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Latest iWatch rumor: October launch, curved display, Apple expecting to sell 3-5M a month

iwatch-concept-03

The Nikkei Asian Review is reporting that Apple will launch its iWatch in October, rather than alongside the iPhone 6 in September as has been widely expected. It’s also citing unnamed “industry sources” as saying that the watch will have a curved, OLED touchscreen and that Apple is planning on producing 3-5M units a month.

According to a parts manufacturer, it plans monthly commercial output of about 3-5 million units, which exceeds the total global sales of watch-like devices last year. This confidence is backed by its partnerships with high-profile hospitals — it has teamed up with the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic …

While the paper has a good reputation, it’s unclear how specific its information is given the general nature of much of the content in the piece – such as the references to data “such as calorie consumption, sleep activity, blood glucose and blood oxygen levels.”

The piece also claims Apple is in partnership with Nike, but again it’s weak on specifics.

According to sources familiar with the matter, the two companies have likely agreed to integrate their services in the future.

An earlier analyst report had claimed that the iWatch will have a round display. A display which is both round and curved seems unlikely, so we’re viewing both as unsubstantiated rumors. There have been multiple reports that the iWatch will be sold in two sizes, which is not mentioned in this piece.

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Comments

  1. krikaoli - 10 years ago

    I share the exact same opinion, ” A display which is both round and curved seems unlikely”. However, it is not impossible Apple have designed something with the two characteristics.

  2. iWatch in 2014 – not impossible, just not likely…

  3. red26sox - 10 years ago

    How do you design a watch that appeals to the majority of people? A watch these days is superfluous. Its also a fashion accessory, my wife has multiple watches depending on the occasion. I guess I don’t see the point. Is the display on all the time? Who wants to look at a tiny screen? I hope they prove me wrong but its hard for me to believe that this is a viable product category.

    • Grayson Mixon - 10 years ago

      The iWatch makes sense if you stop looking at it as a watch. You also have to stop looking at it in terms of other smart watches, which basically just show notifications, and may allow quick reply of texts and e-mails. You have to start looking it at in terms of quantified self. It’s the only lens that makes sense.

      You want to see where Apple is headed with this? If you watch the show Continuum, they recently showed a device called the Halo that is a watch type design that is specifically designed to monitor health.

      • They said the same thing about the iPad… That Apple would never make the tablet a viable product category. Apple loves proving people wrong. (Apple Retail Stores, iPods, iTunes, and iPhones too)

        Check out the link to the Nikkei Asian Review article in the first paragraph. Then check out Withings (http://vitrine.withings.com/us/) to see one of the best products currently in that category. There’s about a dozen or so products on the market now.

        Additionally, the mention of teaming up with Nike was already acknowledged during the WWDC Keynote. Not surprising then that Nike let it’s entire hardware team go and discontinued manufacturing the Fuel Band. There’s no reason for them to discontinue the leading wearable device unless they knew something was going to cause it to flatline in the market. My guess would be that’s Apple’s ‘iWatch,” which will do everything the Fuel Band did, and more, while also letting you read texts without taking your phone out of your pocket. Speak to Siri via the watch to set calendar events, reminders and even send texts and replies without ever touching your phone. Once 3rd party devs release companion apps, you could do a lot more too… like remote start your car in the winter, by tapping on your wrist a couple times.

        Check out Dribble.com and search iWatch or Android Wear and you’ll see dozens of concepts by designers dreaming about what you can do from your wrist. I’m sure you see something that you’ll find convenient at the least.

      • chrisvegasiscrazy - 10 years ago

        I agree with you and I hope your right. Watches tend to be fashionable for some and that could lead to a watch that looks like well a clunky 80’s watch. The ones on the market to me are so ugly. If you look at samsung they just put anything out there to say there first there already changing design. It has to focus on health and should look totally different then a watch, at that point we have something. When the iPhone came out the great thing was it didn’t look like a phone at all. Hoping that holds true here. If it looks like let’s say the galaxy gear I won’t bother but if it looks like something new and uses health kit I’m in!!!!!

    • Sorry… my comment should’ve actually been placed here. It was in reply to @red26sox.

    • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

      I agree. The more I hear about iWatch, the more nervous I get. It seems like an awful idea for anything but a niche product, but every other product they make is for the masses. This thing will be judged by the media based on whether it achieves iPhone levels of sales. It won’t. It will be cast in the media therefore as a “disaster” or a “failure.” I can’t see any way around this.

      I am right in the demographic that should be buying this thing (older, wealthier, fitness obsessed), and I simply don’t want it based on what I know about it now.

      I keep waiting for a description of this purported product that makes any kind of sense, or that I would actually buy and wear on a daily basis (seemingly required by the concept), and I still haven’t heard it. I am not going to start wearing a watch after 30 years of not needing one. I am not likely going to find any of these designs so attractive and compelling that I will wear it on my wrist all day.

      A fitness band, is a niche product that you wear while exercising. The idea that Apple has a product here that is going to be as ubiquitous as the original “wristwatch” (which I think is what most analyst are implying) is nonsense.

      • chrisvegasiscrazy - 10 years ago

        I think if we look at the thing samsung just announced (I forget what it’s called) and what it does and even how it charges and uses sensors I think we get a idea of what the iwatch will do. I read that the person making the presentation was hired by Samsung after he was working with apple on advanced censors. Now he is giving a presentation for samsung so I’m willing to bet he took some of the ideas he was working on at apple over. I think that will be more in line with what the iwatch will be.

    • Lee (@leemahi) - 10 years ago

      If the watch constantly checks all the vitals, including blood pressure, this is the biggest game changer since the automobile. Everyone will want one. The elderly will need one. If it just checks reparations, heart rate, o2sat and temp, then ehh I would look hard at the Moto 360 and an LG 3

    • Alex (@Metascover) - 10 years ago

      Just like cellphones were boring in 2006. A very large majority of people didn’t use a smartphone. Now we all do.

  4. trippregan - 10 years ago

    A circular and curved watch face makes perfect sense from a UI standpoint.

    With such a small input area, and likely such a need for various inputs more akin to iPhone than an iPod Nano, the curvature of the face would allow for much better haptic location when touching the screen. We’re not talking a globe here, just a rounded face that would allow you to easily identify if you were accurately swiping down the left side vs the right side.

    Also a rounded, circular, sapphire face would be perfectly in-line with high end watches, a la Baume et Mercier.

    • Absolutely agree. Anything smaller than 80px tap zones are gonna get frustrating. 40px icons with 20px margins.

      And I’d be surprised if it didn’t get a sapphire face since Apple’s using it in their other manufacturing processes.

      • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

        No one really knows of course, but there are more indications and rumours pointing to a “slap bracelet” than there are indications of a sapphire screen being needed. Apple has a patent on exactly that design.

        Only the very last rumour (“it will have a round face”), argues against it.

    • Tim Smith - 10 years ago

      What’s up, Tripp.

  5. patstar5 - 10 years ago

    Looks like moto 360 will be out first. Both it and Iwatch probably cost over $250. Interested to see microsoft’s watch. It is suppose to work with all three major platforms.

  6. Matthew Houston - 10 years ago

    Here is a thought I have been having for a while and maybe it is completely far feted and not realistic at all. But as I look at these numbers and realize I have not heard anything about iPods in quite some time, it makes me wonder if along with the iWatch “supposedly” being an iOS accessory for healthbook is it also going to be intended to be an iPod replacement. If Apple might be considering discontinuing the iPod line, which has been seeing declining sales in recent years due to more people switching to smart phones and using them as music players, and replacing the iPods with iWatchs, I see these iWatch sale numbers becoming more realistic then, since it will broaden their market base.

    • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

      This makes sense to me. I know it’s just speculation, but a new kind of iPd that you happen to wear on your wrist would sell far more than a dedicated “watch” IMO.

    • Alex (@Metascover) - 10 years ago

      It wouldn’t be surprising, other people have expressed the same idea.
      Seeing that people wore the Nano on the wrist before it makes total sense. They just need to offer bluetooth headphones with it.

    • patstar5 - 10 years ago

      So will the iwatch need an iphone
      To work Or will it be standalone device?

  7. chrisvegasiscrazy - 10 years ago

    In hoping Apple takes same approach with the watch as it did with the iPhone, make it not look like a phone or in this case a watch. All the other smart watches to me look clunky like they are trying to mix 80’s calculator watches with modern day technology. It looks ugly. I want to see something that looks like no watch or fit band we have seen. I don’t wear watches and won’t start if it looks like a clunky watch. So this rumor with a curved display is what I’m hoping for.

  8. drtyrell969 - 10 years ago

    These comps look awful. Let’s pray these are categorically wrong.

  9. Eli Matar - 10 years ago

    Curved is not Apple’s direction anymore. Flat… Get it?
    Thats not really the reason behind why I think curved glass is in the pipeline.
    Its that curved glass is much more exposed to scratches and damages.

  10. iPadCary - 10 years ago

    Dear God, let this be true ….

  11. Oflife - 10 years ago

    What if it is a phone too? Make a clasp like rear that is thicker than the front, containing a power source and miniaturised phone electronics. Note that there have been phone watches available from China for a few years now, and despite being design disasters, do actually work and have sim card slots.

    I don’t think Apple wants you out jogging with an iPhone strapped to your wrist or in your running pants pocket and then the ‘iWatch’ strapped to your wrist too! A stand alone wireless device will be the only way to provide GPS location info for any map app, stream music from the iTunes cloud/Spotify, send LIVE health info to your Doctor whilst you run/exercise and/or perform other tasks that require connectivity?

    Apple blew us away with the first iPod nano whose size at the time was a mind blowing example of electronics miniaturisation. They may be about to do it again, and render the need to tether your smart ‘watch’ to your phone obsolete. Which in a way, makes your phone obsolete and relegated to being a media viewer.

    This could be huge! But small.

  12. Mark Woodcock - 10 years ago

    I see a lot of people stating this watch won’t see, but if they can pull off the diabetic testing, the market would be large just for that function alone. As someone who has to test regularly, I’d be in line for one.

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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