With Apple Watch 2 rumors taking off, it's easy to dismiss what consumers want and focus instead on what Apple wants to implement in its second-generation smartwatch. Rumors about the Apple Watch 2 pertain to water and dust resistance, a selfie camera for FaceTime video chats, in-built GPS, and even have thinner glass and a thinner body than its predecessor, and cellular connectivity, but consumers don't seem to want or care about these things.
A recent survey shows that a pool of potential buyers (Apple Watch 2 buyers, as well as fitness band and smartwatch buyers at large) are more interested in longer battery life and faster charging than anything else Apple could bring to the Apple Watch 2. The survey, conducted by NextWorth, shows that 57% of potential buyers want longer battery life, while 37% want easier//faster charging; 36% want a more stylish design, hinting that the current Apple Watch design isn't good enough. A strong 31% want the Apple Watch 2 to come WiFi-enabled so that they need not rely on their iPhones to use it, while 30% want Apple to include more relevant fitness apps into WatchOS.
Longer battery life and faster charging are drawbacks with the Apple Watch 2 right now, seeing that the Apple Watch has an optimal battery life of just 18 hours -- half of that of Apple Watch rivals and nearly 3 times less battery life than that of Apple's greatest rival, Samsung's Gear S2 smartwatch that can run between 2-4 days on a single charge. As for faster charging, the Apple Watch could use some improvement in that department as well.
The complaints against Apple's charging setup concern the fact that Apple has no fast charging at all, not just the speed of its standard charging. If Apple had some sort of fast charging, then consumers wouldn't worry about battery life so much. It is terrible, though, when Apple Watch users look across at Samsung Gear S2 users and notice that their devices charge fast and last longer on a single charge than their own.
With all the rumors out, little has been said on either front regarding what Apple will implement into the Apple Watch 2. What we do know, however, is that Apple isn't waiting too long to fix these issues: the company intends to utilize micro-LED panels for the Apple Watch 3 in 2017 so as to improve battery life. Still, it looks unlikely that any sort of fast charging will make its way into the Apple Watch 2. Guess you'll have to wait for 2017 to see a drastic overhaul to the Apple Watch.
