Does Apple expect me to discard my Watch Series 3 in favor of a Series 4?

[Rob Phillips]

I’m sure Apple is hoping you will upgrade your Series 3 to a Series 4. There’s a certain percentage of Series 3 owners who will but I doubt that number is even close to 50% and I’m sure Apple knows that as well. There are also users like myself who upgrade every few generations. I had a Series 0 and the next Apple Watch I bought was a Series 3. I’m thinking the percentage of owners of older generations who upgrade might be higher. Who knows.
They’re always going to add features and functionality exclusive to the newest generation to tempt potential upgraders to pull the trigger even if older models would support those features just fine. It drives me nuts when they do that but I get the marketing behind it.

 

[doogald]

They’re always going to add features and functionality exclusive to the newest generation to tempt potential upgraders to pull the trigger even if older models would support those features just fine. It drives me nuts when they do that but I get the marketing behind it.

To be fair, in this case the past generations cannot do ECG or run any of the Infograph faces or use the new edge style complications, and don’t have the updated accelerometer and gyroscope sensors for fall detection. There really isn’t much S4 specific functionality that isn’t supported on S1, S2, and S3, and the old watches simply don’t have the hardware for it.

 

[Rob Phillips]

To be fair, in this case the past generations cannot do ECG or run any of the Infograph faces or use the new edge style complications, and don’t have the updated accelerometer and gyroscope sensors for fall detection. There really isn’t much S4 specific functionality that isn’t supported on S1, S2, and S3, and the old watches simply don’t have the hardware for it.

Sure. I wasn’t making any claim that there are no actual hardware limitations in older generations that keep them from having all of the same functionality present in Series 4. I also wasn’t saying that the software features in Series 4 are light years ahead of prior models. I was merely pointing out that Apple sometimes adds some software functionality to the newest models of their devices that could work in older ones as well.

 

[fredriks]

I'm thinking of upgrade from S3 to S4, just för the bigger display. Bought my S3 in second hand and probably I will get the money I spent back and if that's the case I will upgrade

 

[Quis89]

I went from a Series 1 to a Series 4 and the upgrade felt natural. I have no intentions to upgrade annually or even every two years, honestly. Though I'm sure Apple would love us all to upgrade every year.

 

[fkpalm]

Upgraded from 3 to 4 and never looked back 4 is such a good watch and much bigger and faster then 3

 

[doogald]

I have a S2, bought almost exactly two years ago, so AppleCare is about to run out. If something happens to it, I will replace it with a S4. If it keeps working fine, I'll probably upgrade after the presumed S5 comes out this year.

 

[Tartarus]

I have an Watch S3 Nike+ and on launch day I bought a Space Gray S4.
I knew that I didn’t like that color but hoped that it somehow would grow on me.
It did not and I ended up returning it.
I decided that while the S4 is a worthy upgrade from the Series 4, it was best to wait for Series 5, in my case.