In an article titled Apple’s timid new iPod nano sidesteps a smartwatch revolution, Nilay Patel writes at The Verge,
Apple could have blown the smartwatch market wide open with the first truly must-have phone accessory in years. Even TikTok watch band designer Scott Wilson was ready for Apple to upend his business with an actual watch. “I was hoping they would keep it the same or tweak it a little so we could stay in the business,” he told The Verge. “But if they didn’t I was hoping they would at least make an Apple watch because I want to wear that.” He’s genuinely disappointed. “The nano in that form factor gave me a reason to have three iOS devices on my body, and now I don’t.”
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Just think: if Apple had introduced a completely re-imagined iPod nano that served primarily as a watch companion to the exact same iPhone 5 on Wednesday, we wouldn’t be asking if the company’s products had gotten tired or stale or safe. We would be asking if Apple could make enough iPods to match its inevitably chart-topping iPhone sales.
Being that I have a 5th Generation iPod Nano (along with the TikTok watch kit for it) and use it regularly as a watch, I was disappointed as well. The remark in the press conference that was essentially “and we included bluetooth since everyone wanted it so badly” was like twisting the already jabbed knife in our kidney. We wanted bluetooth for the watch-like iPod Nano and they killed the product.
Someone commented and said that the watch nano looked silly and that no one used it as it was unstylish.
This is the furthest from the truth. Since receving it as a Christmas gift, I’ve used my ipod nano almost exclusively in watch form. I wear it whenever I’d wear a watch. As a fashion accessory at events and situations where it is inappropriate to pull out your phone, but a quick glance at your watch is socially acceptable. You know, things like weddings, important dinner meetings, and the like. Every time I casually check the time, someone would notice and comment positively. Cool looking digital watches are rare enough that it’s something new and shiny, and unrecognizable as an Apple product at first when it’s paired with something like the TikTok. It’s sleek, it’s sexy, it’s cool, and everyone wants to know what it was and where they could get one.
But – like any 1st generation Apple product – the iPod Nano was missing key features: bluetooth support, always-on watchface (so you don’t have to push a button every time you want to see the time), custom applications, messaging / sync support to your phone, waterproofing, etc. When Apple ‘updated’ the Nano in 2011 but only included more watchfaces – that was the writing on the wall for this product.