I see this thread headed somewhat "south" but I'd like to chime in nonetheless. I, too am skeptical of a thick Apple watch. Apple is known for slim products and for them to release something so bulky seems like they were pressured into releasing this before its time.
Now to the OP point about the iWatch only works with iPhone, there are over half a billion iPhones out there. If only 1 percent of those users decide to buy an Apple watch, that's 5 million sales. Meanwhile the Gear
sold 1.2 million out of a total market of 2 million last year. So I don't know if 1 % take rate is reasonable but I'd rather be trying to sell something now to half a billion existing users than wait a year or two to figure out how to make it work without requiring an iPhone.
When you are camping in bear country, you don't have to outrun the bear. You just have to outrun the guy running next to you. Clearly Apple outran Samsung with the Apple watch announcement. It seems fat. It may not hold a charge very long. It only works with iPhones. But has the potential to be better than everything else out there right now.
This is textbook Apple. A lot of their success is based on pure hype but a lot of it is based on products that deliver. I'd like to see how these digital crown and taptic features resonate with end users. No amount of hype can convince users to use something that sucks. If users like the way this watch works we might be looking at a take rate higher than 1%. Apple might not have shown us the thin continuous display flexible 1mm thick thing some of us were hoping for but all they need to achieve success is to be the best among what is available today and every indication suggests they have done that.
I wear a watch. It's a Citizen eco drive ultra thin model with nothing but time. No date. No day. I've owned watches that offer day, date, perpetual calendar and the like and these days I've opted for a minimal thin watch. For this reason, I might not be considering an Apple watch. Unless. That payment thing seems intriguing. Holding my wrist out as I walk past the checkout rather than digging for a card or even digging for my phone has a lot of merit.
