Is Apple Watch app development poor or stagnant?

[imwjl]

As time passes I am starting to wonder if app development for the watch is stagnant. Many in the store have not been updated in a while. Enterprise and large market share apps are not as functional as one would think they might be.

One example: As a notes junkie I see Drafts that I love has a lot more functionality than OneNote and Evernote at a time when Office 365 is growing a lot, and now Microsoft Teams is out. Evernote and OneNote watch apps don't allow the append or prepend like Drafts but they do get credit for displaying text the built in mail app doesn't handle.

Maybe this is because the watch sales are not exactly on fire? The developer of the time and expense keeper I use says their app is broken in OS 3 and admits fixing it is not a priority.

While I've now got the watch as a keeper, and appreciate the Microsoft enterprise side apps I keep thinking how great it would be if I had same for my Cisco platform.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Although I enjoy using my Watch and I wear it EVERY day, there are some things that are simply not practical with it, in my opinion. The Watch is a companion to the iPhone. Typing on it isn't practical, in my opinion, and therefore using it for typing is out of the question. Surfing the web with it is nonexistent. I highly doubt it can handle games like Resident Evil or Call of Duty. It's possible that developers feel limited to what they can bring to the Watch and find that it's more practical and profitable to develop for smartphones and tablets. I don't have any proof whatsoever and am only giving my opinion.

 

[imwjl]

I see this FitBit warns, and IIRC Apple reports earnings tomorrow. Device sales very likely influences the development.

Fitbit Warns of Revenue and Profit Misses, Will Cut Jobs - WSJ

It seems to me Apple would do well to showcase the device beyond the admittedly good ads for exercise circles, and as a style item.

 

[tsparks1]

A good place to follow watch apps is WatchAware, there are many thousands off apps available and the list grows daily. Keep in mind that the vast majority of these apps are primarily for the iPhone, if you want to take the time to sort through them there are many that can be quite useful. IMHO I don't see watch app development slowing down.

 

[Garz]

There is no money to be made for devs. Not like the are developing watch only apps.

 

[doogald]

Honestly, I didn't buy an Apple Watch for apps. I use very few. I wanted it mostly for notification triage, and in part for fitness tracking (though that's really not all that critical to me), and, lastly, as a backup running watch.

I get that others do want more apps, but I wonder if there are a lot of people like me, who aren't as interested in the watch as an app platform?

 

[imwjl]

There is no money to be made for devs. Not like the are developing watch only apps.

I get that but keep thinking Apple doing or helping get more done will be good for selling the product. This would be my work showing, but I'd like watch utilities much like Cisco (Meraki) and Microsoft (Azure, 365) have good admin apps for my profession. The 365 admin app doesn't do a lot, but health warnings and messages are handy. They're part of why I determined the watch would be a keeper.