If, as Tim Cook said, the battery will last for 18 hours, then many, if not most, will want to take the watch off so they can sleep without interruption. The watch can then recharge overnight, next to the iPhone.

New experiences change the rules and invalidate the old ones. Microprocessors dethroned IBM. Unbundling hardware and software dethroned nearly everyone except Microsoft. The internet dethroned Microsoft. It’s the customer experience of new technologies, new business models, new services and new products that makes the difference and Apple has a game changing advantage in creating new customer experiences.

Apple makes the whole experience, not just the whole widget. Nobody comes close to Apple in this. As Apple moves on to design its own high-performance key components, other companies face an ever higher entry barrier in trying to make their own versions of the products.

The new experience that Apple is creating is a well integrated digital lifestyle that functions across several different types of devices, communications environments, personal circumstances, activities and support services (transport, travel, banking, healthcare, work, etc.). How well Apple and other companies do this is the criterion for future success.

The trouble with RFM is that it behaves like retired generals, endlessly re-fighting the last war in the hope of understanding the next one. The specification of a Samsung phone doesn’t matter. Ecosystems don’t matter unless everything else is right. Microsoft’s attempts to re-invent the iPad as a Windows device don’t matter. Nobody cares. Google’s attempt to extend its search/ advertising business to mobile devices via Android does matter, but only because they’re abusing people’s privacy on a gigantic scale.

In article after article, RFM writes up the latest on Apple, Microsoft and the Android world and then adds a sentence at the end along the lines of “Apple may be OK for a quick buck but for the long term Microsoft and Google are a better bet”. That’s a gross misjudgement that could cost its customers dearly. It appears to be based on comparisons between phones, between ecosystems and between companies. It ignores the only comparison that matters, between customer experiences of the integrated whole.

So please wake up RFM. It’s a shame to see your hard work falling so far short of what it should deliver.

Too underpowered to accomplish which task?

Overpriced compared to which alternative? Which aspect are users expected to give up with that alternative? Weight? Screen resolution? Battery life? OS? Track pad?

How is this criticism any different than the points made against the original Macbook Air? I see imitations of it from numerous companies all around.

>”A 12inch iPad with optimisation for office apps, a detachable keyboard and mouse that all click together would be a terrifying development for Microsoft but this will not keep it up at night.”
On the other hand, one of the biggest complaints from iPad owners I know was its weight until Air version arrived. A 12” version would be “too heavy” to comfortably hold like a tablet for extended periods. (Glass would be 44% heavier, would require a bigger battery and the backside is not going to get any lighter either.) If it is going to be used like a laptop propped up against a desk or lap due its weight, it might as well be a real laptop.

Of course, Apple could have copied the Surface Pro idea instead and target an annual market of few million at discounted prices instead.

>”…make better and more fashionable…”
Design is not how it looks, it is how it works. “Yeah, you cannot read half your text message with one glance, but hey it is round, ain’t it great?”

When that use case reveals itself I will be the biggest bull of this device but until then the huge numbers people are forecasting are likely to be bull.