Why the Apple Watch is still a business plan in search of a product

Who's yearning for the Apple Watch? The company or the consumer?

Apple Watch 3.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

It's Marketing 101: When you want to sell a product, you extol its virtues. But when Apple recently announced its new Watch 3, the company pitched the device as more than merely practical or fun. In the video that preceded the announcement, the company suggested the Watch helped people become better versions of themselves — and even suggested it can help save lives. Maybe this is Marketing 102, updated for the 21st century: When you really want to sell a product, make it seem like a person's life will be empty without it.

So when reviews of the latest Apple Watch landed this week, it was a surprise to see that disappointment abounded. Numerous reviewers had connectivity problems, while almost everyone found the battery life lacking — one tester saw their power drop to 30 percent by noon. More generally, while the Watch can hardly be called a failure, it hasn't exactly become a blockbuster hit either, in no small part because the promise of the device — a vital piece of tech for tracking health, staying connected, and being safe — has yet to entirely come to fruition.

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Navneet Alang

Navneet Alang is a technology and culture writer based out of Toronto. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, New Republic, Globe and Mail, and Hazlitt.