What a long strange trip its been!

In the past few months, CartoonSmart has gotten a new backend, new delivery system, new sales pages on every product, streaming options for every lesson (along with a learning management system), and our first subscription option for tutorials, and a new blog…. Phew. But the beauty of changing that much at once, is that it all plays nice together!

And somehow during this massive overhaul I managed to put together an Apple Watch course for my flock of loyal iOS students. But this course is really intended for ANYONE, even if you’ve never made an app before or even thought about using Xcode. If you’re an artist and on a Mac, this is truly an entry-level course to make an Apple Watch app.  Granted I’ve never worn one, but after spending a fair amount of time developing for it, here’s some initial thoughts I have about the watch.

• As most predict, it will be a huge success. But for simple reasons.  Got a plaid shirt on? Your watch should be that same plaid pattern.
• The expectation of what an Apple Watch app should be is by default low. Are new users going to expect much?  Probably not. I won’t be, because even as a developer, I’m not sure what to expect.  What’s one thing every user will expect though? To tell time FASHIONABLY. People will want “art on their wrist”. They will want to be noticed for the unique, personal way they wear their technology. And that will change based on where they are. If it’s a Friday night at the bar, will wearer’s pull up that artsy Salvador Dali clock app, or will they switch to the watch face that says “Its BEER time” with an animated bottle popping open every minute? You know that answer.
• Developing watch faces is darn-easy. Its a designer’s dream really. Some might consider  the arrangement of elements on the watch restrictive, but I see it as just plain-simple. I’ll post a video below, so you get the idea. Once the art is created, importing it to Xcode and reusing the same code to tell time takes minutes, not hours.
• This will be another gold rush for developers. It’s cliche, but I think its true. And where the App Store is now, it needs a kind of “Reset Button” for potential. I’m sure many of my students have been disappointed by downloads / sales / iAds earnings in at least one (or all) of their apps. The App Store doesn’t necessarily reward great apps automatically. The breakout indie hits like Flappy are the exception to the rule. But a completely new iOS device resets those rules. Indie’s have a chance of getting noticed.

Interested in Apple Watch app development? You can find out more about our first Apple Watch tutorial / template package here. That course is included in both of our new subscription plans, so if you don’t feel like spending the money on Lifetime access to the course, you can subscribe, pay for a month or two of access and cancel whenever you like. Keep in mind, we’ll be adding tons of videos to our subscription package, so we’re confident you’ll want to stay a subscriber.

Finally if you want to see some previews of the watch faces I’ve personally been working on, take a look below…