The Killer iWatch Feature

The "iWatch" will come. Maybe it is a riff on the watch, maybe it is mostly fitness tracker (though I hope not), and it will most certainly be called "beautiful". But what will it's killer feature be? What can it do that nothing else could do or do as well as it can?

The answer is: be cross platform.

Open it up. Make it work everywhere that has the right APIs to support it. Android, obviously. Windows Phone if it can handle it. If BB10 can do it, do it. Make the iWatch the best wearable for everyone. 

Here is why: Apple dominates the over $400 phone market. It sells tons of iPhones, makes a heallthy profit, and makes beautiful products that have a really good experience. But Apple can't, or won't, go too far down market. It isn't who they are. They won't just make a cheap phone. More importantly,they  won't make a cheap phone that they can't make a good profit on. Apple cedes this market to other device makers. 

Sort of like computers back in the 2000's Apple has no natural way to shove their way in to the market. Even if they did the feature-set/experience to price ratiio may not match the price they want to charge. They made their in-road by putting iTunes on Windows. iTunes made an iPod purchase possible. iTunes+iPod on Windows was the gateway to the Apple experience. All you had to do was download the software and pick your iPod. Buy a new one when you want. 

iWatch could be the same thing. It will be less expensive than an iPhone or iPad and, if it works everywhere, the barrier to entry is almost non-existent. Pair it with your One, your Galaxy - who cares. Apple will make it's money on the watch and use the product to show the majority of people, who buy Android, why the Apple experience is better. No one buys iPods anymore - so replace it with the iWatch. 

But will this hurt iPhone sales? Rene Richie of iMore loves to say that no company should mistake it's product for it's business. So, maybe it peels off some iPhone customers who switch to Android but still buy a watch - who cares? Apple made it's money on the watch and hopefully provides an experience that is worth buying in to again. Just like an iPod on a Windows machine. And if the experience is that good it will ultimately attract more people in to the ecosystem anyway.

Bonus: use it as a marketing stunt. Make iWatch compatible with all iOS devices running iOS 8. Update the product line as far back as you can. iPhone 4S makes the most sense since it is still being sold on two year contracts. Then, tell everyone that the iWatch will work with all devices updated to run the absolute most current version of Android - which will exclude many devices because of OEMs and carriers. Make that part of the experience story and why the Apple one is better. It is a short term jab - but it will make an impression. 

In the markets where the iPhone dominates there is an argument to be made that the phone is peaking or will hit the ceiling soon. Apple can trade the high end back and forth each quarter with Android OEMs but the mix of iPhone to Android won't change much in the grand scheme of things. A new product, that opens up the Android buying market to Apple, puts them somewhere they don't exist right now.