I know, it’s Apple; but at the same time, you’re easily going to sell 2-3 times more of them, and; like the iPod, it can easily introduce them to the Apple ecosystem and when it comes time to buy a new phone; they’ll maybe say ‘well, I’ve already got an Apple Watch and really like it…maybe I’ll get an iPhone this time my contract expires.’

But it’s Apple business logic. I’ve used their products pretty much exclusively for nearly 20 years (I’m an iOS/WatchOS dev and have used Logic to make music for 15 years) but I’ll never understand many of their decisions.

Even fairly notable tech industry folks like Linus from LMG use it even though he’s a Samsung phone user.

The only part you need the phone for is initial setup.

Like, yeah, it’s not ideal but you just ask a friend with an iPhone to help out. Unless you’re in an android only circle of course.

Either way, not ideal, but not as dire as the people above make it out to be either

I argue that it would be a horrible introduction to Apple products. For input, you either talk to it or type on a tiny keyboard. There’s no web browser. The screen is so small, it’s measured in millimeters (whereas in the U. S., it’s in inches).

Were I running Apple, there’s no way I’d let the watch be the introduction to Apple products without some improved means of interaction.

This is why they make those decisions, they know they have an extremely loyal customer base that will buy it anyway

I agree you need the phone too, but at least I’ve been able to track a run while listening to music on my headphones and pay for water after my flask broke all without a phone present.

I think we’re close to just the watch but I’d be damned if I want to dictate messages etc. The screen size and lack of input devices definitely holds it back from being genuinely standalone.

I haven’t tried in some time but about a year ago YouTube Music wouldn’t work at all and Spotify was janky. I started my run and after the buffer was exhausted my music stopped playing even though I thought I had downloaded it onto the watch.

Probably the solution is Apple Music but that is annoying.