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0 pointsnostrademons9y ago0 comments

FWIW, I said the same thing about smartphones when they came out - who'd want to browse the web on a tiny 4" screen when you've got a 13" laptop? And indeed, I do very little web-browsing on my smartphone; it's generally just used to answer quick questions when I absolutely need information (or, well, when I want to win an argument over dinner :-P).

What made smartphones useful was people discovered new uses that you just couldn't use a computer for. You can't do turn-by-turn navigation with your laptop in the car. It's nearly useless if you're standing at a street corner in an unfamiliar city and want to know where the closest coffeeshop with wifi is. You can't use it to take a picture of the cute little ducks crossing the road and send it to your wife. It does you no good when you want to hail a car to take you home.

People haven't yet discovered similar uses for a smartwatch. It's highly likely that they exist, though. What the watch gives you is hands-free information: you can receive quick, 1-5 second notifications even if you're carrying something or immersed (sometimes literally) in physical activity. I've already found this useful for getting notifications that my founders' group has changed where we're meeting while I'm driving there, or that my wife has already gone to the grocery store, or for checking off items on my shopping list while carrying shopping bags. There are probably other bigger uses waiting to be discovered.

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toyg9y ago· 1 in thread

> What the watch gives you is hands-free information

But your phone can also give you that, through earphones or headsets. Smartwatches must find new uses that a phone cannot also do as well, which is a much harder bar to clear.

For example:

> notifications [...] while I'm driving there

Phones can do that already, and will do more and more as CarPlay etc become mainstream.

> checking off items on my shopping list while carrying shopping bags

Siri can probably do that already (I use Trello for my shopping lists and it works fine as it is, tbh).

The one use where smartwatches will likely be unbeatable, forever and ever, is fitness/health: carrying around a phone in those circumstances is simply more annoying than carrying a watch. Once they get cheap enough, they might replace smartcards and badges for access control. If smartglasses become mainstream, they could augment each other (your glasses display and record, your watch stores and computes) and actually replace phones altogether; but alone, I don't see them going anywhere.

nostrademonsOP9y ago

Bluetooth earbuds & headsets have all the downsides of smartwatches: they cost roughly the same (for headsets; earbuds are a lot cheaper), they make you look as dorky or more, they're IMHO less comfortable, and they're another accessory that can fall out and get lost. And they seem to have similar adoption numbers. The main difference is audio vs. visual: headsets are better for some uses (notably taking calls) but worse for others (interacting or reading quick notifications).

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