Apple Has Team of 100 Product Designers Working on a Smart Watch
Bloomberg is reporting that Apple has a team of about 100 product designers working on a wristwatch computer, according to "two people familiar with the company's plans." The New York Times previously reported that Apple had been "experimenting" with a curved glass smart watch, but Bloomberg believes that Apple's smart watch plans have moved beyond the experimental phase.
The team, which has grown in the past year, includes managers, members of the marketing group and software and hardware engineers who previously worked on the iPhone and iPad, said the people, who asked not to be named because the plans are private. The team’s size suggests Apple is beyond the experimentation phase in its development, said the people.
Apple's senior director of engineering, James Foster, is said to be one of the managers working on the project, which happens to involve challenges like creating a smart watch that doesn't have to be charged every day. The smart watch, known colloquially by some as the "iWatch," would be able to do some of the same tasks as the iPad and iPhone.
Bloomberg also mentions that Apple had been planning a wearable fitness tracking device, much like Nike FuelBand or Jawbone Up, but that Apple had decided not to bring them to market. Apple CEO Tim Cook is a Nike board member and spoke about his own Nike FuelBand at the D10 Conference last year, also saying that wearable devices were an "interesting area" but that "the book hasn't been written on that one yet."
Popular Stories
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories, according to the Apple leaker and prototype collector known as "Kosutami." In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kosutami explained that Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories due to its poor durability. The company may move to another non-leather material for its premium accessories in the future. Kosutami has revealed...
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. The lack of ...
The lead developer of the multi-emulator app Provenance has told iMore that his team is working towards releasing the app on the App Store, but he did not provide a timeframe. Provenance is a frontend for many existing emulators, and it would allow iPhone and Apple TV users to emulate games released for a wide variety of classic game consoles, including the original PlayStation, SEGA Genesis,...
Top Rated Comments
It'll be a "watch" as much as the iPhone is a phone -- which is to say, that wont be its compelling purpose.
arn
http://www.sonymobile.com/us/products/accessories/smartwatch/
Some of these might happen in a small way instead, but when Apple does something big (probably only seen as big in hindsight!) I think it will be one of these:
Wearable computing (whether standalone or as a companion device; wristwatch-style most likely)
Automotive interfaces done right
TV done right (may include apps, may serve as a game console)
Home integration done right (remote control and timed control in new/easier ways?)
Desktop touch computing done right (not just OS X with touch awkwardly shoehorned in, not just large-size iOS)
Siri becoming something more (may include 3rd-party API, may include Siris AI in non-voice uses)
VOIP done right (audio-only, evolution of FaceTime, breaking the US carrier mess)
Mobile wallet functionality (ubiquitous payment, ID, keys; evolution of PassBook; fingerprint scanning)
I do NOT think it will be anything to do with augmented reality or virtual reality. I think those are awesome, but my list above is all things that MIGHT be of use to just about anyone. I see AR and VR being of interest to only a subsegment; AR because making it be widely useful would mean wearing something silly, and VR because its broadest appeal is only for certain kinds of gaming. (But give me a Rift! Im the subsegment!)
And Im not counting the many smaller enhancements to existing categories. Well see iOS 7+ (and OS X) drive lots of that evolution and it will be great, but Im speculating on the next big thing that either becomes a new category or redefines an old one.