The test for Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook in September last year was to prove that Apple could still come up with innovative products, so he revealed a smartwatch. His next test comes today: convincing you to buy it.
Apple’s CEO returns to the spotlight to answer questions on many of the device’s key selling points, including price range, battery life and when next month the watch is expected to reach stores — and in which countries.
Those unknowns aside, perhaps the biggest question about Apple’s first new gadget since the iPad is whether the Internet makes sense on your wrist.
“I would expect Tim to spend most of his time on Monday walking consumers through very unique use-case scenarios and exploring the implications for the Internet on the wrist and why it matters,” US Consumer Electronics Association chief economist Shawn DuBravac said.
When the watch with a rectangular touchscreen was first shown in September, Apple said it would come in two sizes, three styles and tell time to within 50 milliseconds of accuracy. Applications allow for maps, photos, music and messages, along with the ability to track health and fitness information.
Optimism over Apple’s new products, including the watch, has helped push company shares to record highs in recent weeks. Watch sales might reach almost 14 million in the first fiscal year, according to the average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The global smartwatch market could rise to 28.1 million units this year from 4.6 million, with Apple capturing 55 percent of it, according to researcher Strategy Analytics.
Whether those projections prove true would depend largely on the details, which are set to be revealed today at 10am at the invite-only event in San Francisco.
Here are three things to look for:
PRICE
“The price points are going to be the key focus point,” Citigroup Inc analyst Jim Suva said.
Apple has said that prices would start at US$349. The next price point might be US$550 and then US$950, according Suva’s analysis, which suggests a stair-step approach similar to iPhone and iPad pricing.
Others see the high-end Apple Watch Edition — which is made with 18-karat gold that Apple promises to be twice as hard as “standard” gold and a display with polished sapphire crystal — could cost significantly more.
For example, Piper Jaffray & Co’s Gene Munster estimates the high-end watch would begin at US$4,999 and that the average-selling price might be closer to US$7,500 when high-end watch bands are included. Apple enthusiast John Gruber has suggested the high-end model could begin at US$10,000 and reach as high as US$20,000.
BATTERY LIFE
It is the question asked of every new Apple product: How long would the battery last between charges? The answer is often dependent on usage. Apple says the iPhone 6, for example, should stay charged for as long as 14 hours of talk time or 10 hours of surfing the Internet over a cellular network. However, users see different results in the real world.
“We expect the usage of Apple Watch through the day to be incredible, because there’s so many different things you can do with it, so we’ve designed it so it’s simple to charge it at night,” Cook said in September. He added it would last a full day before charging at night.
Samsung says its Gear S smartwatch gets about one to two days of typical use out its battery, while Pebble, which does not have power-sucking apps or as vibrant a screen as rivals, claims to last between five and seven days.
Web site 9to5mac has said that the Apple Watch would operate for five hours of heavy use, while it would go about a day with a mixture of active and passive use. Apple engineers, according to the New York Times, have come up with a feature called “Power Reserve” that would put the watch into a low-energy mode displaying only the time.
“A full day is a decent benchmark for version one,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Ben Bajarin said. “What you’re dealing with is that most smartwatches today last maybe a day, nothing gets better than that.”
APPS
If there are only three or four great apps by the end of the year, the buzz going into next year will be that the “Apple Watch is nice, but it’s not a must have, and that will be the deal killer,” Forrester Research Inc analyst James McQuivey said.
Apple knows that app selection is critical to the gadget’s success, so it has been working with developers from companies including BMW AG, Facebook Inc and United Airlines Inc to have apps ready right out of the box.
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