I gifted an Apple Watch this Christmas. I checked their site and saw that an iPhone was needed, but somehow thought any up-to-date iOS device would work. Since you can set up the watch for a family member (who doesn't have an iPhone) it has to work, right? Got the newest iPad? F*k you, buy and iPhone. That was a disappointing gift, I can tell you that.
There is absolutely no reason to impose such a limit. I don't understand it. However, I will never buy or recommend another Apple product ever again.
I don't like this mandatory tie between the two Apple product lines any more than you do, but as an FYI nit on terminology:
> somehow thought any up-to-date iOS device would work. [...] Got the newest iPad?
iOS 12 was the last version of iOS where that name applied to iPad as well as iPhone. Starting with version 13, the version of the operating system for iPhone had been the only one called iOS, with the iPad OS called iPadOS.
So, yes, I suspect that any up to date iOS device does work, through the magic of terminology peculiarities, unless currently supported Apple Watches don't support all currently supported iPhones (I haven't checked if that is the case).
As for the operating system for Apple Watch, that has always been called watchOS.
This feels like an Apple problem - their iOS variants being unified is a reasonable expectation from consumers and, additionally, the fact that they EoL devices so aggressively means that unless you're a cutting edge Apple follower a lot of their tech simply doesn't work together.
If Apple wants to sit there and say "Welp, buy the latest iPhone" they're free to do that - but the fact that there is user confusion is completely on them for making their products so inter-incompatible.
I do often edit my comments to improve wording, but I think in this case I had the disclaimer right in the first draft. I could be misremembering. I am certainly no fan of this product tie between Apple Watch and iPhone.
There's not much nuance to "iPad doesn't run on iOS, it runs on iPadOS". You need an iOS device to setup an iWatch. The nuance only applies to how that came to be, historically and strategically.
The above doesn't constitute support for Apple's policies.
I belive everyone entering an Apple store should complete a test on their insight into Apple nomenclature and product history. Those who fail should f*ck off!
Yea, that does suck. They are clear in their documentation when it says "Apple Watch Ultra, Apple Watch Series 8, and Apple Watch SE require an iPhone 8 or later with iOS 16 or later."
But it's buried in a giant page of fine print that you'd have to know to go looking for. Of course if you know to look for it, then you probably don't need the information.
Anyways, I agree that it sucks to have such a limit to JUST an iPhone. It would be nice if it worked with an iPad as well (which is really you're only other option). But the watch, watch app and others make implicit assumptions. For example your iPhone app, which is separate from the iPad app, also has the support for the watch built in (aka the watch specific apps). The iPad apps would currently not have this, because that isn't how it works. Could that change? Sure. But I would guess there are a lot of other implicit assumptions made that we're not aware of.
Lets be honest... Apple would be happy to sell you a watch AND an iPad. You'd be very likely to eventually get the Phone as well. But realistically that's not the direction most people go. They get a Phone first, then maybe they get the watch or iPad.
Hm, some context here is that Apple Watch apps were — until recently — actually iPhone apps. The iPhone app was treated kind of like if you wanted to make a widget for your app, except it appeared on your wrist rather than your springboard. The whole app architecture really tightly coupled the products.
This has started to change with “set up for family” watches (which is mostly so you can give a kid a watch and no phone) but there are still lots of weird edge cases there.
I do personally wish they were standalone. If they were I would have gifted one to my father in law this Christmas. Instead he got a Garmin.
There is absolutely no reason to impose such a limit. I don't understand it. However, I will never buy or recommend another Apple product ever again.