Siri AI and new control gesture
Cait Dooley, responsible for product marketing for Apple Watch and Health, told TechRadar that performance and energy consumption are the focus of every new operating system version. New functions should only be available for devices on which Apple can guarantee a consistently good user experience. Siri AI capabilities and the new tap gesture work best with the processing power of the Apple Watch Series 9 and newer, the Ultra 2 and newer, and the SE 3, according to Dooley.
Continued security updates
This does not make the affected models unusable because they can still be used with iPhones that have the current iOS version installed. Apple also wants to provide security updates even if there are no longer any major releases for the affected watches. However, this does little to change the fundamental criticism of completely excluding even a version that is touted as high-end like the Apple Watch Ultra 1 – instead of, for example, limiting individual functions to newer watches, as was very often the case in the past.
Siri AI should work the same everywhere
However, in the case of Siri AI, the platform idea of ”one function, all devices” seems to be so important to Apple that it has decided on “all or nothing”. David Clark, Apple’s lead developer for watchOS, describes the watch as a “co-partner” with Apple Intelligence. The Apple Watch is often the most convenient way to talk to Siri – Siri on the Apple Watch should feel the same as Siri on the iPhone. This is exactly what could not be guaranteed on devices that are no longer supported.