It's great to have data on your wrist. But you're going to pay for it, even though it's the same data you use on your phone.
When Apple announced Series 3 of the Apple Watch last week, we saw the promise of the smartwatch reaching its true potential: a fully-realized, LTE-equipped device of its own that needn't be perpetually tethered to your phone. At the same time, we were waiting for the other shoe to drop. It was clear this was going to cost you, and I'm not talking about Apple's $399 price tag.
The smartphone revolution brought with it a bloated, never-ending monthly bill as the carriers convinced people to pay for both phone service and data. The new Apple Watch is one of the most visible moves to the world that comes next, one in which we not only buy data for our smartphones and tablets but also buy data for our watches and other connected devices. If you figured the carriers would take this opportunity to squeeze even more money out of us, I'm sorry to say you were correct.
Mashable dug into the economics of the LTE Apple Watch now that plans and details are starting to become available. What appears is a discouraging mess of extra monthly charges and bullshit fees. Specifically, you'd pay an activation fee to use data on your new $400 watch—a $30 fee, according to Mashable. Then add an extra $10 per month for a "device access charge"—what AT&T calls it when they want charge you again for using the data you've already paid for. Verizon will charge $10 per month after offering three months free to get people hooked on the service. There are no official plans yet from Sprint and T-Mobile but you can expect them to follow suit.
This is not new data, better data, or more data—just data that goes to your wrist instead of your pocket. Sure, it's not free for the carriers to add in these extra capabilities, but it certainly doesn't cost them ten bucks a month.
Despite the grossness, the Apple Watch crowd can surely handle the squeeze. Unlike smartphones, which have become a crucial appliance, smartwatches—and the Apple Watch specifically—remain a luxury product and status symbol for the AirPod-wearing well-to-do who can surely afford $10 a month for the luxury of streaming a running playlist to their wrist. Never mind the fact that after two years' worth of data at this rate, you'll have added a 60 percent premium on top of the upfront cost of the LTE Apple Watch in the first place.
The problem isn't about this watch. It's about how these fees could hamstring the future. We're staring down a world where all kinds of machines—drones, cars, you name it—are more capable and connected because they feature cellular service. But the bills keep skyrocketing, and not because we're drinking up more data. Just because a new gadget needs a straw.
There's no gun to our heads, and at any point we can simply say "I can't afford that" or "I refuse to play along." While a smartphone is a 2017 necessity, a drone is not. But if the ball-and-chain of the monthly bill grows heavier in lock-step with each new gadget that wants to dip into your data, it's easy to imagine the next game-changer device might not ever break through. These fake fees are nothing new, but each new one is doing its part to rob of us the better connected future we were promised. It's not a surprise, but it is a shame.
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