Revolutionary?

Tuesday Apple will announce new iPhones and presumably their next big thing: the iWatch, iBracelet, or iWhatever.

I wore a watch for decades until the ubiquity of devices displaying the time and date made me realize I was wearing it more out of habit than need. At first it felt a bit weird not wearing it, like I wasn’t completely dressed, and I do occasionally miss being able to glance at my wrist to see the time, but I've now grown used to having both wrists bare.

So what would Apple need to announce in order for me to slap something on my wrist again?

In the immediate future, probably not much. My first iPod was a 2nd generation iPod Touch in 2008, seven years after the first iPod was available; my first iPhone was an iPhone 4 in 2010, three years after the original; and I got an iPad 2 in 2011, a year after the first model came out. I like and primarily use Apple products, but I’m not an early adopter (although my activities as an iOS developer give me an excuse to update my hardware more frequently than the typical user).

I can’t see spending a few hundred dollars on a smart watch/bracelet that displays text/email notifications from my phone, counts my steps, and/or monitors my blood pressure. No doubt there are some who would find these features useful, but we’ve already seen these type of features in smart watches from Apple’s competitors.

And I certainly don’t need another device that needs to be charged on a daily basis. I already have to carry a bag full of cables with me whenever I travel, so if I'm putting something on my wrist it had better stay charged for at least a couple of days.

Typically Apple doesn’t enter a hardware category unless it believes it’s created a superior or unique product that consumers will want. Perhaps what they’ll be announcing Tuesday is something that’s different or much better designed than anything we’ve seen before. Something revolutionary. A product that nobody knew they wanted until they saw it.

In any event, since Apple is perpetually doomed, it won’t matter whether what’s announced Tuesday is revolutionary or not.