The Apple AAPL +0.39% Watch was officially announced last September, but many big questions remain before it goes up for sale in April. We’ll hopefully clear up some of those questions today at Apple’s ”Spring Forward” media event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. At today’s event beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific, many are expecting to find out what kinds of apps will be on the watch and how they’ll work; how much it’s going to cost; and how long the battery will last. But the overarching question that will need to be answered about Apple’s first new product in five years is, why will anyone even need an Apple Watch?
The watch marks a move into new territory for Apple with a product that exists as both a luxury good and high-tech gadget. When CEO Tim Cook first teased the watch in September, he announced that the starting price will be $349, but more premium editions will cost much, much more. Some have estimated that an 18-karat gold version of the watch will cost as much as $10,000. The premium gold edition will even be housed in its own leather box with suede lining the inside, as Apple’s senior vice president of design Jonathan Ive told The Financial Times.
Aside from the watch, we may also be hearing about other product news, including potentially a new Apple TV, a MacBook Air with Retina display or a larger screen iPad.
We’re here at the event, so stay tuned to this page as more is revealed when things get started at 10 a.m. Pacific / 1 p.m. Eastern time, or you can check out the livestream of the event here (on an Apple device). Hopefully I’ll be able to get my hands on an Apple Watch.
10 am: Video starts playing about Apple Store in China. Apple is playing up its retail. Tim Cook comes on stage. In the last six months, it’s opened six new stores in China with 21 total in the country. Apple plans to open 40 total stores this year in China.
10:08: Cook jumps to Apple TV, going into content partnership with HBO. HBO CEO Richard Plepler come on stage to announce that Apple is the launch partner for its streaming service, HBO Now. The service will be released in April, for $14.99 per month.
10:11: Cook back on stage to announce it’s lowering the price of Apple TV to $69. “Apple TV will reinvent the way you watch TV and this is just the beginning,” Cook said.
10:12: Now on to iPhone and Apple Pay. “Now, just three months in we’ve tripled the amount of locations accepting Apple Pay to 700,000,” Cook said. Coca-Cola KO -0.31% vending machines will start accepting Apple.
10:14: Cook is announcing that almost every major car brand has committed to using Apple’s operating system for the car, CarPlay. 40 new models of cars shipping with Apple’s operating system.
10:29: Apple’s HealthKit is now starting to be used in medical research. Apple’s senior vice president of Operations Jeff Williams comes on stage to talk about this area. “There are hundreds of millions of iPhone users out there who’d like to contribute,” Williams said. Williams announces ResearchKit, which lets researchers create apps for turning the iPhone and HealthKit into diagnostic tools. Apple has been working with a number of research institutions to create the first apps around Parkinson’s, asthma and other areas of medical research. Apple is making ResearchKit, which will be released next month, open source. “We wanted anybody, anywhere, regardless of platform, to contribute,” Williams said.
10: 36: Next up, the Mac. Last year, the laptop industry shrank, while Mac grew 20 percent. ”This is the strongest Mac update we’ve ever had,” Cook said. New Macs! Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller is brought on stage. New MacBook weighs only two pounds. It’s thin at 13.1 mm–24 percent thinner than MacBook Air. Full sized keyboard that goes all the way to the edge. The new keyboard is four times more accurate than typical keyboard. 12 inch screen with Retina display–2304 x 1440 pixels. The new track pad Apple is calling the Force touch trackpad. It has four sensor underneath with Taptic Engine that provides feedback with each click. MacBook will be fanless. The logic board is smallest it’s ever had in its laptops. It’s powered by Intel’s Core M chip that consumes only 5 watts of power. It will offer all-day battery life. It’ll cost $1299 for 1.1 GHz processor or $1599 1.2 GHz.
10:53: Cook back on stage to talk about the main star of the show: Apple Watch. “Since what you wear is an expression of who are, we made the watch for people with different tastes and preferences,” Cook said.
10:55: Cook showing off customizable watch faces. You can choose a face that is more traditional or one full of details like your health data. There’s a new feature called Glances–check things you look at most frequently like weather, calendar, control music and even heart rate. “Apple brings whole new personal dimension to time keeping that’s never been done before,” Cook said. You can read full emails, but there’s also new ways to communicating on Apple Watch. If you press side button, you can connect Apple Watch to Apple Watch. Apple Watch users can draw anything on the watch’s display and it’ll show up on other watches–or send your heart beat to other Apple Watch users.
11:02: Video playing of model Christy Turlington, who finished a half marathon in Africa using Apple Watch and campaigns for maternal health issues. Cook invites her on stage.
11:14: Cook discussing more uses for the watch. You can pay with Apple Pay using Apple Watch, do your photos, control your music, interface with Siri using your voice. Apple’s VP of technology Kevin Lynch is up to talk about Apple Watch software development kit and how the watch is about getting brief bits of information. Showing how the popular WeChat messaging app will work. When you receive a message, you can reply just by tapping on a button to open the app. You can reply with stickers or text. It doesn’t seem much different than an iPhone app to me. Instagram app will be available on the Apple Watch. Lynch showing off how you can answer calls on the Apple Watch. It communicates with your iPhone over WiFi as well as Bluetooth.
11:17: More Apple Watch app demos. You’ll be able to call an Uber with your Apple Watch. You can check-in to hotels on the Apple Watch and bypass the front desk–your watch will open the door. Alarm.com app will give you home information about doors, thermostats, locks and will even show you live camera feed coming off security cameras around the home.
11:20: To get the watch apps you’ll go to your iPhone to see, browse and download apps. In iOS 8.2, app store will have Apple Watch portion in it.
11:22: The watch will have all-day battery life–Apple expects 18 hours. You’ll have to charge it up at night.
Written by: Aaron Tilley Source: www.Forbes.com
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THE MARK CONSULTING & MARKETING