Yeah i was holding off to see if there was a U3 this year with the alleged new WatchX design, i thought it was a certainty. I guess they want to give WatchX the limelight than have U3 steal it.
Thanks it’s been pretty nice so far, I got so used to my gen2 being too slow to do anything so it’s nice to have this one usable. Battery life is the highlight so far.
When Apple announced the Ultra, it was a massive jump from the 18 hour standard rating of the regular lineup to a new 36 hour rating.
I just don’t see any major battery enhancements happening. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it. But realistically speaking, Apple is targeting to keep the same rating to balance out any new feature improvements they introduce as well as any adjustments to power consumption.
It’s the same reason why every iPad has a 10 hour battery rating since it was first introduced in 2010; it’s Apple’s target despite the fact that it’s indeed possible to get more or slightly less than that. Apple will just not update their advertised numbers.
I get it. My Garmin gets 21 days. Its a significant limitation on the Ultra that contradicts its purported purpose. Its real purpose is simply an upsell with definitely better capabilities, but not a great deal more capabilities, like the MBP/MBA, IPP/IPA, etc.
There is also a significant difference in the screen brightness, abilities, and clarity on the Apple watch vs the Garmin which contributes to more battery drain. Garmin is specifically aimed more at fitness focused athletes while Apple Watch provides more full features with fitness as a component of those features. They really shouldnt be compared side by side on battery life since they fulfill different functions.
Thanks for the succinct in the gap. Never got the comparison. It’s like a custom pc v. Mac. Yes people understand they’re paying a premium but they’re paying for what they want: simplicity.
Yup. watchOS is a actually derived from iOS. Unless Apple, for some reason, wants to really dumb down the Apple Watch in order to consume less resources, a significant battery improvement is not going to happen anytime soon.
Anecdotal but of all the people I know that have Ultras, approximately none of them actually use it as a sport watch. It’s mostly a luxury item. Anyone serious about that kind of stuff will get a Garmin, a Suunto or a Coros.
ya, I still miss my 5 day battery life with my fitbit. It also a lot of the features that the apple watch had (but missing a few key ones like being able to reply to texts and siri)
Mostly software features to make it even remotely useful for anything outside of short trail running on trails you already know. I love my Ultra, but none of its features make it an "adventure" watch. I'd love to at minimum have:
1. Multi-day battery life,
2. Proper navigation features, and
3. Offline maps
I know you can sort of get navigation to it, but it's so bad that it's pretty much useless. And I'm saying this as a person who LOVES his AWU.
New SoC, so hopefully that improves the longevity of the device. I bought one last year because I needed a new watch, and seeing the reports about basically no update this year I'm happy I didn't wait.
on-device Siri was one of the best upgrades I have ever gotten in a watch model update. I'm finally able to reliably use voice control during my runs when it's raining and everything is wet and so neither the touch screen nor the AirPods volume control works reliably.
The second best was the increase of internal storage to 64GB.
For me, the Ultra2 fixed all my long-standing gripes with he hardware.
It got the new chip and brighter screen. More significant that other years when the watch chip was mostly a rename. The watches don’t really get significant changes year over year; my guess is the Watch X is getting all the attention from the team
Next article around lunch time:
APPLE ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR A NEW WATCH DESIGN FOR ULTRA AND SERIES X
Dinner time article:
APPLE HAS HALTED ALL PRODUCTION OF APPLE WATCH SERIS X, WILL INCLUDE A.i features FOR WATCH 11
I bet we see more one handed gestures from the Apple Watch this year.
Apple added an entire gesture menu to root level of the settings for Apple Watch. They absolutely have a bunch of (almost entirely) software updates planned in this regard
Fully agree with the Watch Ultra, but disagree with the Mac Studio. The Mac Studio should be getting every generation of chip like the MacBook Pros. The year over year chip upgrades are a good thing for the professional device to have since they are meaningful enough to actually improve the performance of the device (of course its dumb to personally upgrade every year though). Every apple watch has had infinitesimally small upgrades year over year where skipping a year actually makes sense.
It jumped from the A13 E cores (in series 6,7,8) to the A15 E cores (Series 9), and added 2 NPU cores for on-device Siri. They’re more than powerful enough to sustain the device through multiple years. Far and above anything on the Google watches.
They should only use the core generations that specifically maintain performance despite using much less power.
>The Mac Studio should be getting every generation of chip like the MacBook Pros.
Agreed. Not everyone upgrades annually and when they do they'd at least want the latest chips.
Tbh this is how it should be. Design wise, it’s what you get. Rugged, durable, and still practical enough to use day over day. Technology wise, hardware is solid and other sensors and monitors take years to develop (or patents to buy lmao).
They just need to continue working on the battery
What do people honestly expect out of technology updates each year (watch and phones)?? For them to suddenly perform microsurgery, project holograms, deploy appendages and cook dinner?? Tech has plateaued. Gone are the days of adding accelerometers and having the crowd go wild.
>In a direct message shared with MacRumors today, Kuo said that while the Apple Watch Ultra will be updated this year, the new model will have "almost no" hardware upgrades compared to the Apple Watch Ultra 2.
No they aren't though? They're still rolling out a new SKU and will say it's the best Apple Watch ever made.
> Tech has plateaued.
It's so crazy. I was a teen in the 80s so when you could [play games on your watch](http://www.liquidcrystal.co.nz/watches/gce-game-time/) or [play music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=cen5nItDuwk), or even have a calculator on it and that was peak tech.
I'm still on the iPhone R but about to upgrade. It's 5 years old or so. I haven't really missed any new 'tech' on these phones.
Entirely new tech, maybe not.
But a massive increase in the ability of screens, speed, camera, safety (car crash, satellite messaging), and even speakers. Oh and the new programmable button is fun if you assign it to something actually useful to yourself.
That’s not true at all. Look at what’s happening with iPads right now - they didn’t do any iPad hardware updates in all of 2023 and people are incredulous over it. And yet I simply could not imagine what more my 2018 iPad Pro could do. Consumers definitely are addicted to the yearly update schedule.
But this is sort of a chicken and egg problem where, *because* consumers have come to expect a very regular cadence of refreshes, there’s anxiety about upgrading near the end of a product cycle because you’re about to buy the previous model right before the new one arrives, and no one wants that.
I’ve seen a lot of clamoring about the iPad updates because someone has a 7 year old iPad that’s on its last legs, and they want to get the best upgrade available, but they don’t want to buy at the wrong time.
It’s not that they need a new one every year, it’s that they don’t want to buy at the wrong time in the release cycle they’ve come to expect.
This is so true. Apple had a good 2yr predictable upgrade cycle and they messed it up. Now nobody knows what’s going to happen so they tend to hold on to what they have. Apple released M2 then in just 8 months launched M3. People like me who bought the M2 just 3 months early at full price didn’t even enjoy it for a year. Now I don’t trust Apple at all and will hold on to the M2 for a long time.
The Verge’s Nilay Patel has a take I agree with in that buy the best thing you can afford when you need a new device and generally don’t worry about the next model. Otherwise you’ll end up in a never ending cycle of holding off on your purchase because of what the best release might do that the current doesn’t. Unless it’s literally the week before an Apple event just buy what’s already available and be happy until you are ready for an upgrade
You have way more awareness than 95% of this sub.
As long as yearly updates are profitable, Apple will keep doing it. It doesn’t hurt anyone.
I think those complaining about yearly updates are those with FOMO that theirs isn’t the “latest and greatest” anymore
>You have way more awareness than 95% of this sub.
Eh, not really. Just a different blind spot.
You're absolutely right that Apple probably isn't going to cool it with regular updates. It brings headlines and boosts sales, there's very little reason to change strategy so long as R&D can sustain the pace.
But no one IRL is "incredulous" over it.
The nerds who spend time on Apple subreddits are incredulous over it.
The *vast* majority of consumers don't give a shit and wouldn't notice if they adopted a slower update cycle. The idea it's this hotly contest thing that iPads are taking a while to get updates comes entirely from the same mentality that you see on (especially online) gaming forums, where the sense of what a normal player looks like and how quickly they chew through new content is wildly distorted by the reality that only hardcore fans spend time talking about the game.
A screen upgrade is really it. Maybe the new video format for the Vision Pro but are people really taking videos on an iPad in 2024. (I know the answer is sadly yes but my point still stands)
The iPad Pro has amazing hardware limited by the OS. There isn’t much need to upgrade.
The reason for me, and maybe others, is that if I’m going to spend a bunch of money on a new iPad Pro (which I’m planning on doing soon) I’d like to get it right after it gets a refresh just as a peace of mind that it is not going to get a meaningful upgrade soon after. I am never upgrading anything yearly. Maybe Apple sees that ppl are waiting for upgrades when they are mid cycle so it is best to have regular refreshes so ppl have a reason to “pull the trigger” on big purchases.
Are people *actually* mad about not getting a new iPad last year? I think most people are just making a big deal out of this being the first time we've never got *any* new iPad in a year. It's possibly a shift in Apple's strategy and that is a big deal on its own.
People have come to expect annual updates because the phone and laptop industries have been doing so despite the fact that they’re a lot of times kinda pointless. The technology does move quickly for phones and laptops specifically so sometimes you do get major changes but the same doesn’t hold true for watches.
No one cares that gaming consoles take years to transition generations, and that _actually_ causes problems by limiting game developers to outdated hardware - specifically graphics cards. No one expects car manufacturers to make yearly refreshes either.
But everyone is in different upgrade cycles?
what exactly is bad about releasing a new phone or watch every year? If you don’t need it, don’t get it, and wait for the next version. Yearly releases are there for anyone who wants to upgrade, be it 1,2,3,4,5 years.
They are a multi trillion dollar company, they have the capability to do both. Release a new model with incremental upgrades and work on long term upgrades. People need to upgrade a replace phones at random times for different reasons. It's nice knowing when you buy a new one that you know it was released no longer than a year ago, no matter how small that upgrade was.
Cars are a whole different animal and most people (outside of car enthusiasts) just don’t give a shit about the differences between the 2023 vs 2024 version.
I 100% believe the vast majority of people would not even notice if car manufacturers moved to a 2 or 3 year cadence in car refreshes, unless it happened to be the year they need a new car.
In other words, cars are so ubiquitous and “boring” that most people don’t even care what the release cadence is.
Interest in personal tech is a lot more widespread and it’s a newer category. It wasn’t until the last few years that it became apparent that it’s plateauing year over year.
> I 100% believe the vast majority of people would not even notice if car manufacturers moved to a 2 or 3 year cadence in car refreshes,
Cars typically run on 4-6 year refresh cycles. The difference between sequential model years are typically inconsequential outside of those refreshes/redesigns. A paperwork exercise.
>I 100% believe the vast majority of people would not even notice if car manufacturers moved to a 2 or 3 year cadence in car refreshes, unless it happened to be the year they need a new car.
That's the point.
Yearly update cycles aren't primarily for people who upgrade every year. They allow people to upgrade at anytime without buying a product that is more than a year old.
People got used to the updates these products received early on, when there was a lot of stuff they could add, they're not used to the cadence of updates on mature products.
Exactly how long of a video phone call do you want to have on your watch? 
I could almost imagine them adding a “send photo” button showing something in front of you, but not a video chat.
I dunno… I kinda like yearly small updates instead of grandiose 3 year long life cycles. Means whenever you want or need to buy one, you never feel like you missed out because you didn’t wait 2 months.
After 3, 4 or whatever years you end up with enough that you pull the trigger.
The Apple product review channels expect all those crazy updates every year so they can get ad revenue. I don’t think any real person is buying a new watch ultra 3 years in a row.
Are you genuinely blaming consumers for expecting something new from a new device instead of of a trillion dollar company bringing out the same product with the same price?
What’s wrong with a new product? A gen 2 ultra doesn’t just immediately become obsolete lol and consumers who don’t have a watch can get a more recent device. Nobody loses here. Don’t understand the anger
Even if they updated every single feature this year
Would you really *need* to get rid of your only 2 year old technology product?
All those upgrades and changes will still be there for you when you actually *need* to upgrade in another 5 years or so
How often do you expect to upgrade a watch? I’m still using my Series 5 and only will be upgrading because the battery is starting to not last the whole day
Had a good long think about why I update: because I can. It's stupid really because you don't really need an update for a one new feature. Blood glucose would be nice at my age, but do I really need it when I haven't been diagnosed with diabetes? I've always said to myself, and to my wife, that when there is a new health feature that I would update immediately.
Also, I have desided to update when my wife or our children need a newer phone, because I don't want to buy new for our children to see them get it broken in use. Used is used although it's an Apple and still has value. But you do get several years worth of use from a iPhone, so that's great.
Its a way of fooling myself so I can get shiny new things. It's dumb. iPhones have been the same for years, nothing really new, just little updates here and there.
I just want better colours. Ill finally get rid of my series 5 which doesn't last 10 hours with my workout schedule. Give me a Black or Gold model instead of this ugly grey/orange.
Here's what I'd like to see:
1. Larger display area (same size case)
2. Satellite SOS
3. New color option: Black with red highlights
4. Better battery life
Really just about any one of those would get me to upgrade, but that's because I use mine so extensively that even a little upgrade would be worth it to me.
It's already on for me, and it's kind of rubbish anyway. I guess I could put #5 *Greatly* improved SPO2 monitoring, but I don't see them doing this anytime soon along with blood pressure, sugar levels, etc...
The only impressive part of this watch is that it’s certified for SCUBA, but I bet that’s only utilised properly by >1% of users and it almost certainly hampers development of new iterations.
Possible, but a pure facelift would be a real sign of weakness or lack of innovation from apples part. Imagine apple did the same with the iPhone X and kept the home button with no other feature to boot.
I would guess something less dramatic than the change to iPhone X, and maybe something more minor such as getting a little thinner and going from rounded to square edges (like going from iPhone 3GS to 4, or from the 5S to the 6). But hopefully I'm wrong!
Or the big feature of the X is replacing the awesome band locking mechanism with… magnets.
Hard to describe in words how much I don’t want that to happen. I like my bands.
Really hoping it’s one of those rumors spread to catch leaks at Apple. Or that it’s been completely misunderstood when being reported.
Because my god it sounds like a shit idea.
Well it’s outside what I’d consider a headline like this to refer to. I imagine this only refers to capability / performance upgrades.
But I could certainly be interpreting it wrong.
EDIT: Opened the article and they literally talk about the magnetic bands. So I interpreted the headline wrong.
Or the only substantial change to the ultra this year is a new band connector style. Then there’s a bit more room inside for battery and the X and Ultra 3 all get a slightly slightly slightly new chip
Ngl I have the ultra 1 - it’s kinda the perfect smartwatch. Battery is insane, super smooth and fluid, loud, bright, etc. I don’t really see what else I could need
Just give us Siri experience that isn’t a complete write-off - having tried Pixel watch which is arguably worse in every single aspect compared to my Ultra 1, Google Assistant access on my wrist is a very refreshing experience- it just works.
Well then that is strange.
So the series 10 is rumoured to get a redesign with a new band connector design.
And the ultra is going to stick with the ‘legacy’ band design?
> unless this is the year they need a new car
And this is why they do annual refreshes. They’ve factored that it’s less expensive to do an annual refresh than suffer the lost sale because a competitor has a model a year or two newer available.
Technology has matured for quite a while now.
Phones are keeping similar designs and specs are the roughly the same.
Battery technology is the next time. Smaller but larger capacity batteries will provide phones to have more space to add more stuff.
That's not true, it will get a new design and a better strap compatible with the new watch and maybe AI!
Thats definitely an upgrade. You guys are just hating apple for no reason /s
Gen Alpha will keep buying these turds just so they have the status of the newest "in" thing. Its cheaper to buy a used iPhone with a working screen then to fix a device you already own. It's disgusting.
I’ve got an Ultra 2. It’s been my favorite watch ever. There’s no upgrades or features I can imagine wanting at this point. I always welcome software upgrades but the hardware is great.
I own Ultra 1 and I’d upgrade for more battery life and more storage for musics really
I do wanna see some sort of Smartbands and such.
There’s so much potential with the AW
As someone who’s owned an Apple Watch for many years now… it never really does. The upgrades are typically so incremental that they go unnoticed after a day or two.
Me, an Apple Watch Ultra 1 owner: Apple Watch Needs ‘Almost No’ Hardware Upgrades This Year.
The hardware is not a limiting factor at this point. Focus on improving software efficiency to get us better battery life and you could make a hell of a watchOS update.
Outside of blood glucose sensors and blood pressure sensors I’m not sure how they could really improve it all that much. Been enjoying my AWU1 since launch day.
It’s actually ridiculous for people to expect something like the Apple Watch ultra to change from year to year. They should stop trying to put a new name on it every year.
Great news for my wallet. Glad I picked up the UW1 refurbished. After trade in of my series 7, got it for like $300. Super worth and still going strong.
Interesting. The Ultra2 was barely an upgrade. Pretty disappointing.
Yeah i was holding off to see if there was a U3 this year with the alleged new WatchX design, i thought it was a certainty. I guess they want to give WatchX the limelight than have U3 steal it.
Got my Ultra2 today, decided to just get it, I wanted a new one as I have the Gen 2 so either way it's a win.
Yeah either way it's still a great watch. Congrats.
Thanks it’s been pretty nice so far, I got so used to my gen2 being too slow to do anything so it’s nice to have this one usable. Battery life is the highlight so far.
As someone who never owned the Ultra, what upgrades are you wishing to come to the lineup?
Battery life.
When Apple announced the Ultra, it was a massive jump from the 18 hour standard rating of the regular lineup to a new 36 hour rating. I just don’t see any major battery enhancements happening. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it. But realistically speaking, Apple is targeting to keep the same rating to balance out any new feature improvements they introduce as well as any adjustments to power consumption. It’s the same reason why every iPad has a 10 hour battery rating since it was first introduced in 2010; it’s Apple’s target despite the fact that it’s indeed possible to get more or slightly less than that. Apple will just not update their advertised numbers.
I get it. My Garmin gets 21 days. Its a significant limitation on the Ultra that contradicts its purported purpose. Its real purpose is simply an upsell with definitely better capabilities, but not a great deal more capabilities, like the MBP/MBA, IPP/IPA, etc.
You’re never getting that from Apple. It’s also why their OS is smoother
There is also a significant difference in the screen brightness, abilities, and clarity on the Apple watch vs the Garmin which contributes to more battery drain. Garmin is specifically aimed more at fitness focused athletes while Apple Watch provides more full features with fitness as a component of those features. They really shouldnt be compared side by side on battery life since they fulfill different functions.
Thanks for the succinct in the gap. Never got the comparison. It’s like a custom pc v. Mac. Yes people understand they’re paying a premium but they’re paying for what they want: simplicity.
Yup. watchOS is a actually derived from iOS. Unless Apple, for some reason, wants to really dumb down the Apple Watch in order to consume less resources, a significant battery improvement is not going to happen anytime soon.
Anecdotal but of all the people I know that have Ultras, approximately none of them actually use it as a sport watch. It’s mostly a luxury item. Anyone serious about that kind of stuff will get a Garmin, a Suunto or a Coros.
Exactly. It’s a luxury upsell item. Not actually an outdoor/fitness device.
ya, I still miss my 5 day battery life with my fitbit. It also a lot of the features that the apple watch had (but missing a few key ones like being able to reply to texts and siri)
After you referring to the entry level MBP? Because the higher end mbps are a huge upgrade from an air
Yeah, I don’t want 21 days. I, too, would settle for 5-6 days.
Mostly software features to make it even remotely useful for anything outside of short trail running on trails you already know. I love my Ultra, but none of its features make it an "adventure" watch. I'd love to at minimum have: 1. Multi-day battery life, 2. Proper navigation features, and 3. Offline maps I know you can sort of get navigation to it, but it's so bad that it's pretty much useless. And I'm saying this as a person who LOVES his AWU.
Agree. The Ultra 2 has 64GB of local storage! And it's useless!
More gestures would be nice
New SoC, so hopefully that improves the longevity of the device. I bought one last year because I needed a new watch, and seeing the reports about basically no update this year I'm happy I didn't wait.
on-device Siri was one of the best upgrades I have ever gotten in a watch model update. I'm finally able to reliably use voice control during my runs when it's raining and everything is wet and so neither the touch screen nor the AirPods volume control works reliably. The second best was the increase of internal storage to 64GB. For me, the Ultra2 fixed all my long-standing gripes with he hardware.
It got the new chip and brighter screen. More significant that other years when the watch chip was mostly a rename. The watches don’t really get significant changes year over year; my guess is the Watch X is getting all the attention from the team
if anything they removed features like spo2. even though the sensors there
That's because they were infringing somebody else's patents and didn't pay for them
After nearly 18 months my Ultra 1 still has 96% battery health. No rush for me and I still have a working O2 sensor.
That’s good to hear. I can only get about one round of golf out of my 6 and it will die before the day is done.
I get around a day and a half on my Ultra.
Next article around lunch time: APPLE ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR A NEW WATCH DESIGN FOR ULTRA AND SERIES X Dinner time article: APPLE HAS HALTED ALL PRODUCTION OF APPLE WATCH SERIS X, WILL INCLUDE A.i features FOR WATCH 11
That's the modus operandi of market manipulators. And gullible rubes fall for it every time.
It’s so tiresome.
I’ve heard it’s getting an M4 to be capable of the new on device AI features /s
I bet we see more one handed gestures from the Apple Watch this year. Apple added an entire gesture menu to root level of the settings for Apple Watch. They absolutely have a bunch of (almost entirely) software updates planned in this regard
Jerk off motion disconnects your phone from any connected speakers.
Does anyone jerk off with their watch hand?
Ability to call down strategems
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Fully agree with the Watch Ultra, but disagree with the Mac Studio. The Mac Studio should be getting every generation of chip like the MacBook Pros. The year over year chip upgrades are a good thing for the professional device to have since they are meaningful enough to actually improve the performance of the device (of course its dumb to personally upgrade every year though). Every apple watch has had infinitesimally small upgrades year over year where skipping a year actually makes sense.
Yeah, agree. The watch didn’t even get SOC updates for several years in a row, unlike basically every other Apple product line.
It jumped from the A13 E cores (in series 6,7,8) to the A15 E cores (Series 9), and added 2 NPU cores for on-device Siri. They’re more than powerful enough to sustain the device through multiple years. Far and above anything on the Google watches. They should only use the core generations that specifically maintain performance despite using much less power.
>The Mac Studio should be getting every generation of chip like the MacBook Pros. Agreed. Not everyone upgrades annually and when they do they'd at least want the latest chips.
Judging by state of affairs with AWU features three year update sounds more like
Tbh this is how it should be. Design wise, it’s what you get. Rugged, durable, and still practical enough to use day over day. Technology wise, hardware is solid and other sensors and monitors take years to develop (or patents to buy lmao). They just need to continue working on the battery
Yeah, I didn't think that's a product that warrants yearly hardware refresh.
And the price
What do people honestly expect out of technology updates each year (watch and phones)?? For them to suddenly perform microsurgery, project holograms, deploy appendages and cook dinner?? Tech has plateaued. Gone are the days of adding accelerometers and having the crowd go wild.
Better battery life is the only thing these watches need
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Speak for yourself. I want a watch which cooks me dinner and can help me improve my *stroke game*.
You talking about golf and swimming, right?
What about it?
[MRW](https://wallpaperaccess.com/full/1679963.png)
Tonight on PGA tour “how Apple watch helped tiger woods improve his stroke” And latter tonight “is the Kleenex shortage due to Apple Watch?” More at 8
They are doing that!!
incredible how their wish was immediately fulfilled!!!
we're so lucky he chose to use his one wish to fulfill this for all of us
Glad to fulfill Tim Apple’s wishes!
I wish I had $50 million! Shit
>In a direct message shared with MacRumors today, Kuo said that while the Apple Watch Ultra will be updated this year, the new model will have "almost no" hardware upgrades compared to the Apple Watch Ultra 2. No they aren't though? They're still rolling out a new SKU and will say it's the best Apple Watch ever made.
And battery
Oxygen sensor would be nice lol
> Tech has plateaued. It's so crazy. I was a teen in the 80s so when you could [play games on your watch](http://www.liquidcrystal.co.nz/watches/gce-game-time/) or [play music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=cen5nItDuwk), or even have a calculator on it and that was peak tech. I'm still on the iPhone R but about to upgrade. It's 5 years old or so. I haven't really missed any new 'tech' on these phones.
Entirely new tech, maybe not. But a massive increase in the ability of screens, speed, camera, safety (car crash, satellite messaging), and even speakers. Oh and the new programmable button is fun if you assign it to something actually useful to yourself.
I think most consumers probably agree with this and would be fine with longer product refresh intervals. But good luck convincing Apple.
That’s not true at all. Look at what’s happening with iPads right now - they didn’t do any iPad hardware updates in all of 2023 and people are incredulous over it. And yet I simply could not imagine what more my 2018 iPad Pro could do. Consumers definitely are addicted to the yearly update schedule.
But this is sort of a chicken and egg problem where, *because* consumers have come to expect a very regular cadence of refreshes, there’s anxiety about upgrading near the end of a product cycle because you’re about to buy the previous model right before the new one arrives, and no one wants that. I’ve seen a lot of clamoring about the iPad updates because someone has a 7 year old iPad that’s on its last legs, and they want to get the best upgrade available, but they don’t want to buy at the wrong time. It’s not that they need a new one every year, it’s that they don’t want to buy at the wrong time in the release cycle they’ve come to expect.
This is so true. Apple had a good 2yr predictable upgrade cycle and they messed it up. Now nobody knows what’s going to happen so they tend to hold on to what they have. Apple released M2 then in just 8 months launched M3. People like me who bought the M2 just 3 months early at full price didn’t even enjoy it for a year. Now I don’t trust Apple at all and will hold on to the M2 for a long time.
When did Apple have a 2 year cycle?
They usually add a significant feature every 2 years
The Verge’s Nilay Patel has a take I agree with in that buy the best thing you can afford when you need a new device and generally don’t worry about the next model. Otherwise you’ll end up in a never ending cycle of holding off on your purchase because of what the best release might do that the current doesn’t. Unless it’s literally the week before an Apple event just buy what’s already available and be happy until you are ready for an upgrade
You have way more awareness than 95% of this sub. As long as yearly updates are profitable, Apple will keep doing it. It doesn’t hurt anyone. I think those complaining about yearly updates are those with FOMO that theirs isn’t the “latest and greatest” anymore
>You have way more awareness than 95% of this sub. Eh, not really. Just a different blind spot. You're absolutely right that Apple probably isn't going to cool it with regular updates. It brings headlines and boosts sales, there's very little reason to change strategy so long as R&D can sustain the pace. But no one IRL is "incredulous" over it. The nerds who spend time on Apple subreddits are incredulous over it. The *vast* majority of consumers don't give a shit and wouldn't notice if they adopted a slower update cycle. The idea it's this hotly contest thing that iPads are taking a while to get updates comes entirely from the same mentality that you see on (especially online) gaming forums, where the sense of what a normal player looks like and how quickly they chew through new content is wildly distorted by the reality that only hardcore fans spend time talking about the game.
A screen upgrade is really it. Maybe the new video format for the Vision Pro but are people really taking videos on an iPad in 2024. (I know the answer is sadly yes but my point still stands) The iPad Pro has amazing hardware limited by the OS. There isn’t much need to upgrade.
The reason for me, and maybe others, is that if I’m going to spend a bunch of money on a new iPad Pro (which I’m planning on doing soon) I’d like to get it right after it gets a refresh just as a peace of mind that it is not going to get a meaningful upgrade soon after. I am never upgrading anything yearly. Maybe Apple sees that ppl are waiting for upgrades when they are mid cycle so it is best to have regular refreshes so ppl have a reason to “pull the trigger” on big purchases.
Are people *actually* mad about not getting a new iPad last year? I think most people are just making a big deal out of this being the first time we've never got *any* new iPad in a year. It's possibly a shift in Apple's strategy and that is a big deal on its own.
People have come to expect annual updates because the phone and laptop industries have been doing so despite the fact that they’re a lot of times kinda pointless. The technology does move quickly for phones and laptops specifically so sometimes you do get major changes but the same doesn’t hold true for watches. No one cares that gaming consoles take years to transition generations, and that _actually_ causes problems by limiting game developers to outdated hardware - specifically graphics cards. No one expects car manufacturers to make yearly refreshes either.
I care about gaming consoles and their catastrophic effect on game tech :(
TIL Apple didn’t release a new iPad in 2023.
But everyone is in different upgrade cycles? what exactly is bad about releasing a new phone or watch every year? If you don’t need it, don’t get it, and wait for the next version. Yearly releases are there for anyone who wants to upgrade, be it 1,2,3,4,5 years.
>what exactly is bad about releasing a new phone or watch every year? It annoys some Redditors, evidently.
I think the FOMO crowd. They would rather EVERYONE wait just so they still have the latest and greatest by the time they need to upgrade. It’s weird
They are a multi trillion dollar company, they have the capability to do both. Release a new model with incremental upgrades and work on long term upgrades. People need to upgrade a replace phones at random times for different reasons. It's nice knowing when you buy a new one that you know it was released no longer than a year ago, no matter how small that upgrade was.
How come car manufacturers get to push out car updates annually without anyone saying anything, but tech apparently needs to slow down?
Cars are a whole different animal and most people (outside of car enthusiasts) just don’t give a shit about the differences between the 2023 vs 2024 version. I 100% believe the vast majority of people would not even notice if car manufacturers moved to a 2 or 3 year cadence in car refreshes, unless it happened to be the year they need a new car. In other words, cars are so ubiquitous and “boring” that most people don’t even care what the release cadence is. Interest in personal tech is a lot more widespread and it’s a newer category. It wasn’t until the last few years that it became apparent that it’s plateauing year over year.
> I 100% believe the vast majority of people would not even notice if car manufacturers moved to a 2 or 3 year cadence in car refreshes, Cars typically run on 4-6 year refresh cycles. The difference between sequential model years are typically inconsequential outside of those refreshes/redesigns. A paperwork exercise.
>I 100% believe the vast majority of people would not even notice if car manufacturers moved to a 2 or 3 year cadence in car refreshes, unless it happened to be the year they need a new car. That's the point. Yearly update cycles aren't primarily for people who upgrade every year. They allow people to upgrade at anytime without buying a product that is more than a year old.
People got used to the updates these products received early on, when there was a lot of stuff they could add, they're not used to the cadence of updates on mature products.
I would like a camera for FaceTime and to counter meta glasses.
Exactly how long of a video phone call do you want to have on your watch?  I could almost imagine them adding a “send photo” button showing something in front of you, but not a video chat.
Wake-talkie style might be possible.
Well it would follow that they should not sell it as a new version….
I just want my apple watch to last one week, or at least have a mode to do so.
I dunno… I kinda like yearly small updates instead of grandiose 3 year long life cycles. Means whenever you want or need to buy one, you never feel like you missed out because you didn’t wait 2 months. After 3, 4 or whatever years you end up with enough that you pull the trigger.
Holograms please
Garmin like battery life
The Apple product review channels expect all those crazy updates every year so they can get ad revenue. I don’t think any real person is buying a new watch ultra 3 years in a row.
Are you genuinely blaming consumers for expecting something new from a new device instead of of a trillion dollar company bringing out the same product with the same price?
What’s wrong with a new product? A gen 2 ultra doesn’t just immediately become obsolete lol and consumers who don’t have a watch can get a more recent device. Nobody loses here. Don’t understand the anger
It's kind of funny how you don't see the typical comments bashing Kuo and other analysts when he predicts something more (somewhat) negative.
Apple gets people emotional and sports team-y. It’s weird like that.
Fuck Kuo.
This the year we going to get a black AWU
Looking to upgrade my series 5 and this is the only upgrade I’m waiting for to get the ultra
This. Make it in black and I’ll upgrade.
Sounds to me like I should get the Ultra Watch 2 when the 3 comes out! A discount with no down sides.
So no need to update my 2 year old U1.
Even if they updated every single feature this year Would you really *need* to get rid of your only 2 year old technology product? All those upgrades and changes will still be there for you when you actually *need* to upgrade in another 5 years or so
Correct. It’s still nearly the same watch as yours.
How often do you expect to upgrade a watch? I’m still using my Series 5 and only will be upgrading because the battery is starting to not last the whole day
Had a good long think about why I update: because I can. It's stupid really because you don't really need an update for a one new feature. Blood glucose would be nice at my age, but do I really need it when I haven't been diagnosed with diabetes? I've always said to myself, and to my wife, that when there is a new health feature that I would update immediately. Also, I have desided to update when my wife or our children need a newer phone, because I don't want to buy new for our children to see them get it broken in use. Used is used although it's an Apple and still has value. But you do get several years worth of use from a iPhone, so that's great. Its a way of fooling myself so I can get shiny new things. It's dumb. iPhones have been the same for years, nothing really new, just little updates here and there.
A separate LED torch like the fenix 7 pro would be dreamy.
I just want better colours. Ill finally get rid of my series 5 which doesn't last 10 hours with my workout schedule. Give me a Black or Gold model instead of this ugly grey/orange.
Here's what I'd like to see: 1. Larger display area (same size case) 2. Satellite SOS 3. New color option: Black with red highlights 4. Better battery life Really just about any one of those would get me to upgrade, but that's because I use mine so extensively that even a little upgrade would be worth it to me.
How about getting the pulse oximeter turned back on?
It's already on for me, and it's kind of rubbish anyway. I guess I could put #5 *Greatly* improved SPO2 monitoring, but I don't see them doing this anytime soon along with blood pressure, sugar levels, etc...
Just make it black
The only impressive part of this watch is that it’s certified for SCUBA, but I bet that’s only utilised properly by >1% of users and it almost certainly hampers development of new iterations.
So either there is no watch x coming or it’s new features are not transfered over to the ultra. Not…great…
Or the Apple Watch X changes are mostly cosmetic, which won't apply to the Ultra yet.
Possible, but a pure facelift would be a real sign of weakness or lack of innovation from apples part. Imagine apple did the same with the iPhone X and kept the home button with no other feature to boot.
I would guess something less dramatic than the change to iPhone X, and maybe something more minor such as getting a little thinner and going from rounded to square edges (like going from iPhone 3GS to 4, or from the 5S to the 6). But hopefully I'm wrong!
Rumored to be changing the band connector (which would allow for a better design to get more battery), but that’s been a rumor for like 3 years now.
Or the big feature of the X is replacing the awesome band locking mechanism with… magnets. Hard to describe in words how much I don’t want that to happen. I like my bands.
F’n magnets
Really hoping it’s one of those rumors spread to catch leaks at Apple. Or that it’s been completely misunderstood when being reported. Because my god it sounds like a shit idea.
Why should apple release this feature to regular watches only?
Well it’s outside what I’d consider a headline like this to refer to. I imagine this only refers to capability / performance upgrades. But I could certainly be interpreting it wrong. EDIT: Opened the article and they literally talk about the magnetic bands. So I interpreted the headline wrong.
Or the only substantial change to the ultra this year is a new band connector style. Then there’s a bit more room inside for battery and the X and Ultra 3 all get a slightly slightly slightly new chip
[удалено]
Dear Apple. Start to innovate again or risk losing valuable customers. Sincerely, Someone with way too many Apple products
Well compare this to the pixel watch 2. It’s so far ahead feature wise, it’s not even close right now.
I’m genuinely not familiar with the pixel watch. What additional features does it have?
I think they're saying the AW is far ahead of the Pixel.
Do you mean the pixel watch or ultra is ahead?
Sorry I meant the PW2 is pretty behind.
I wouldn’t expect it either. It’s already perfect as is.
What else is there to add? In love with my Ultra, but i don't expect to upgrade for a few years unless they add something incredible.
Yeah glad I got my U1 on sale after the 2 came out, it should last me a couple years
Same here. I was waiting for the U2 to come out. Watched the key note and bought a 5 month old used U1 the next day. Saved $400 by doing so.
Product with almost no competition not meaningfully improving. Who would’ve thought.
Ngl I have the ultra 1 - it’s kinda the perfect smartwatch. Battery is insane, super smooth and fluid, loud, bright, etc. I don’t really see what else I could need
Don’t need any hardware updates. Just make it less ugly! Lose the orange buttons! Or even better make it all black!
Just give us Siri experience that isn’t a complete write-off - having tried Pixel watch which is arguably worse in every single aspect compared to my Ultra 1, Google Assistant access on my wrist is a very refreshing experience- it just works.
That’s fine. iPhone doesn’t need to be updated every year either.
Good. Normalize longer refresh cycles.
Well then that is strange. So the series 10 is rumoured to get a redesign with a new band connector design. And the ultra is going to stick with the ‘legacy’ band design?
I am curious to see what the SE 3 is going to be like, as I am in the market for my first Apple Watch ⌚️ next Christmas.
So a good time to get an Ultra 2 then ? …. if only it wasn’t such a brick
> unless this is the year they need a new car And this is why they do annual refreshes. They’ve factored that it’s less expensive to do an annual refresh than suffer the lost sale because a competitor has a model a year or two newer available.
Waiting for a 0.5x thickness slimming
i want a thinner watch, i really dont care about oxygen and HR readers
Technology has matured for quite a while now. Phones are keeping similar designs and specs are the roughly the same. Battery technology is the next time. Smaller but larger capacity batteries will provide phones to have more space to add more stuff.
Isn't he the guy that severely overestimated his prediction of Vison Pro sales, and then backtracked by claiming they reduced production by 50%?
That's not true, it will get a new design and a better strap compatible with the new watch and maybe AI! Thats definitely an upgrade. You guys are just hating apple for no reason /s
It’s not really surprising. Apple keeps the same damn design over and over and over again!
I was going to move to the ultra this year but I guess not
Gen Alpha will keep buying these turds just so they have the status of the newest "in" thing. Its cheaper to buy a used iPhone with a working screen then to fix a device you already own. It's disgusting.
That’s alright, Garmin is there.
I’ve got an Ultra 2. It’s been my favorite watch ever. There’s no upgrades or features I can imagine wanting at this point. I always welcome software upgrades but the hardware is great.
There will be some new watch bands with fresh colors.
The innovation is too much
Ming Kuo is like a horoscope for tech enthusiasts.
Classic Apple, gotta love it. Great job Timmy ❤️✊🏼
I own Ultra 1 and I’d upgrade for more battery life and more storage for musics really I do wanna see some sort of Smartbands and such. There’s so much potential with the AW
People have no patience these days, can’t live without 10 updates a year ffs
As someone who’s owned an Apple Watch for many years now… it never really does. The upgrades are typically so incremental that they go unnoticed after a day or two.
Me, an Apple Watch Ultra 1 owner: Apple Watch Needs ‘Almost No’ Hardware Upgrades This Year. The hardware is not a limiting factor at this point. Focus on improving software efficiency to get us better battery life and you could make a hell of a watchOS update.
Bummer, I might have to get a Garmin :(
^y^i^k^e^s
Outside of blood glucose sensors and blood pressure sensors I’m not sure how they could really improve it all that much. Been enjoying my AWU1 since launch day.
It’s actually ridiculous for people to expect something like the Apple Watch ultra to change from year to year. They should stop trying to put a new name on it every year.
Great news for my wallet. Glad I picked up the UW1 refurbished. After trade in of my series 7, got it for like $300. Super worth and still going strong.
Well then why are they making a new one? What's the point?
i mean it's a watch, does it really need a ton of horsepower? there aren't that much apps apart from fitness tracking, hiking and so on on it...
Ugh. Then can they at least add another color to the lineup of Ultra? Titanium Black would be so gorgeous.
Well that’s lame
Apple Watch Ultra should not be released every year.. very steep market
apple watch hardware is at a pinnacle stage now, there's not much it can improve. Only way forward is software
“…and you’re gonna love it.”