New Apple Watch is a dive computer

[scubadada]

$129/year for what?

What do you think?

 

[Jcp2]

What do you think?
View attachment 743189

For a vacation diver this is a pretty good deal, especially if they are getting the watch for other outdoor activities. Diving three weeks out of the year would be $30.

 

[scubadada]

For a vacation diver this is a pretty good deal, especially if they are getting the watch for other outdoor activities. Diving three weeks out of the year would be $30.

And diving a family over a year is outrageous! We'll all see how the subscription model works.

 

[Joneill]

$129/year for what?

Oceanic + annual subscription

What do you think?
View attachment 743189

I don’t get the subscription model for this at all? It’s not like the Adobe Cloud where they continually add new features and many serious users would buy the new version every few years anyhow so, over time, it’s not that much more expensive.

So one buys the Ultra watch outright, but has to rent the firmware to run the dive app on it? This feels like a money grab for little ongoing benefit to the user.

 

[Marie13]

Oceanic + annual subscription

I don’t get the subscription model for this at all? It’s not like the Adobe Cloud where they continually add new features and many serious users would buy the new version every few years anyhow so, over time, it’s not that much more expensive.

So one buys the Ultra watch outright, but has to rent the firmware to run the dive app on it? This feels like a money grab for little ongoing benefit to the user.

Yep. Want to use the dive computer function, have to pay the play.

 

[doctormike]

And diving a family over a year is outrageous!

I think that "outrageous" is a little over the top. It costs money to build and maintain software, and if your user base is tiny (like dive computers) that cost is spread out over a smaller group. As mentioned upthread, once whatever exclusivity agreement Apple has with Oceanic expires (if it even exists), there may well be other options and the market will decide that.

Maybe in your particular case you wouldn't want this. But if I had four divers who didn't have computers but who did an occasional dive trip and needed one, this would be cheaper than renting four DCs. And the $129 is only for the full year. For casual vacation divers who might only go for a week, it would only be $40 for 4 divers (one month rental).

I mean, it's your money, and I'm certainly not telling you how to spend it, but $129/4 = $32 per person for the whole year. Considering the overall costs of our little hobby, that doesn't seem extreme to me for many people in the target demographic.

 

[hazmat]

I don’t get the subscription model for this at all? It’s not like the Adobe Cloud where they continually add new features and many serious users would buy the new version every few years anyhow so, over time, it’s not that much more expensive.

I think it makes sense because Oceanic isn't making any money on the hardware. I guess a one-time purchase of Oceanic+ would also make sense, but I'm not surprised at all that Oceanic is finding a way to make money off of this since all they're providing in this case is the software.

 

[Joneill]

I think that "outrageous" is a little over the top. It costs money to build and maintain software, and if your user base is tiny (like dive computers) that cost is spread out over a smaller group. As mentioned upthread, once whatever exclusivity agreement Apple has with Oceanic expires (if it even exists), there may well be other options and the market will decide that.

Maybe in your particular case you wouldn't want this. But if I had four divers who didn't have computers but who did an occasional dive trip and needed one, this would be cheaper than renting four DCs. And the $129 is only for the full year. For casual vacation divers who might only go for a week, it would only be $40 for 4 divers (one month rental).

I mean, it's your money, and I'm certainly not telling you how to spend it, but $129/4 = $32 per person for the whole year. Considering the overall costs of our little hobby, that doesn't seem extreme to me for many people in the target demographic.

But you have to first spend $3,200 in addition to the $129 to buy the 4 watches that could use the app - so this is like buying a DC and then having to rent the firmware to be able to use it. Seems silly to me, but it is what it is at present.

 

[doctormike]

But you have to first spend $3,200 in addition to the $129 to buy the 4 watches that could use the app - so this is like buying a DC and then having to rent the firmware to be able to use it. Seems silly to me, but it is what it is at present.

Right, but pretty sure no one is buying this as a stand alone dive computer that they won't use for anything else. I don't consider the cost of my car to be a diving expense, even though I can't get to the dive boat without it.

 

[doctormike]

I think it makes sense because Oceanic isn't making any money on the hardware. I guess a one-time purchase of Oceanic+ would also make sense, but I'm not surprised at all that Oceanic is finding a way to make money off of this since all they're providing in this case is the software.

Yup, and if they had to recoup their development costs on a singe purchase, it would probably be MUCH more expensive, especially given the very small number of people who would buy it. This isn't Microsoft Word.

Yeah, we are all used to getting "free" software, but it costs a lot of money to produce and test something like this. And it's not some word game where if it fails, who cares.