OPINION: Apple 2024 WWDC keynote led to tons of recent bulletins for Apple followers to fawn to over, from Apple’s personal tackle AI to iPhone mirroring in your Mac, however amongst the watchOS 11 presentation, there was a bit of stories hidden in plain sight that has large ramifications for Apple Watch lifecycles going ahead.
In case you missed it, watchOS 11 is about to convey a ton of recent fitness-focused options together with Coaching Load and the all-new Vitals app. It’s all nice stuff because it brings Apple’s wearable that bit nearer to providing a extra detailed take a look at your well being, just like gadgets from Whoop and Garmin, however there’s a giant catch – it’s not coming to the Apple Watch 4, Apple Watch 5 and the first-generation Apple Watch SE.
I’ll absolutely admit that the Apple Watch 4 being dropped from watchOS 11 isn’t probably the most stunning revelation right here, notably on condition that the Apple Watch 3 was overlooked of the replace cycle again in 2022.
What’s stunning nonetheless is to see the Watch 5 and unique Watch SE solid off to the wayside, two smartwatches that beforehand would have been protected bets to obtain one other yr of updates, on the very least.
For context, the Apple Watch Collection 5 was launched in late 2019, and the first-gen Apple Watch SE is even youthful, having hit retailer cabinets again in September 2020. From a shopper standpoint, that’s robust to swallow, notably within the case of the Watch SE which has now solely obtained three main watchOS updates since launch, and now no extra.
The way forward for the Apple Watch
The longevity of those watches feels fairly at odds with the extent of service that Apple at the moment bestows to iPhones. Even the entry-level iPhone XR is about to obtain the brand new iOS 18 replace and that telephone has been round since 2018. That is all at a time when longer lifespans are actually a key promoting level with each Google and Samsung committing to seven years of updates for its newest handsets.
For no matter motive nonetheless, that very same quantity of effort on a part of these huge corporations has not been afforded to their wearable division, though in Apple’s case it does really feel as if its strategy to Apple Watch chipsets is partly responsible.
Each time there’s a brand new crop of iPhones introduced, Apple spends quite a lot of time discussing the deserves of the processors inside them, however the identical can’t be stated for Apple Watch. In actual fact, in our assessment of the Apple Watch 5, Editor Max Parker wrote: “All these apps run easily and shortly because of the S5 processor contained in the watch. This looks like a really minor replace to the S4, with no pace enhancements by any means. The chip wasn’t even talked about on stage at Apple’s huge launch occasion.”
The Apple Watch Collection 9 was the primary Apple wearable in a very long time to supply a real pace bump because of its vastly improved S9 chip, but when historical past is something to go by, it may very well be fairly some time earlier than we see the following huge replace to Apple Watch chipsets, leaving these gadgets with a far shorter lifespan in comparison with an iPhone.
That’s fairly a tablet to swallow, and it does imply that you could be need to be a bit extra ahead considering when deciding which Apple Watch you need to purchase sooner or later. Whereas it could be tempting to go for an older machine to economize, do you actually need to undergo the replace course of once more in a yr or two when Apple strikes on to newer issues?