That's such a generalization that I can't believe I'm bothering to refute it, but:
1. I consider myself pretty nerdy and I love the Apple Watch. You now know me, at least through Hacker News. I made another comment in this thread extolling the Apple Watch, and there are others. It feels like you cherrypicked the negativity, because I actually see a lot of balanced feedback that is both positive and negative about the watch, many of which comes from fellow "nerds".
2. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it seems like you're using your in-group as a signaling heuristic rather than for an empirical analysis here. What constitutes a "nerd" if you haven't found any nerds who like it and if you didn't notice the comments from fellow nerds who really enjoy it?
3. I haven't personally found any of the issues you're talking about, but I do believe you've had them if you say you have. I'd chalk that up to an "underspecified complaint", because I don't know what the context was that resulted in poor behavior from the device. In my daily usage I don't find those issues emerge. However, I'd also gently suggest your expectations might be miscalibrated here and that you could be nitpicking. The device is absolutely not perfect, but I'm surprised if you disagree that it's not empowering, even for your in-group. It may be that you don't want to take advantage of those features, but if that's the case it's really not fair to generalize to a blanket claim that Apple doesn't develop for nerds.
Again, speaking as a nerd, I feel Apple develops products that target me very well. I use Linux on a workstation as a daily driver, but I enjoy my MacBook Pro more than I enjoy any other machine. I had an Android phone for about a year and switched back to the latest iPhone because it's both more secure and has better integration. And being that I develop software, I can appreciate that Apple has developed very solid software and hardware even if it can't meet all expectations.
I often leave comments exactly like the one you replied to, so while I'm not the person you replied to, I might as well be.
HN loves to hate Apple and everything they do, and the Internet as a whole loves to hate Apple. Going back to the infamous "less space than a Nomad, no wifi, lame" comment. Now to be sure, there are tons of us who like Apple products, but there are a lot of loudmouths who need to shout from the rooftops that this Apple product isn't targeted at them and that's why it will fail. Is it the majority? No, far from it. That's why Apple products are almost always huge successes. Most of their customers actually like them.
But every thread about the iPhone you have people who feel the need to explain why they'd never buy one because they need a headphone jack. Every thread about the iPad you have people who need to tell you that an Android tablet is cheaper, but people don't need tablets and the fad is wearing off. Every thread about the Macbook someone has to say how the XPS is a better value for the money and actually has function keys.
So when you hear someone like me or the person you responded to saying "nerds love to hate Apple", it's hyperbole. Nerds love to love Apple just like everyone else in the world and that's why they make a shitload of money every quarter. Internet loudmouths love to hate Apple, and unfortunately Internet loudmouths are the ones who get upvotes. So it gives the impression that nerds hate Apple, which leads other people to think "hey maybe I should hate Apple too" and makes news sites run stories about how nerds hate Apple's latest products.
It's not true, but that's the impression you'd get if you read HN or /r/technology.
Did you miss the part where I said "So when you hear someone like me or the person you responded to saying "nerds love to hate Apple", it's hyperbole."? I said that for a reason.
I restated the hyperbolic argument, then said "of course it's not all of the Internet, but that's how it seems sometimes" but the point still stands. Actually the reason the point stands is because not everyone agrees, but the people who hate Apple are always loud enough to drown out the people who don't. Go find any Apple product announcement and see for yourself what the top comments are.
1. I consider myself pretty nerdy and I love the Apple Watch. You now know me, at least through Hacker News. I made another comment in this thread extolling the Apple Watch, and there are others. It feels like you cherrypicked the negativity, because I actually see a lot of balanced feedback that is both positive and negative about the watch, many of which comes from fellow "nerds".
2. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it seems like you're using your in-group as a signaling heuristic rather than for an empirical analysis here. What constitutes a "nerd" if you haven't found any nerds who like it and if you didn't notice the comments from fellow nerds who really enjoy it?
3. I haven't personally found any of the issues you're talking about, but I do believe you've had them if you say you have. I'd chalk that up to an "underspecified complaint", because I don't know what the context was that resulted in poor behavior from the device. In my daily usage I don't find those issues emerge. However, I'd also gently suggest your expectations might be miscalibrated here and that you could be nitpicking. The device is absolutely not perfect, but I'm surprised if you disagree that it's not empowering, even for your in-group. It may be that you don't want to take advantage of those features, but if that's the case it's really not fair to generalize to a blanket claim that Apple doesn't develop for nerds.
Again, speaking as a nerd, I feel Apple develops products that target me very well. I use Linux on a workstation as a daily driver, but I enjoy my MacBook Pro more than I enjoy any other machine. I had an Android phone for about a year and switched back to the latest iPhone because it's both more secure and has better integration. And being that I develop software, I can appreciate that Apple has developed very solid software and hardware even if it can't meet all expectations.