.” As
for other wearable devices like Google Glass, Cook wasn’t so sure, "I'm interested in
a great product. I wear glasses because I have to, I don't know a lot of people who
wear them because they don't have to.” Now from 2013 to 2014, Apple began reorganizing
and recruiting talent to aid in the Apple Watch’s development. The reorganization
happened with Jeff Williams, the company's senior vice president for operations, who
was assigned as head of the Apple Watch project, responsible for overseeing logistics & planning
with suppliers like Foxconn. And Apple recruited Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, as the head
of their retail and online stores. And the health features included on the watch were
made possible by two medical technology experts that Apple hired. And finally, the vice president
of sales for luxury watch manufacturer TAG Heuer joined the team in 2014. Now hiring all of these people with experience
in the watch industry raised eyebrows in the tech community. Apple was essentially signaling
that a smartwatch would be released, and it was only a matter of time. In September 2014 the wait was over. [clip]
Apple finally revealed the Apple Watch at the "One More Thing…" event along with the
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. It featured Apple’s single-core S1 system-on-chip and relied on
a paired iPhone for location services since it didn’t include GPS. Although it did include
something called a linear actuator which Apple marketed as a "Taptic Engine" that provided
haptic feedback in different situations, like when an alert or a notification was received.
The watch was also equipped with a built-in heart rate sensor, which used infrared and
visible-light LEDs in addition to photodiodes. Now one problem with a touchscreen this small
is that you can’t pinch to zoom, so Apple created the digital crown to serve in its
place. With it, you could zoom in and out, raise and lower the volume, and scroll through
menus. Another issue with small screens is that they can’t display very much content
at once. And Apple remedied this by incorporating something called force touch, where users
could access extra features when they hard-pressed on the display. Now let’s talk about the specs. All versions
of the first-generation Apple Watch had 8 GB of storage; but the operating system only
allowed users to store up to 2 GB of music and 75 MB of photos. It also featured splash
resistance, bluetooth 4.0, a 450 nit OLED retina display, a 520 MHz single-core processor,
and 512 MB of RAM. Now there were a few different models of the
Apple Watch. First, the Apple Watch sport, which was aluminum and started at $349. Second,
The regular Apple Watch, which was stainless steel and started at $549. And third, the
Apple Watch Edition, which was gold and started at $10,000. But just one year later Apple
stopped selling the Apple Watch Edition in gold, opting instead for a nice ceramic finish
that brought its price down to $1249. Now you be thinking, why did Apple even sell a
$10,000 golden smartwatch to begin with? Well it wasn’t something Tim Cook supported.
It was actually Apple’s chief designer Jonathan Ives who pushed hard to make the golden Apple
Watch a reality. He believe that in order to be taken seriously by luxury Swiss watchmakers,
Apple had to create a luxury watch of their own. But the problem is that smartwatches
eventually become obsolete, whereas mechanical watches last a lifetime. Now the Series 1 and Series 2 Apple Watches
were released at the end of 2016 and provided some nice upgrades to the original. Both models
added a faster 780MHz dual-core processor, while the series 2 had built-in GPS, water
resistance up to 50 meters, a second-generation OLED retina display with 1000 nits of brightness,
and a larger capacity battery. Apple also added two new models: Apple Watch Nike Plus
and Apple Watch Hermes. What made these models unique were their watch bands and watch faces
that weren’t available to other users. The next upgrade came with Series 3 near the
end of 2017. These models added optional support for LTE cellular connectivity which would
add $10 to your monthly phone bill, bluetooth 4.2, an altimeter to measure flights climbed,
and 768MB of RAM. Reception to the Apple Watch was generally
positive with some exceptions, especially with the original release. Reviewers praised
the watch's overall design and potential to integrate into everyday life, but noted issues
of speed and price. Many described the watch as functional and convenient, while also felt
it didn’t offer as much functionality as smartphones had with their release. Farhad
Manjoo of The New York Times thought the device had a steep learning curve, saying it took
him "three long, often confusing and frustrating days" to become accustomed to it. But when
reviewers compared it to competing products, like Android Wear, they claimed "The Smartwatch
Finally Makes Sense.” There was also mixed opinions on battery life, Geoffrey Fowler
of The Wall Street Journal said "the battery lives up to its all-day billing, but sometimes
just barely.” Others complained that there just wasn’t much to do with it. Tim Bradshaw
of the Financial Times used the Apple Watch for a few days and concluded that there was
no "killer application" so far besides telling the time, which is the basic function of a
wristwatch anyway. There were also some issues with the Apple
Watch heart monitor functioning correctly for people with tattoos since the watch flashed
green LED light at the skin and recorded the amount of light that was absorbed by the blood.
But under certain circumstances, like with tattoos or other conditions, the skin wouldn’t
allow the green light to be absorbed and therefore provide inaccurate heart monitor results. Since its release in 2015, the Apple Watch
has become the number one smartwatch in the world with about 24% of global marketshare
and generates billions of dollars for Apple each year. But it’s interesting to note
that the watch hasn’t received a design refresh yet. It carries the same look today
as it did three and a half years ago, and many are wondering how the Apple Watch will
change when Apple does give it a new design. Will it still have a rectangular design or
will Apple go in the direction of the Moto 360 and create a circular Apple Watch? I personally
enjoy the current design although I’d appreciate a thinner profile since I have a tendency
of hitting my watch on various things like doorways. But let me know in the comments what you’d
like to see in a redesigned Apple Watch. And if you want to vote for the next video topic,
don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.
