In the past, there have been three big, unannounced Apple products; A larger screen iPhone, an Apple Television and an iWatch. With the September 2014 event, Apple have announced two of these products. The iWatch is real and it is coming.
During the presentation on Tuesday, the update to the iPhone was handled so quickly, it almost seemed to de-value what it was. The iWatch section of the keynote was over an hour. So what’s the news? Well, first off, the name.
Apple Watch or to use the new Apple brand language ‘Watch’. The Watch is clearly the culmination of years of work. How many years? When you look at the device you see hints of the square iPod Nano that was released back in 2010 and had been called out in the launch event as being used as a watch.
So, err, what is it?
It’s the new iPhone. It’s the new iPad. It’s the next big thing for Apple. Designed from the ground up, the Watch uses materials that are more a kin to an expensive timepiece rather than a smartwatch. Sapphire, stainless steel, aluminium composites, Gold and Leather.
The Watch runs a form of iOS that links back to a companion iPhone and as such pulls in information and collects information on you to track your health and fitness. Beyond data collection, it functions as a second screen for your iPhone, allowing you to read and reply to messages. Siri on your wrist? Yep! What about getting around? Well, how’s about having Apple maps giving you directions and having the map on your Watch in real time.
There are a lot of things the Watch can do and even more that have yet to be announced, as it’s not finished yet. Just like the iPhone, iPad and MacPro before it, the product is not ready to ship, but it is ready for hype. Given that Apple won’t be selling the Watch until the new year (Jan-March 2015) they have given the product team the better part of 3 months to get it perfect and ramp up production as they will sell a lot of them.
At $349 starting price, the Watch is expensive, but so was the iPhone, iPad and iPod. Each time there’s a new category from Apple they need time to establish it with the early adopters. That was fine when there weren’t that many of us, but now, with so many customers, the amount of early adopters has increased, so manufacturing needs to ramp up to met the demand their going to build.
There’s so much more I’d like to tell you about the Watch but the best person to do that, is Sir Jony Ive:
