Sign up to get Today’s Best Articles in your inbox
Join 350,000+ subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of
The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
On Tuesday, word got out that Apple has filed for trademark protections for the term "iWatch" in Taiwan, Russia, Mexico, and Japan.
We still don't know very much about it. Yes, it may have a wraparound touchscreen. And it may snap onto your wrist like a '90s slap bracelet. But we're still very much in the dark about the smartwatch's details.
The key question, however, is whether anyone is genuinely enthusiastic about the prospect of an iWatch, which will be particularly important when shareholders and analysts start calling for a splashy new Apple product to launch the company's stock back to the stratosphere. (Whether those expectations are fair or not is a separate debate altogether.)
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
The early answer, at least right now? Consumers seem indifferent.
Google Trends is usually a reliable barometer for evaluating what people are excited about. Here's how interest in the search term "Apple iWatch" has waned since news of the gadget's existence leaked in February (E), before spiking again slightly with reports of the latest trademark filing.
Now, just for funsies, let's compare that with relative interest in "Google Glass" (red), which, unlike the iWatch unicorn, is a real product that's currently being tested by developers.
That's not a totally fair comparison, but it does illustrate one simple fact about the iWatch: Interest hasn't been growing steadily like it did for, say, the iPhone 5. Or the iPad Mini. Perhaps smartwatches are a dumb idea after all.
Sign up to get Today’s Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the day’s biggest news and analysis – and the best features from TheWeek.com
And that's not great news for Apple, which relies on the internet echo chamber to generate buzz for new products more than any other tech company. While it's important not to read too far into what Google tells us about Apple, there doesn't appear to be any momentum behind an iWatch.
Chris Gayomali is the science and technology editor for TheWeek.com. Previously, he was a tech reporter at TIME. His work has also appeared in Men's Journal, Esquire, and The Atlantic, among other places. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
