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How Apple Should Have Pitched Their Watch
I thought Apple did a reasonable job today with their introduction of the Apple Watch, but it could have been so much better.
My main problem is that they seem to have confused the details with the big idea. This was their main pitch:
The Apple watch is a beautiful. It tells time well. You can send little drawings on it, and it can track your movement and fitness information.
Also, there are some third party apps that let you do a few things like open doors and check into hotels and stuff…
Are you fucking kidding me?
Uber integration
Opening your home remotely (or physically instead of keys)
Buying groceries
Checking into hotels
Gaining access to your hotel room
The 3rd party section—where they talked about interaction with the world—was the entire reason the Apple Watch will revolutionize personal computing (and how humans interact with their environment) forever.
It was the centerpiece, and they put it in a box behind the sofa.
Here’s what they should have said:
The Apple watch will simplify and revolutionize how you live your life. From paying for groceries, to buying things online, starting your car, checking into hotels, getting into your house, and many more;the Apple watch will take us from the past to the future with regard to how we interact with our environment.
It will replace your credit cards, your car and home keys, and many more conventional and cumbersome technologies. Welcome to a world where doors open for you, payments are made seamlessly, and you can command your environment with your very presence. This is the future, and it’s now on your wrist.
I wrote that in like 3 minutes, so it’s not great, but it’s the message we should have heard from Apple.
The big news was the life integration, not the look or the doodle app.
Trust me on this. Apple Watch will open the door (sorry) to seamless life integration, and that’s what it’ll be remembered for. The design and beauty features should have been mentioned, and they did a great job with those pieces as always, but it should have been more like:
And not only will you be able to control the world around you in seamless and powerful way like never before, but you’ll do it with a device so personal and beautiful that you’d wear it even if it didn’t do all these things.
That’s the pitch they should have made.
Notes
Let’s not get it twisted. I still loved the presentation and I’ll be camping like a crazy person at the Burlingame, CA store for anyone who wants to hang. I just wish they went the more ambitious route with the pitch.
As I wrote this I think I figured out why they didn’t take this approach. It’s a bit too visionary and could have gone over the heads of most would-be purchasers. The first step is to make them want one on their wrists, then let the rest happen naturally.