Dear Oura: Challenge Apple at your own risk

A big tech company, assuming its managers are sensible, is always looking for new places to make money. Smartphones and laptops might be paying the bills right now, but that won’t remain the case forever. Like sharks, tech giants must keep moving, or perish.

And these movements can be alarming for the smaller fish. If you’re a plucky young startup with a lightly profitable niche in some technological backwater, rumors of a big launch must be as terrifying in their way as the sight of a Viking longship for a 9th-century French peasant. Why, you wail to yourself, can’t they just leave us alone?

The most famous proponent of the Viking maneuver–although the company would probably prefer the term Pirate–is Apple. In a recent interview, Tim Cook reminded us of Cupertino’s mantra: “Not first, but best.” Let someone else start the ball rolling, then rock up later with a better product and grab all the revenue. Considering it propelled Apple all the way to the first-ever three-trillion-dollar valuation, it must be a reasonably good strategy.

Nobody is entirely safe from Apple’s depredations. The auto giants, as improbable as it now seems, spent years fearing for their livelihoods and trying to decide if it was better to oppose Project Titan or join it. But if you want to know who’s most urgently scanning the horizon for black sails right now, it’s the makers of smart rings. With good reason: As I’ve written elsewhere, a smart ring would fit neatly into Apple’s product ecosystem. Small but with bags of potential, it’s a market ripe for Apple to take an interest.

But not everyone agrees. Tom Hale, CEO of the wearables specialist Oura, has come out with the bold prediction that Apple won’t make a smart ring. Cupertino, he reckons, probably isn’t convinced that there is value in having both a ring and a watch. Besides, he notes in a parting burn, “It’s hard to do this product category right.” Ouch.

This probably strikes Mr Hale as excellent banter, and it’s arguably good PR too: The remarks, after all, have earned the smaller company plenty of headlines. But he might come to regret it all the same. He wouldn’t be the first incumbent to mock Apple’s chances of entering their market and end up with egg on his face. Nobody took the iPod seriously. And before the iPhone came out, bosses at Microsoft and Palm laughed at its prospects, citing the lack of a keyboard and Apple’s lack of experience in the space respectively. Such a poorly made longship! Those Vikings probably won’t manage to burn down any houses at all. Ah! Well. Nevertheless…

The lesson from this isn’t that Apple always succeeds (it doesn’t). It’s that Apple is more adaptable than you might think. At the start of the century, it was a Mac company with no obvious expertise with smaller electronics. But it learned and hired and researched and made itself into a music player and later smartphone company by sheer force of will. Nobody spends more than Apple on R&D for projects that may never come to fruition. No company is more committed to evolving into new areas. And if Tom Hale or anyone else thinks Apple hasn’t had a team working on smart rings for years, they’re out of their minds.

Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.

Have your say

“Thank you for your mini MacBook article,” writes John W in response to last week’s Apple Breakfast. “While I love the size of the 11-inch iPad, I really want macOS, not iOS, so an 11-inch MacBook does have some appeal to me. The issue (and you are 100% right on this call) is the shrunken keyboard! If they ever make a folding-screen 11-inch MacBook, I just might pop for that. For now, I’m keeping my 27-inch iMac and iPhone Max, but an 11-inch portable device is very appealing!”

Trending: Top stories

For the first time ever, you don’t need to be afraid to buy a new Mac.

Apple Vision Pro needs something bigger than a software update.

Halyna Kubiv explains why the iPhone 17 will succeed where the iPhone 16 failed.

Apple is doomed because no one wants to wait for anything, says the Macalope.

If you’re upset about the M4 Mac mini, you’re just using it wrong.

M4 Mac mini teardown shows future upgradability in a seriously packed package.

The incredible M4 Macs create Apple’s biggest challenge yet.

How much MacBook do you really need? We help you find the right configuration.

Apple’s controversial list of the top 100 albums of all time is now a $450 book.

Podcast of the week

Apple’s new M4 Macs started shipping last Friday, and we have the new Mac mini, iMac, and MacBook Pro in-house. Why are these some of the more exciting Macs to hit the market? Find out on the latest episode of the Macworld Podcast!

You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.

The rumor mill

Apple’s next big thing may be a smart iPad you can hang on your wall.

Apple ramps up smart glasses project as it looks past Vision Pro.

Apple may be gearing up to launch its first smart home camera.

Software updates, bugs, and problems

Apple accused of misleading consumers over AirPods Pro ‘audio defect’.

Apple faces £3 billion legal claim over alleged competition law breaches.

Carrier gaffe appears to reveal crucial iOS 18.2 launch date. (It should be a fun one. There’s a feature that helps you remember songs based on where you heard them.)

Apple quietly added ‘Inactivity Reboot’ in iOS 18.1 to safeguard a lost or stolen iPhone.

Chrome for iOS adds Shopping Insights, enhanced Google Lens, and more.

And with that, we’re done for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters. You can also follow us on Facebook, Threads, or Twitter for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.