Is Apple about to unveil the iWatch?
|Published
Analysts predict Apple will lose market share in the world's leading smartphone sector. Analysts predict Apple will lose market share in the world's leading smartphone sector.
London - It is a device that belongs to the comic strip antics of Dick Tracy or to James Bond in his gadget heyday. But a trademark filing in Japan suggests a wristwatch computer is about to become reality.
Apple has indicated it is making an iWatch to add to a hugely popular product line that includes the iPhone and iPad.
Speculation has been mounting since the technology firm’s chief executive Tim Cook declared last month that wearable “smart” products were the way forward.
Insiders say a team of 100 engineers led by Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple’s British design guru, has been working in its headquarters in Cupertino, California, on a device made from curved glass.
The challenge of creating this glass is reportedly in the hands of Corning, the US maker of the super-tough iPhone screen.
Corning announced last year that it had worked out how to create a bendable material called Willow Glass. As thin as a business card, it so pliable it can be bent around a wrist without breaking.
In March, Corning said the technology should be in use in simple products within a year but not for anything as complicated as a wearable smartphone.
Experts believe the iWatch will have a 1.5in wide LED screen and let users send and receive emails and texts as well as navigate the internet. It could also communicate wirelessly with other nearby devices through Bluetooth. The strap may wrap itself around the wrist by the application of gentle pressure.
It is expected to run on Apple’s standard computer operating system, iOS. South Korea’s Samsung, one of Apple’s main rivals, is also understood to be working on a wearable computer similar to a wristwatch as manufacturers seek to boost the flagging smart phone market.
Mr Cook has expressed doubt about Google Glass, which allows users to access the internet via a device worn like a pair of spectacles. As well as privacy issues over its inbuilt camera, tests have suggested many will be too self-conscious to wear it. - Daily Mail