The new Apple Watch has many cool features to be sure, but I just don’t like the fact that Apple discriminates on the basis of handedness.
The Apple Watch comes in a right-handed configuration. Yes, there’s a left-handed setting, but you need to switch the band around, and then the button on the side is in an awkward lower position.
In other words, left-handed people either have to suck it up and use the watch in the right-handed configuration, or go through the hassle of reconfiguring it only to end up with an inferior design. Thanks a lot, Apple. But hey, we’re only lefties, and we’re only being inconvenienced.
We should be used to it, right? After all, user interfaces have been right-handed for years. To this day the arrow cursor is right-handed, and scrollbars are always on the right. And for software that does have a left-handed configuration, more often than not some aspect of the UI doesn’t work properly in left-handed mode.
If we were a legally protected minority then it wouldn’t be a question of being inconvenienced, right? Were separate water fountains simply inconvenient?
10% of the population is left-handed. And all us lefties know that left-handedness correlates with intelligence, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the percentage is higher within the storied walls of Apple. So, why didn’t Apple release a left-handed version of the Apple Watch?
I think Apple is being offensive by paying lip service to handedness, but giving lefties a second-class experience nevertheless. But that’s just me. Who cares what lefties think?
