Sometimes you have to slim down your feature list to make a shipping date.
An interesting piece by the Wall Street Journal revealed that Apple may have cut multiple planned health features to allow the first generation of the Apple Watch to ship on time.
The report states that the features would have contained an array of sensors to help measure a wearer’s health, albeit the first demo units of the wearable device apparently showed no such sensors in that model.
Some of those features, like the ability to track stress and blood pressure, were simply too complex to institute, or ran the risk of triggering government regulation that the company wanted to avoid. In other cases, sensor makers weren’t able to meet Apple’s standards.
The article also states that the sensors’ performance was very inconsistent, with a host of new and unpredictable variables that ranged from a tight watch band – depending on the hairiness of the wearer’s wrist – to incorrect data readings.
The design team apparently focused on a slimmed down set of health-focused features, such as heartbeat-based messaging and communication tools. Some of the simpler health features also made it into the finished product.
There’s some interesting stuff in the article and it’ll be worth it to see what features do make it into the first generation of the Apple Watch.
Until then, stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via 9to5Mac and the Wall Street Journal