Today, the Apple Watch is one of the best
health and fitness trackers money can buy,
but this hasn’t always been the case. Back
in 2015, when the product launched, Apple
Watch was marketed as a less intrusive
extension of the iPhone, a way to disconnect
from your screen and spend more time in
the real world. The Watch’s health and fitness
features were somewhat of an afterthought,
with early models lacking GPS tracking and no
water resistance, meaning swimmers couldn’t
monitor their progress. The built-in heart rate
sensor, at the time, could only check your
pulse a couple of times per minute, and poor
battery life forced users to charge their
watches overnight, sometimes mid-day if
they were using their Watch to receive tons of
notifications on the go.
Simply put, competitors like Garmin and Fitbit
had long offered wearables with features that
compared with or bested Apple’s, so it’s clear
to see why the device’s launch was lukewarm.
But in the past four years, Apple has addressed
virtually all of the product’s shortcomings
(albeit, the battery life could still do with some
improvement) and introduced fitness tracking
we never thought would be possible, like the
ability to record an electrocardiogram. The
technology was credited for saving a user’s life
just days after it launched, proof that Apple
has the power to change lives with its tech.
Apple Watch is now advertised as a fitness
and wellness tool - or, as Tim Cook said at this
year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, “an
intelligent guardian for your health.” “Apple
WatchSeries4.Fundamentallyredesignedand
re-engineered to help you be even more active,