The seventh generation of Apple Watch, has the smartwatch reached a bottleneck?

As the world's best smartwatch company, Apple released the seventh generation of Apple Watch in September this year. Unfortunately, due to insufficient production capacity and other issues, Apple did not give a specific release date or detailed price for Apple Watch S7. However, Apple's "good teammate" JD.com leaked this information in advance, indicating that Apple Watch S7 will officially start pre-sale at 8 pm on October 8, and will start shipping on October 15, with prices ranging from 2,999 yuan to 5,899 yuan.

Interestingly, as of press time, the number of Apple Watch S7 reservations at JD.com's official Apple authorized store was only 33,979, which clearly shows that this generation of watches is not as popular as previous ones.

In fact, it is not just domestic consumers who are not interested in this, but also foreign consumers. Recently, foreign media SellCell conducted a survey, and the results showed that users are not satisfied with the new products released by Apple this fall. Among the 5,000 surveyed users over the age of 18, only 7.5% of users said they planned to buy Apple Watch S7, which fully shows that users' interest in Apple's new smartwatch has obviously declined.

Compared with the previous generation, the upgrades of Apple Watch S7 are not many, except for a larger screen-to-body ratio and faster charging speed, which can hardly be called a major upgrade. Does this indicate that the development of smart watches has reached a bottleneck?

What exactly has been upgraded in Apple Watch S7?

If you don’t look closely at the information on the official website, it’s hard for most people to find out what the Apple Watch S7 has upgraded compared to the previous generation. In order to let more readers know more about this watch, Xiao Lei also briefly summarizes its several upgraded features to see if its upgraded features are worth spending thousands of dollars to buy it.

First, the screen of Apple Watch S7 is bigger than previous products. At the same time, in order to keep the overall size and weight of the watch unchanged, Apple narrowed its frame by 40%. As a result, the screen size of Apple Watch S7 is 20% larger than S6 and 50% larger than S3, and it can display more and more detailed content. This is also the biggest highlight of Apple Watch S7.

Secondly, the screen's hardness has also been improved. Apple's official website states that the watch supports crack resistance, IP6X dustproof certification, and 50-meter waterproof. These features are mainly achieved by thickening the surface lens and integrating the sensor on the screen panel. However, this also brings some disadvantages, such as increased weight (both aluminum alloy versions, S7 is about 2.4g heavier than S6).

Second, the charging speed of Apple Watch S7 is faster. The official website states that the charging speed of Apple Watch S7 is 33% faster than that of the previous generation, and it can be charged from 0% to 80% in 45 minutes. However, it should be noted that the battery capacity of S7 is the same as that of S6, and the processor does not mention that it will optimize power consumption, so S7 still cannot escape the "curse" of charging once a day.

There is another point worth noting about the charging of Apple Watch S7. If you want to fast charge the Apple Watch S7, you must use Apple's new C-port charging cable. The old charging cable cannot fast charge it, even if you spent more than 1,000 yuan to buy MagSafe Duo, you cannot fast charge the Apple Watch S7. It can only be said that Apple's knife skills are extremely precise in the field of accessories.

Apart from these two points, the other upgrades of Apple Watch S7 are not that great, such as the ability to detect breathing rate during sleep, smarter outdoor cycling algorithms, and more convenient typing on the watch. However, these are all achieved through software, which means that even older watches can achieve these functions through OTA , so why would it be necessary to replace them with new ones?

In general, the upgrades of Apple Watch S7 are indeed few. For those who are using S6 and S5, S7 is not attractive enough for them to replace their products. As for those old users who have not bought Apple Watch or S3 and S4, Xiaolei recommends the price-reduced Apple Watch S6 and SE, which are not missing many functions and have a higher overall cost performance.

Has Apple run out of ideas?

As the best partner for the iPhone, the Apple Watch series has been loved by a large number of Apple users since its launch, and its sales have continued to rise, which has affected the sales of traditional watch brands to a certain extent.

A previous survey data showed that Apple Watch was first launched in 2015 with annual sales of only 10 million units, but shipments in 2020 have reached 30 million units. As of the end of 2020, the cumulative sales of Apple Watch products have exceeded 100 million units. In just a few years, the proportion of iPhone users owning Apple Watch has increased from 3% in 2015 to more than 10% today.

Although Apple Watch is indeed the king of the smartwatch market, the slow performance of Apple Watch S7 has made some consumers doubt whether Apple Watch S7 is a product that was rushed out.

For most consumers, they have various expectations for Apple, expecting Apple to do better and make every penny they spend worth it. Those consumers who think that the Apple Watch S7 is "officially rushed out" actually still look at Apple's new products with the mentality that "Apple should do better".

Of course, with Apple's deep technical strength, it should and can do better. However, from the perspective of economic efficiency and maximizing commercial benefits, Apple no longer has the motivation to do better. After all, in the wearable smart device market, Apple has not encountered a decent competitor so far. Therefore, for Apple, the commercial benefits gained by "squeezing toothpaste" every year are greater.

Conclusion

As for why Apple Watch S7 is called the "toothpaste squeezing" generation, on the one hand, it is because Apple has no competitors in this field and there is no need for large-scale upgrades. On the other hand, the development of smart watches has indeed entered a bottleneck period, and there are no decent innovations in hardware. Even a strong company like Apple can only attract users by increasing the screen-to-body ratio and charging speed. Products like Apple Watch S5 that can completely subvert the market may be hard to see in the short term.

I also speculate that the Apple Watch S8 should still be a product with minor improvements. As for the highly-anticipated blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring functions, they will probably continue to be delayed. After all, given Apple's personality, they will never take this risk before certain technologies are fully mature.

In any case, if the previous Apple Watch is still in adolescence, the Apple Watch S7 has undoubtedly entered adulthood. Although its upgrade is not large, it is also the most advanced smartwatch at present and can help users complete most tasks.

Back to the question at the beginning, have smart watches reached a bottleneck? I personally think so. Today's manufacturers can only attract users to buy by increasing the screen-to-body ratio, charging speed and other features of smart devices. There is almost no product that can completely change the wearable smart device market. It is unlikely that smart watches will completely replace smartphones in a short period of time.