Apple Watch Charging is Key Downfall

Forget anything tech companies will announce at the CES 2015. The Apple Watch will be the biggest gadget launch of 2015.

Apple puts a lot of hope on the Apple Watch. Apple put into the “iWatch” a lot of sweat, as expressed just last week in Tim Cook’s Holiday email to employees. Will the Apple Watch live up to the expectations Apple has? Apple put everything they could think of in the Apple Watch.

The breath of features is tremendous, which is not very Apple-like. The Apple Watch is not a minimalist device – it tries to do everything, besides replacing the iPhone like Will.i.am tries to do. In my opinion Apple is just testing consumers to see what the actually will en up using and then focus on that in the Apple Watch 2.

Instead of investing in a broad feature set Apple should have rather solved the key issue of wearables – charging. The Apple Watch battery life-time is still unspecified, but it will be way less than 24 hours and as Tim Cook said himself you will have to charge the Apple Watch daily.

To charge the Apple Watch you have to attach a cable that sticks to the back of the Apple Watch with a magnet. The charging technology is based on induction, but you have to attach the cable similar to connecting a MacBook to the MagSafe cable.

This is truly not innovative. There are wireless charging technologies out there that Apple could have pushed forward with the Apple Watch like the Drayson Wireless near-field systems. Wireless charging over short distances will be the big solution for wearable charging. Just imagine your wearable charges via the iPhone or a Macbook while keeping wearing the wearable device. No need to take off your wearable anymore – it will be charged all the time.

The need to charge the Apple Watch daily will hamper adoption and will also become the main reason consumers will stop using the Apple Watch.