Hard Knocks

Apple released a new ad for their “old” Apple Watch Series 7 a few days ago.

Kontra on Twitter:

(So this is to clear inventory before they introduce the rugged “Explorer Edition” this fall?) 

It’s been rumored for awhile now that Apple might be working on a “rugged” watch style/case for their smartwatch. If they release it this year does that mean they acknowledge for the first time the GPS adventure watches from Coros, Suunto and Garmin? And more interestingly will Apple offer anything beyond ‘ruggedness’ that will sway people with said GPS watches to switch. Battery life is still THE key area where the Apple Watch is lagging way behind the real competitors. Officially Apple suggests “all day battery life”. But even the Coros Pace 2, a watch half the price of a current Apple Watch Series 7 has 30+hrs of battery life. The Suunto 5 Peak offers 100hrs of GPS tracking with Suunto’s varied tracking modes for $300.

So, if Apple wants to sell a “rugged watch”, and not just rugged in the fashion sense of the often mentioned Casio G-Shock, then it needs to offer fundamental software improvements that will allow the user to turn the watch into an “explorer mode”, if you will, that will allow it to last and record GPS data for longer, much much longer.

The challenge Apple needs to meet:

What would it take for an Apple Watch to track a runner for the entire UTMB?