When the first iPhone was released, you needed a Mac to set it up and manage the device. But over time, Apple cut the umbilicus, enabling iPhone owners to get their device working faster and more easily. The time has come for Apple to do the same with the Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch is tightly integrated into the Apple ecosystem. And while that offers lots of benefits such as the ability to view data on your iPhone, and on the iPad once iPadOS 17 and iOS 17 are released, it’s become something of a tether. It also means Apple can only sell Apple Watches to iPhone owners – effectively reducing its addressable market by half.
Screen sizes and processing power have steadily increased since the first generation watch was released in 2014. Back then, it probably made sense to offload the onboarding tasks to the iPhone. But there doesn’t seem to be a case for doing that anymore. Apple’s cloud services boast end-to-end and in-place encryption which means data collected on an Apple Watch can safely sync to iCloud where they can be viewed on any device with a web browser.
When it comes to software, Apple has shown it is prepared to be more open today than it was in the Steve Jobs era. iTunes, iCloud and Apple Music all have apps on non-Apple platforms. Apple could develop apps for other platforms that enable data from the Apple Watch to be safely accessed. All it lacks is the will.
By cutting the bungee cord that connect the iPhone to the Apple Watch, Apple can increase its addressable market and simplify life for users. It has the expertise to do this. All that’s lacking is the desire to break the link.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.