The Apple Watch was unveiled this week. It is certainly the result of an large amount of work from many talented individuals. The Watch looks quite polished, though still bearing some signs of a 1.0 product -- namely the shape and thickness.
One thing that wasn't mentioned is battery life. Rumors put it at "about a day," or maybe a bit less than a day. That's not very good for a watch. "Dumb" watches run months or years on a battery, and some don't require a battery change at all.
Let's stop and imagine how a watch with a battery life that short will impact your life. Think about how much time you currently spend worrying about how close your smartphone battery is to depletion, and when your next charging opportunity will be. I've seen households of teenagers where you would think their most important responsibility each day is keeping their phones charged. Now double that problem with a smart watch. Now you'll have to frequently monitor the charge level of your phone and your watch. Furthermore, each takes a different charge cable. People often charge their phone while driving. Will they now need to charge their watch as well while driving? I already have a shortage of outlets in my house as it seems that a good portion of them always have an iDevice plugged in. Airport outlets attract crowds of travelers charging their phones and tablets. These too will be even more of a scarce resource as travelers have to charge their watch as well as their phone between flights.
If we're going to complicate our lives by accumulating more gadgets to keep charged, they'll need to provide a lot of utility to make up for the increased burden.
