The Apple Watch may be finding favor with consumers, but Ex-Apple CEO John Sculley is far from impressed with the smartwatch. Why? Because it does not offer sufficient utility.
On May 10, Sculley — who quit Apple in 1993 — has revealed in an interview with financial publication The Street that the Apple Watch could use some improvements.
While Sculley disclosed that he was fond of Apple products and used an iPad, iPhone and MacBook regularly, he had refrained from owning the smartwatch. In his own words:
"I think the Apple Watch is beautiful, but it doesn't have enough utility to be something that I feel I have to have at this point in time," said Sculley.
Sculley, who served as the company's CEO for a decade (from 1983 to 1993) — and is infamous for forcing Steve Jobs out from Apple during his tenure — was also quizzed on what changes needed to be made to the wearable to make it a useful purchase for him. The former Apple CEO responded that as a first step, Apple would need to do away with the dependency the hardware has on the iPhone.
He gave the example of not wanting to lug around the Apple Watch and iPhone to count the steps taken when one is jogging. Sculley, however, is optimistic that Apple will resolve this problem, as it is "good at that kind of stuff."
Sculley also highlighted that with the onset of smart messaging, poised to be the "next big thing" in his opinion, Apple should capitalize on the "incredible excitement" the technology was generating.
Citing the examples of the Facebook Messenger and WeChat, Sculley shared that a shift to an age where messaging would play a pivotal role was in process. Messaging could potentially be an "intelligent assistant" and turn out to be the ideal companion app for the smartwatch. This was, of course, subject to Apple being able to imbibe the feature into its wearable.
Considered a marketing maven in the circles, Sculley is actively involved in writing and speaking on disruptive marketing strategies. While the Apple Watch may not be to his liking, he waxes eloquent on the iPad Pro, revealing that he prefers reading the newspaper on it over the Amazon Kindle.
Moreover, the ex-CEO of Apple is believes that an iDevice lover need not necessarily own all the products the company makes.
"The ones I have and use I love," disclosed Sculley.
Whether the Apple Watch will grace the wrist of the ex-Apple CEO is anybody's guess. Perhaps if Apple ties in intelligent messaging abilities into the wearable, he just may!
