When the first iPhone came out in 2007, third-party apps were limited affairs: glorified web apps without a lot of access to the iPhone’s more advanced functionality. According to a new blog post from Eleks Labs, a developer working on an Apple Wacth Tesla app, the same could be true of third-party Apple Watch apps when the wearable launches in April.
According to Eleks Labs’s Markiyan Matsekh, the company’s mobility business developer, the technical capabilities of the Apple Watch developer API, WatchKit, are still far removed from what Apple showed during the Apple Watch keynote.
As they created a prototype Tesla app that would allow Apple Watch users to control a Model S over the Internet from their watchface, Elek found a host of problems that got in their way. For example, developers do not yet have access to several of the Apple Watch’s built-in sensors, including the gyroscope, accelerometer, Taptic Engine, speaker, or microphone.
Even worse? Developers can’t actually use the touch screen. Developers do have access to Force Touch, which is used to display the shortcut menu, but that’s it. That means, for example, an Apple Watch app can not have its own custom, on-face, tappable UI.
Another fact that Eleks Labs was frustrated by was the fact that Apple Watch apps don’t actually run on the Apple Watch, but on a tethered iPhone. That means that if an iPhone is out of tethering range, the app simply doesn’t work, leading Elek Labs to say this about the Apple Watch:
Briefly speaking, Apple Watch is simply an additional monitor to your iPhone and it can’t do anything by itself… As we can see now, Apple Watch without an iPhone is actually nothing more than a useless toy.
Ouch. Of course, despite all of this, the Elek Labs team put together a Tesla app that they seem proud of, but one that is very limited compared to their original vision.
That’s all disappointing, but keep in mind that the original iPhone apps were very limited too, and just a few years later, they did pretty much everything a laptop or desktop app could do. The Apple Watch will need some time too.
Source: Eleks Labs
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
9 responses to “Why the Apple Watch’s first apps might disappoint you”
Can’t wait for the Apple Wacth to come out!
This will probably hurt the watch. You need developers and apps to get something going. Just ask anyone who tries to break into the video game console industry. At first developers will want to give it a shot as the App Store is getting a bit crowded. But if they run into too many limitations they will look elsewhere.
The Apple Watch you will have to buy. You will not get it at a discount along with your monthly phone bill, you will pay the full amount up front. That is going to knock out a number of current iPhone owners. You need $350 (minimum current guess) laying about for a watch.
Second if the first version is not very useful then you have a big hill to climb to get people to buy the next one. Probably going to be more than an iOS release that fixes these issues. There is a big chance they limited it due to the hardware. Getting people to spend $350-$450 out of pocket on the second edition if the first one is weak is going to be difficult. Could be if first versions don’t have much functionality trade in values will be low as well.
Maybe Apple has some tricks up its sleeves here but I think it will be a slow seller at the beginning because not many people in the target audience currently wear a watch. They probably will not be a fan of needing to charge it every night and it better have features they can really brag about or the “must have” factor will not be there.
Actually I look at it as a brand new opportunity! Just think about it: a brand new empty App Store fresh from Apple that is just waiting for developers to go after it. Developers have another chance once again to claim reign in a clutter free (for now) App Store from the company that popularized the term themselves!
Correct me if I’m wrong please :)
This App can do a hell of allot. Lock doors, change temperature, blow the horn, hell you can even open or close the sun roof. Apple may really know exactly what there doing here. By limiting some functionality in the first SDK they may make developers go crazy with app functionality when the full second SDK is released later this year as promised.
(see vid on this same story in Cult of Mac)
I think the first version will be very useful, and more importantly, beautiful. I think it will sell a hell of allot more than any other smart watch out there, which will surly keep developers on board.
Also, it going to be hard to predict how this watch will sell. It could be a slow seller, but it could also sell like hot cakes. Just wait until someone like Jennifer Lawrence wears the gold Apple Watch on Jimmy Kimmel, or something like that, this watch may become lusted after LOL.
So how do the AppleWatch apps compare to Android Wear apps? Which platform is capable of providing better apps? I’ve never heard anyone raving about the apps on Samsung’s Galaxy Gear.
Uh, why is a developer leaking details about Apple Watch and their experience writing software for it? Apple has strict policies against this. Now we always see “leaks” from developers, but nobody ever puts their name behind it.
Seems very odd for someone to go “on record” bashing Apple about something they get early access to.
Much less this sounds like a 0.01% user problem. I didn’t know Teslas were that mainstream. Besides, the novelty of controlling your car over the Internet sounds like an eventual crime in progress.
The point is not how many Apple Watch-wearing, Tesla owning people this will affect. The point is, the capabilities of Apple Watch third party apps are potentially hobbled.
The only thing that is more FUD then the original article is this one reporting on it. Cook stated quite clearly at the time that there would be limited access to the watch through the SDK at first, but that this would change with the second iteration of the SDK. So… what the developer and those reporting on his comment are saying is “we don’t know how to listen so when what was said comes to pass we are surprised.”