On Tuesday next week, at the much heralded media event, all the rumours and speculation about Apple's new products will be confirmed or shot down in flames.
It has been a pretty exciting few weeks as “leaks” have been providing much discussion matter about what’s coming from the troops in Cupertino. We are fairly sure the iPhone 6 will be hitting the streets and it’ll probably come with a couple of screen size options plus three, or maybe four, storage capacity choices — if Apple were to throw in expandable storage, that would be a story.
However, one of the biggest unknowns in the rumour mill has been the iWatch and, while there’s nothing definite about it, Apple’s design chief, Jonathan Ives, was tracked down earlier this week by the New York Times. In an oozing-with-confidence Apple style, Ives was quoted as saying the iWatch was impressive enough that Switzerland, famed for centuries of watchmaking, would have serious competition. I’ll say it again; oozing-with-confidence Apple style.
But there is a serious point as, up until now, wearable tech has been a little “fashion ugly” due in part to the designers' focus of the tech side of the product rather than the style or fashion element — let’s face it, if it is to be worn by the world it needs a heavy fashion lean to garner mass appeal. So is Apple the one who can break this tech/fashion barrier? Probably and maybe next week we’ll hear more about it.
In the meantime, let’s assume the iWatch launch call is a good one — what will it offer? Despite the world thinking they know all there is to know about the much anticipated iPhone 6, any legit information about an iWatch is nowhere to be seen. However, the word on the street is it can be used as an accessory to the iPhone, will have intimate integration with iOS 8, will introduce NFC as standard and, as hinted at in a recent TV commercial, have health and fitness related functionality.
Come Tuesday morning (10am Pacific) Apple’s plans will be revealed to the world and we’ll find out for sure if all these rumours have any foundation. For those not attending in person you can join the fun live, online at apple.com/live/ and, just to make sure the excitement continues to build, in the run up to the event the site has “T minus” countdown clock running.
So, is there an iWatch coming or not? Do you think the Swiss should be worrying?