“Apart from looking cool, how would Apple’s watch really be different than a Timex? What new functions might it perform that create value for consumers? I’ve seen much less investigation of these sorts of questions. However, one doesn’t need to be Dick Tracy — the comic strip detective with a penchant for futuristic wrist-watch gadgets — to note clues to the answer,” H. James Wilson writes for Harvard Business Review. “Using evidence and a bit of logic, I bet the iWatch will be much less a time piece and much more platform for auto-analytics and managing yourself.”
“Complexity is one of the key challenges facing users of those devices on the wall. Today there are more than 500 commercially available tools available to the auto-analytically inclined, in three varieties: wearable technologies; mobile phone apps; [and] computer software,” Wilson writes. “Building on Apple’s insight and capabilities across all three areas, an iWatch could seamlessly weave them together. For instance, with an iWatch you could simultaneously track your mood, monitor physical activity levels, and then wirelessly transmit your data to your MacBook or iPad.”
Wilson writes, “The ancient Greeks often made a distinction between two notions of time, Chronos and Kairos. Chronos is chronological time which flows ineluctably along by seconds, hours and years, unaffected by human interests. Kairos, etymological root of ‘care,’ is time laden with human meaning and activity. ‘Lunchtime,’ ‘a good night’s sleep,’ and a ‘long and rejuvenating walk,’ all convey this sense of Kairos. A Timex is mainly chronological. What Apple could be doing is making a ‘kairological’ tool that tracks and monitors the data around the experiences you care about.”
