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Apple's 'iWatch' Planned to Launch 'As Soon As This Year', Could Include Biosensors and Mapping Features

Kitman said:
....I do not believe it will replace watches. It will be a new product category, and I imagine it will require an iPhone to achieve full functionality.

So the margins analysis is, to my mind. erroneous.
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Completely agree. A watch:

1) is worn on the wrist
2) tells time

This will qualify, but that would presumably be the least of it. If as a developer, I can coordinate with an iPhone app, this would be very intriguing. For example, an app to capture statistics for sports activities. If it can integrate that to this device, it could be very useful. As a coach, timing sprints would be very handy. Waterproof would be great so I don't ruin my phone, etc.

Siri integration also comes to mind. Currently people will think it odd to talk to your wrist, but 6 months after a Siri wristband ships people may not. Or our kids may not... maybe it'll take a while. To imagine that our current modes of human-computer interaction aren't about to undergo a paradigm shift is missing the boat at this juncture.

Wearable computing is looking to be the next big thing and right now Apple is in a great position to excel. I'm very excited to see what they come up with in this category. And god, I hope it isn't called iWatch. I'd be very surprised if it is though. Watch is the least of it.
 
deconstruct60 said:
The far more relevant question is whether this watch will go any of the "gee whiz" features without a phone ?

The watch isn't going to have a celluar radio in it. Most likely its radio is just a very short range bluetooth.
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Perhaps the bluetooth will be very good, as they could make an antenna the length of the strap? I reckon a device like this would rely heavily on a smartphone.
 
It's too early to call, but wasn't Tim Cook the one who suggested that Apple wouldn't enter a market unless they could "make a significant contribution"? As far as I can tell, there are enough watches out there and they cater for all needs. Most importantly, they come in different styles.

But for starters, they wouldn't refer to it as a watch. If any sane/normal person wants a watch, then they spend between £5-30 on something that does its job and looks OK. What Apple are likely proposing is not something for telling the time, but a mini-computer that has limited functionality on its own, and full functionality when linked to your iPhone/iPad.

If it was indeed some sort of interface then great, but I fail to see how they're going to offer designs that appeal to different audiences. You look at how radically different a Casio F-91 is from an Omega Seamaster and it becomes all the more complicated; you can love both watches, but for different reasons.

Aside from complete devotees, I can't imagine why anyone would want an Apple 'watch' when it takes little effort to pick-up and control a phone in the first place.
 
Oh the fun it will be with an accelerometer/pedometer on my wrist... Apple are gonna know all my dirty little habits ;)
 
Gasu E. said:
Don't assume it's going to be restricted to Bluetooth only. Given the restricted functionality, it would not have to be continuously connected in order to use a cell network. Clever design could allow it to use cellular only when needed, in short bursts, saving power greatly.
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Relatively high power radio strapped directly to your skin in exactly the same spot for every day for 16 hours a day , 365 days a year? Err, yeah sure. Never mind the battery power that would consume.

Most of the watch is going to be battery anyway but a celluar radio is just that many more chips that need to be added that consume space as well as power. It is possible, just not very likely at all.

iWatch may invoke notions of a Dick Tracy watch but it isn't going be one any more than the jet powered batcar is a commonplace car.
 
If this was a few years ago I would have said "what a stupid product idea!". When the iPad was first unveiled I thought who would want that? A larger iPod Touch running iPod Touch apps?

Fast forward a year and even I bought an iPad 2. Even though I already had an iPhone and I still love my iPad. I did not think it would be a useful product and I did not see how its form factor could alter the iOS experience, but it did and in ways I could not conceive at the time.

So although I want to say a watch? Pff like I'd ever need one of those! - I am instead going to hope this is another leg of the chair and turns out to be something very useful and desirable.
 
Fuelband

It seems like the iWatch would be in competition with the Nike Fuelband, since they are similar product categories. With Tim Cook on the board of directors at Nike, I'd speculate that there would be some conflict of interest here. Perhaps Tim would have to resign from his position at Nike?
 
I wonder if they will be including Safari or how it is going to be used on this watch.
 
jyen said:
It seems like the iWatch would be in competition with the Nike Fuelband, since they are similar product categories.
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Similar broad category but probably closer to

http://www.motorola.com/us/consumers/8GB-or-16GB-MOTOACTV/79070,en_US,pd.html




With Tim Cook on the board of directors at Nike, I'd speculate that there would be some conflict of interest here. Perhaps Tim would have to resign from his position at Nike?
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No. It isn't a major product that contributes to Nike's income. He could be excused briefly if there if somehow this more tactical product bubbles up to the board room level.

But frankly Nike would want him as much as not if he offers insights on dealing with contract electronic manufactures that Nike would have to deal with.

It is only a problem if Nike wanted to evolve fuel band into a more general purpose device. I doubt they do. Display time is about as I suspect they will likely deviate from the core biometric measurement function of the device. it s problem is that it needs to be more affordable and durable over time. Not more complex software wise.
 
SimonTheSoundMa said:
Totally useless product. The same is with the pebble. If I want to know who's calling, I get my phone out of my pocket, not forgetting you have the charge the Pebble more than once per day.
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Useless?

Yes & No:


Yes...

It's a brilliant way to redirect buyers focus _away from _ "what's the next iPhone going to feature"

Why compete in the smartphone arena when you're Apple?

Lets divert their attention to the next world changing gimmick.


No...

A watch? Seriously?

I don't care what it features, unless J. Ive creates an awfully appealing style, it may not have as broad of an appeal as the iPhone.

2013 ought to be more unpredictable than ever for those of us who are Apple enthusiasts.
 
twilcoxen said:
Completely agree. A watch:

1) is worn on the wrist
2) tells time

This will qualify, but that would presumably be the least of it. If as a developer, I can coordinate with an iPhone app, this would be very intriguing. For example, an app to capture statistics for sports activities. If it can integrate that to this device, it could be very useful. As a coach, timing sprints would be very handy. Waterproof would be great so I don't ruin my phone, etc.

Siri integration also comes to mind. Currently people will think it odd to talk to your wrist, but 6 months after a Siri wristband ships people may not. Or our kids may not... maybe it'll take a while. To imagine that our current modes of human-computer interaction aren't about to undergo a paradigm shift is missing the boat at this juncture.

Wearable computing is looking to be the next big thing and right now Apple is in a great position to excel. I'm very excited to see what they come up with in this category. And god, I hope it isn't called iWatch. I'd be very surprised if it is though. Watch is the least of it.
Click to expand...

If an iWatch could show the time, could alert me depending on distances from iphone/ipad (helping me find them, stopping me going without them), and could work as an automatic password security device for all browsers on those and a computer too, it would easily be worth getting. Any other functions would be just jam on top.
 
Before people start calling this a useless product and it will never work lets all just remember the first cell phone and indeed the first personal computers and now look where they are today.

I can see something like this in out futures, a powerful computer on our wrist with wrap around LCD and other functions that could replace the smart phone as we know them.

Hey look at how Apple changed portable music then the cell phone and think how they could change the humble wrist watch!
 
Lancer said:
Before people start calling this a useless product and it will never work lets all just remember the first cell phone and indeed the first personal computers and now look where they are today.

I can see something like this in out futures, a powerful computer on our wrist with wrap around LCD and other functions that could replace the smart phone as we know them.

Hey look at how Apple changed portable music then the cell phone and think how they could change the humble wrist watch!
Click to expand...

I applaud your positive outlook, but the iPhone & iOS need all the attention Apple can give them.

If the company expects to compete or overtake Android, then diluting the effort by assigning the reported "100 people" (true or not) to the iWatch may be a decision that results in another "Newton Success".
 
twilcoxen said:
Completely agree. A watch:

1) is worn on the wrist
2) tells time
Click to expand...

Just like a phone:

1) sits on your desk
2) makes phone calls

Some study found that the most common use of cell phones these days is no longer making phone calls. Who knows if or when the same might happen to using a watch to tell time.
 
Really?

;) Biosensors? Someone might as well point this out, so I will: the day they mandate you must wear this you'll regret ever having one.

Yes, surely positives as well, as most are focused on. Although the great need for this kind of escapes me. It was first postulated that just the ability alone to turn on one's iPhone reason enough. Really, is it that hard? Or that it functions as a watch, naturally, and a few other sort of ill-defined things no one seems to be dying without.

BUT could die with. So just a word of warning: a lot of this, and especially something like this, is very much a double edged sword.
 
rdlink said:
Shoot! I was going to post the same thing, but you beat me to it.:p
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Ha! Speak of the Devil. My Pebble arrived today. Yawn.

Was really hoping to have some cool third party apps by now. Basically what I have is a remote for my iTunes that will play, pause and move through songs (but not navigate playlists, libraries, etc) and a watch that will show me if someone is calling, or whether I received a text.

I bought this for tracking my bike rides, and that app still isn't out.:mad:
 
technopimp said:
I'm not a tinfoil-hat kind of person, but geez-if I was wearing something that knew where I was, and what kind of health I was in, that kind of information is too tempting not to be exploited. Now when someone figures out how to mine that data you'll be walking past a 7-11 and get an alert saying "hey fatty, Double Big Gulps are 50% off!"
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We'll leave this exercise to Google and Samsung when they make their own copy.:D
 
Wearable Smartphones/Mobile Media is the next wave. People are gonna kick & scream as they probably did when Laptop's came out, when iPad's came out, etc., but it's the future.

Apple is positioning themselves better than anyone to head this trend once again.

I think a Watch is a MUCH better solution than Glasses.
 
Aeolius said:
Gee, I thought it was how my family viewed me that was my sign of success, never mind owning a house large enough to hold ten of us.

When I was in college (the last time I wore a watch) my watch snapped off its band and transformed into a car and a robot. ;)

As for who is cool or not... meh
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Right. In the real world what your family thinks about you matters not to clients and colleagues, but how you carry yourself does.

Also your "bragging" about a house that holds ten is silly & meaningless. A studio apt on the upper West side in NYC is worth more than a 5 bedroom house in Des Moines. Size doesn't always matter. ;)
 
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