Apple have announced that the Apple Watch will get it’s full unveiling on March 9th in a special event in San Francisco. We’ll be likely to see details on it’s pricing, availability and more information on how it will work and fit into your life. Apple have teased the event with the tagline “Spring Forward”, a nice little touch.
However, expect to get your hands (or wrists rather) on the Apple Watch a little later than some other countries. Unfortunately, Ireland isn’t a ‘Tier 1’ country for Apple, it’s a ‘Tier 2’ country. This means, we see product launches a bit later than normal compared to the UK and the US for example. Considering it’s tier 2 status and the amount of configurations available (watches – regular/ sport / edition, sizes and straps), we would still bet on a May/June launch for the watch in Ireland if not later.
Tim Cook has said it will launch in April but no other indication has been given apart from that on it’s release and we still don’t know it’s going to be a global launch which would be a rare thing for Apple mobile devices. Of course, there is nothing stopping you from going to Belfast to get the Apple Watch on the UK launch date, something we did for the iPhone 6 launch. Beware, the lines are very very long.
The Apple Watch’s pricing should start $349 USD which given Apple pricing should convert to €300/€350 for Irish consumers and we’ll see what exact price the Apple Watch will start from on March 9th. That’s just for the ‘Sport’ watch, the ‘Edition’ version of the Apple watch could cost a lot more as it’s made from gold.
The Apple Watch is expected to be a great companion device for iPhone users. It’s hard to predict how useful it will be as few apps have been announced but if it can match the sheer handiness of an Android Wear watch, it’ll be onto something. The Apple Watch will tell the time, connect to your iPhone, track your fitness and will run apps like Twitter so you can keep up to date on your wrist. It will also provide you with notifications, Siri access and a new form of messaging where you can send your heartbeat, drawings or vibrations to a contact. Pretty weird if you ask us!
The greatest test of course will be in battery life. Most of the time, we’re seeing 2-days max from Android Wear devices here at TheEffect on our Moto 360, LG G Watch and Sony Smartwatch 3 devices so we’ll be keen to find out just how much juice Apple have managed to squeeze into their watch.
“Apps, compatibility, design and functionality will be the key”
It’s been a busy few months in the smartwatch arena with the Pebble Time’s announcement and new watches from Acer and LG. LG have been busy working on Smartwatches with plans to have three separate OSes running on watches. Their premium line will have it’s own version, we saw at CES a WebOS version and of course there’s Android Wear watches from LG too. It’ll be interesting to see how the platform wars will play out. With multiple OSes, apps, compatibility, design and functionality will be the key things to look out for. On March 9th, we’ll have a better view on how the Apple Watch will stack up.
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