As contrived as it sounds, the appeal of surfing despite how fun the sport is in itself is that the ocean allows one to detach from life on land. For a while, the detachment was simply physical. But as technology has come to occupy every second of every minute of our lives – a phenomenon of what I like to call the “notification generation” – the ocean has remained one of the few places people couldn’t be concerned with phone calls, Facebook likes, or emails even if they wanted to. Why? Funny thing about water. It’s wet.
Waterproof electronics have slowly become part of the social fabric of lineups everywhere, though. GoPros and Trace disks and even waterproof smart watches are increasingly common. But Apple’s keynote unveiling that the newest Apple Watch would have cellular connectivity represents a complete and utter paradigm shift.
Until recently, smart surf watches have had limited capabilities when out of range of the smartphone they’re paired with. That’s been changing for the past year or so. Samsung beat Apple to the punch. But Apple still is head and shoulders above competitors in terms of smart watch sales. That is to say, the company has the consumer loyalty to influence trends – in this case, a new capability for wearers to take calls, text, and check emails in the lineup. Not to mention, unlike Samsung, they’re marketing the new watch as such as evidenced in the video above.
Apple calls it the “freedom” of cellular. I beg to differ.
