Has Apple mentioned anything about allowing third party watch faces on the Apple Watch? If Apple does allow them, do you think watchmakers from Casio, to Burberry, all the way up to Rolex, will sell their watch faces for the Apple watch? Or would that cannibalize their other products?
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Third Party Watch Faces?
- Thread starter Andy0568
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I kinda doubt other manufacturers would want to have a face for this.
I would like to see 3rd party faces though, the possibilities are endless. Of course you'd have every sport team, car manufacturers (BMW M5, etc), various interests like astronomy, popular movies, etc.
I would like to see 3rd party faces though, the possibilities are endless. Of course you'd have every sport team, car manufacturers (BMW M5, etc), various interests like astronomy, popular movies, etc.
yeah, I think it would cannibalize their sales. I could see developers selling watch faces like ringtones are sold. 99 cents and up.
And that would be the one major reason I could see it being blocked. Copyright/Trademark infringement galore.
I doubt it. Depends on how the watch faces are being installed and if they're marketed as wallpapers. You can install as many BMW wallpapers on your iPhone as you wish, people will still recognise it as an iPhone.
It'd still be considered an infringement if Apple includes, say, a BMW wallpaper in the stock Watch OS without permission. However, the end user will be able to use any photo they like and so won't be infringing on copyrights/trademarks, same as on the iPhone, iPad, etc.
That's true. But it'd be extremely stupid if Apple would even consider doing that.
Indeed, I do wonder if this is going to be a key difference in time between the two formats, and, in some way mirror the phone differences also.
Android Watches will come in a variety of form factors, designs, styles and abilities from a host of different companies, and be quite open with what you can do.
Apple will have their watch, on their own and will be quite locked down in comparison.
It will be a shame if that is how it ends up being.
Apple has the opportunity right now to stop this from happening.
iPhone sales hasn't particularly suffered from being more "locked down" than Android. Why would the watch be any different?
Perhaps because, as everyone, even Apple says.
A watch is not just a tool, a device, like a phone. It's a far more personal device that's bordering on fashion, and says a lot about you, and you choose a watch mostly on how it looks.
Android phones, right now, far more closely mirrors watches than say an iPhone does.
You go watch shopping, and you find all shapes, sizes, designs, styles, process and brands of watches out there, but they all have the common theme of telling the time, perhaps in slightly different ways.
You see how this mirrors Android phones.
Shapes, Styles, Prices, Brands, but all have the common theme of Android, albeit in a slightly customised way.
That's a very good Android Analogy to watches now.
Apple's controlled 2 models of a phone or 1 model of a watch in 3 colours with a few strap options, in no way at all mirrors with world of watches.
I think you can see what I mean here.
If we end up having one Apple watch, quite controlled, vs perhaps 20+ Brands of Android wear watches, each perhaps with 2 or more designs, that will be a strong force when it comes to allowing customers to pick designs, and styles as they do now when shopping for something they are going to wear, and as I say is as much about looks/fashion as about it's function.
Control to a point is ok, but Apple has to watch out that it doesn't turn out like their competition with the ibm clone. by controlling all aspects of their computer apple actually boosted the ibm market. I would like to see apple open up many things to 3rd party suppliers, but with restrictions like with the app store. If they do the apple watch could turn out to be Android's biggest nightmare
Can you imagine the scenario if Apple invented the Mechanical Watch, kept is under control and never let anyone else make a mechanical watch.
Just think what the watch market would be like then.
Apple could totally nail the future and rule, if they licenced their "watch workings" to everyone. Like real watches, you would probably end up, in years to come with hundreds of brands, and thousands of designs, all using the Apple Watch "insides"
Of course, this scenario will never happen
That is the stuff nightmares are made of... one idea, no innovation, all the same forever and ever...... no thanks I like change because change is often a sign of growth. Hopefully apple will let others improve the experience
Apple is not going to let you upload your own watchfaces most likely. Maybe a background photo, but not a complete face. Those will be for the App Store, and they won't allow a "Rolex" watch face as I am sure Rolex would be all over them if they did.
I think they will allow additional watch faces, however they will be restricted and have to follow copyright and trademark laws just like every other app. For this reason, major watch companies such as Rolex, Brietling, Cartier, etc, are unlikely to have their watch faces on the Apple Watch. They will likely be against licensing their watch faces, or putting them on the App Store themselves, for the reason that these are what sets them apart from everyone else.
If I could switch my watch face to Cartier or Brietling, I would be less likely to purchase one of those watches in the future.
From what I've read, as of now this is not an option.
Which makes no sense, considering that's what you'll be seeing most...
With my Pebble Steel, I love the fact that there are so many user-created options for watch faces. I honestly couldn't believe it when I read that Apple Watch didn't have this feature.
Which makes no sense, considering that's what you'll be seeing most...
With my Pebble Steel, I love the fact that there are so many user-created options for watch faces. I honestly couldn't believe it when I read that Apple Watch didn't have this feature.
They have shown the "wallpaper" watch face multiple times...
Meaning that it is CURRENTLY possible to make a static watch face.
It is likely that eventually a "watch face" section will open on the app store & allow dynamic/interactive watch faces.
I would NOT expect that in this gen.
I've posted this elsewhere, but am copy & pasting it because I still think it to be true:
I see it going the same way they distribute keyboards through the App Store, only hopefully without requiring a new app download to include the extension. I think the thing keeping the release of custom watch faces from being anytime soon is the incomplete development of APIs for public-use. Potentially that may be solved when Apple allows 3rd party apps to operate independently of iPhone since that opens an entirely new access to the watch.
In the last half decade we've seen a seismic shift in how Apple operates which allows for more things that would have been previously shot down. We also know that these things are pretty long in the making, a good example: they spent at least two years building the extension network we saw in iOS 8 based on closed and incomplete things they've delivered in prior iOS versions. It was awhile to wait, but we got fantastic implementation of extensions.
I'm fairly confident we will see access for developers to create custom watch faces, though I doubt it will be right out of the gate.
I see it going the same way they distribute keyboards through the App Store, only hopefully without requiring a new app download to include the extension. I think the thing keeping the release of custom watch faces from being anytime soon is the incomplete development of APIs for public-use. Potentially that may be solved when Apple allows 3rd party apps to operate independently of iPhone since that opens an entirely new access to the watch.
In the last half decade we've seen a seismic shift in how Apple operates which allows for more things that would have been previously shot down. We also know that these things are pretty long in the making, a good example: they spent at least two years building the extension network we saw in iOS 8 based on closed and incomplete things they've delivered in prior iOS versions. It was awhile to wait, but we got fantastic implementation of extensions.
I'm fairly confident we will see access for developers to create custom watch faces, though I doubt it will be right out of the gate.
Serious watch collectors do not think like that. However, it's inevitable over time that having a smartwatch will make it less likely to induce young people to invest in a high-end mechanical watch regardless of the watch face.
This!!!
I cannot agree with Piggie's assertion that fully open would be "good". As you say, it certainly wouldn't chalk up any goodwill with Rolex if Apple intentionally allow people to indiscriminately use their designs without allowing them the means to profit from them.
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Excellent point....
I'm curious if, in the future, a significant revenue from those companies might come from a high end strap for Apple Watch, coupled with complimentary designed custom watch faces. Seems like an awesome money maker to me!
Would you like Apple to also control the wallpaper/backdrops on iMac computers, as they could be copyright, and stop you from purchasing some officially licenced artwork, giving the artist some payment for their hard work.
Or do you feel you should be able to google any image you want to use it as a nice display for your iMac's large screen, irrespective of the owner or licence of the artwork?
Perhaps Apple should only allow officially approved backdrops on all of it's devices.
Yes?