Time.news – As Apple prepares to unveil the new models next week, the smartwatch has found an unexpected audience: children as young as 5. Do parents find it reliable? For what? The answer is simple: to reach and track down their children, while miniature screens mitigate problems such as Internet addiction, the New York Times wrote in a report. And so in the United States, parents are increasingly inclined to buy Apple watches and fasten them on the wrist of 5-year-olds.
In short, it seems that by now children and adolescents have become a disproportionately large market for smart watches. For example, in a 2020 survey sponsored by investment bank Piper Sandler of American teenagers, 31% said they own a smartwatch. In the same year, 21% of adults in the United States said they own one, according to the Pew Researche Center.
The newspaper notes in this regard: “The use of smart watches as gadgets for children shows how the public of a technological consumer product can transform itself in unexpected ways. It also breathed new life into the Apple Watch, which was unveiled in 2015 and has been variously positioned as a fitness tracker, a style statement or a way to break free from an iPhone. ” So much so that “Apple has deliberately transformed the watch into a device that can be attractive to children and their parents.”
One third grader said he actually wanted a smartphone. “But the watch is still really, really nice.”
Parents are increasingly buying Apple Watches and for the wrists of children as young as 5. The goal: to use them as a stopgap cellphone for the kids. https://t.co/fMibeQhH7Z
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 2, 2022
So just in 2020, the company released the Apple Watch SE, which had fewer features than a premium model and was priced at $ 120 lower. Apple also introduced Family Setup, which is software that “allows parents to keep track of your children’s locations, manage your contact list and limit notifications ”. An instrument of control and at the same time of their absolute tranquility …
The Silicon Valley company’s moves to make the Apple Watch a child-friendly mobile phone took about three years. And one of the main concerns was about battery life, as the watch consumed more power than an iPhone. Now Apple plans to compete more aggressively for young smartwatch customers soon and the company then released a statement from Jeff Williams, the chief operating officer, who said, “For family members who don’t have an iPhone, Apple Watch offers an amazing set of features that can help them stay in touch with their own. dear ones, be more active and stay safe “, even if by now any technology used by children raises questions about the risks and possible damages. The philosophy of the smartwatch, however, responds to this criterion of a parent towards their children:” You want to be in able to contact them, but you don’t want them to spend all day on a screen. “