Ben Thompson at Stratechery (paywall):
This seems so clearly to be the future for Apple: a Watch that does not replace the iPhone, but enhances it with body-sensing and notification capabilities; AirPods that do not replace the iPhone, but enhance it with an always available voice assistant. In a year or two there will probably be an augmented reality product, still with the iPhone as the center. And then one day, perhaps without anyone really noticing, the shift will happen: just as the Mac went from hub to just another device, the iPhone may do the same as all of Apple’s wearables replace its functionality not individually but collectively.
The Watch’s original sin was trying to pull that future forward way too soon, and for trying to do it alone; Apple didn’t build the iPhone as a digital hub, they started with the iPod and ended up here. When and if the Watch reaches its full potential it will follow the same sort of path from focused product to obsoleting supercomputer — or at least one piece of it.
