CALIFORNIA: Apple’s Chief Executive Officer, Tim Cook has unveiled new details of the Apple SmartWatch at an event in San Francisco. The watch has an 18-hour battery life. It’s charged with a magnetic charger that clicks into place when it’s near the back of the watch.
- Users can use the watch for phone calls; it’s connected to their iPhone using Bluetooth.
- It will be available in nine countries on April 24. Pre-orders begin April 10.
- It comes in two sizes and three styles with a starting price of $349 (U.S.) for the sports version to as much as $10,000 for a luxury edition.
- A stainless steel Apple Watch with a 38-millimeter case will start at $549. A watch with a 42-millimeter case will be $50 more.
- The watch has a customizable face and a feature called “glances” for tools used most often, such as checking weather.
- It will track exercise, remind wearers of events with a tap on the wrist, and make calls through an electronically tethered phone, since it has a built in speaker and microphone.
- User can also read email, control music, and manage Instagram photos.
- With the watch, Cook is pushing Apple into a new product category that seeks to further immerse users into the company’s digital universe. As a health and fitness tracker, the watch opens new possibilities in the health industry. It also expands the number of devices that work with Apple Pay, the company’s new mobile-payments system. To fully work, the watch, which has a colour touchscreen, needs to be paired with an iPhone.
Shares of Apple were up about 1.4 percent at $128.41 (U.S.) after the announcement, but gave back most of those gains by mid-afternoon.
Apple Watch, first revealed in September, marks the first new gadget to be released since Cook became CEO in 2011. The new product, plus new larger-screened iPhones, have helped boost optimism about Apple’s growth, sending its shares to a record high in recent weeks.
Apple’s Watch sales this fiscal year may reach almost 14 million, according to the average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The global market for all smartwatches may rise to 28.1 million units this year from 4.6 million, with Apple capturing 55 per cent of the market, according to researcher Strategy Analytics.
The sophistication of the applications available will be key to wooing Apple Watch buyers. Just as the App Store has been a key reason for the iPhone’s success, tools for Apple Watch will help determine how customers use the gadget and whether it will be a sales hit.
Apple is gearing up for a strong start. People familiar with the matter said the company is asking suppliers in Asia to make five million to six million Apple Watches in the first quarter.
