It is a very limited smart watch in sports

Apple has just announced Watchos 26 in the WWDC with the usual enthusiasm, but with another substance. Liquid Glass is a promising redesignalthough it seems that it looks better on large screens than in small. We will see.

Workout Buddy is a virtual coach who drinks Apple Intelligence to comment on your workouts, but apparently in the demo they used for the event, It seems rather an animator with a fitness coach voice+ that proclaims very basic ideas.

The improvements in the smart pile are well thrown, but they still do not forget that we are facing a very small screen.

They are, in any case, iterations, no innovations. The result is an operating system for a clock that gives symptoms of having touched the roof.

The key is what they have not announced:

• No new sports metric.
• No advanced training analysis.
• No training predictions.

Apple positions Watch as a clock oriented in health and sports, but, without removing merits in its preventive work that We know that saves lives, It seems rather a smart watch with accessory sports functions. Garmin, choirs, Suunto And company are going much further, and not only for the elite, but also for those who are thriving in sport.

They are the ones who revolutionize the understanding of athletic performance, the compression of tons of scientific literature in our wrist. Meanwhile, Apple continues to reinvent the way you see notifications from the wrist. Or in adding wallpapers to the messages.

It is the difference between building a training computer and decorating a miniature smartphone.

Image: Apple.

The ‘Workout Buddy’ is the most revealing. A system that congratulates you for closing rings and reminds you how many kilometers you have this week. It is superficial motivation. Adequate for those who see sport as a hobby Light weekend, frivolous for those who intend something else.

Garmin tells you if your cadence is suboptimal and integrates a metronome with which you can correct it. Apple tells you “Well done!” With a synthetic voice. The distance between both approaches is the same between a coach and an animator.

And the worrying thing is that it is a stagnation that seems more deliberate than accidental. Apple has chosen his audience: Users casual that value integration with the ecosystem above the real improvement of performance, beyond get out of sedentary lifestyle. It is phenomenal to go for this audience, but staying there has tolls.

They have decided that it is better to be the best smart watch with initiatory sports vocation than to compete for really a great sports clock. It is an understandable business strategy, but also the tacit admission that they prefer to dominate the basics rather than compete in the advanced.

Outstanding image | Apple

In Xataka | After almost a decade with the Apple Watch I have spent a Garmin. And I have understood what I was losing me