Apple Watch: Apple's first wearable device and smartwatch

Company joins Samsung, Motorola and Sony with smartwatch that measures health and activity data. Apple’s highly anticipated entry into the world of wearable technology is the Apple Watch, CEO Tim Cook announced on Tuesday.


The Apple Watch will monitor health and fitness, tracking the wearer’s movement, heartrate and activity with built-in sensors, feeding the information into Apple’s Health app for the iPhone and iPad and allowing review and analysis of the data.


“This is the most personal device we’ve ever created,” said Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook. “We’ve set up to make the best watch in the world. One that is precise. It’s synced with a universal time standard.”


It uses a button on the side of the watch - dubbed the “digital crown” by Apple - which turns like a jog dial for adjusting functions including zooming and setting the time – no pinching to zoom required. It also functions as the home button.


The screen is covered by a curved sapphire glass touchscreen that can differentiate between a tap and a touch, and vibrates with alerts using a haptic feedback component and a speaker. The Apple Watch is charged by a wireless, inductive charging pad that magnetically connects to the back of the watch.


Three editions


The smartwatch will be available in three versions: the stainless steel Watch, aluminium Watch Sport and 18c gold Apple Watch Edition. Six different straps will also be available, each with a quick-remove clasp. All three will rely on a iPhone paired using Bluetooth to sync data, and will be compatible with iPhone 5, 5C, 5S, 6 and 6 Plus, but the device will not be available until early 2015. The starting price will be $349 in the US.


Apps, taps and touching


Several of Apple’s apps will be available on the Watch, including voice-control tool Siri, Messages, Maps as well as information pulled from calendars, email and other iPhone apps.


Maps will provide walking directions right on your wrist, buzzing for each turn required in the same way Google Maps operates on Google’s Android Wear smartwatches. Siri will be accessible through the side button, as will voice dictation.


The watch has a quick-reply panel on the face board for messages and suggests text or emoticons for a reply - perhaps for when dictating a reply isn’t appropriate. Apple’s new payment tool Apple Pay will also be available on the Apple Watch, allowing users to pay for goods and services in the US using the watch like a contactless credit card.


Hundreds of third-party apps, including Twitter and Facebook, will also be available, arranged in clusters for easier launching on the smaller screen, zooming in using the digital crown. Apple also includes a new communication app called digital touch, which allows users to share taps, small drawings and even their heartbeat with other Apple Watch users.


The Apple Watch can also control music playing on iPhone or iPad devices around it, as well as storing music locally on the Watch, playing through Bluetooth headphones.


Health and fitness


Apple’s focus on fitness extends to the Apple Watch, which can be plugged into the existing iPhone Health app so that fitness data can be shared with third-party apps.


Two new apps, Fitness and Workout, track different levels of activity. The Fitness records general activity, steps and calories burned throughout the day, similar to fitness trackers currently on the market like the Misfit Shine or Jawbone Up, but also notes how sedentary the wearer has been and encourages them to move throughout the day.


The Workout app tracks activity for custom workouts, acting like a personal trainer and responding to the wearer’s heartrate and movement.


Tough competition


With as much as 70% of the market for smartphones saturated in developed markets, gadget makers have released a slew of smartwatches in the past few years to try and create appetite for a new type of device. In 2013 9.7m wearables, including fitness trackers and smartwatches, were sold worldwide according to data from research firm CCS Insight. That number is expected to reach 22.3m in 2014.


Earlier this month more than 10 rival smartwatches were released at IFA, Europe’s largest electronics trade show in Berlin, with devices by Samsung, Sony, Asus and Motorola all launching smartwatches - and many running Google’s Android Wear software.


But wearable technology has struggled to become mainstream, with few convincing use cases and ugly designs for devices failing to convince consumers to replace their wrist watches. Smartwatches have also been shown to have a high rate of abandonment too, with one third of Americans ditching the devices within six months of trying them according to research by Endeavour partners. Many devcies have launched in time for the Christmas market, but the Apple Watch will not launch until 2015.



Guardian.com