Apple Watch to miss Christmas and will launch in spring

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/03/apple-watch-christmas-google-android-smartwatch

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Apple’s first smartwatch, the Apple Watch, will not be available to buy until spring 2015, according to a leaked internal video from Apple’s head of retail, Angela Ahrendts.

The Apple Watch was scheduled for early 2015, but a transcript of the video sent to technology site 9to5Mac states that the watch will not be available until spring, giving Google’s Android Wear smartwatches a nine-month head start.

“We’re going into the holidays, we’ll go into Chinese New Year [on 19 February], and then we’ve got a new watch launch coming in the spring,” said Ahrendts in a video to Apple retail employees.

At the Apple Watch’s unveiling in September, Apple said an early 2015 release for the watch scheduled, but spring could indicate any time from March until May.

The Apple Watch will miss the crucial 2014 Christmas period, which analysts are expecting will see wearable technology including fitness trackers and smartwatches be the big gifts of the year.

‘Such a difficult and humbling program’

One of the reasons Apple Watch is taking so long to come to market is designing a smartwatch posed a greater challenge than designing the iPhone, Apple’s chief designer, Jony Ive, told an audience at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on Thursday night.

“Even though Apple Watch does so many things, there are cultural, historical implications and expectations,” Ive explained. “That’s why it’s been such a difficult and humbling program.”

Ive said he believes with “every bone in his body” that the Apple Watch will define the new smartwatch category, which until now has seen Android and Samsung’s Tizen dominate with watches such as the Motorola Moto 360 and Samsung Gear line.

Pebble’s high-profile and successful Kickstarter campaign for an e-ink smartwatch in April 2012 showed that there was appetite for a lightweight computing device on the wrist.

‘You’re going to end up charging it daily’

Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, previously admitted that the Apple Watch will suffer from poor battery life, something the company is working on to attempt to prolong and one of the reasons why Apple’s watch will require a Bluetooth connection to an iPhone, offloading processor-intensive actions and access the internet.

“We think you’re going to end up charging it daily. Overnight, that’s what we think,” Cook told the audience at WSJD Live conference. “I think given my own experience, and others around it, that you’re going to wind up charging it every day. Because you’re going to use it so much.”

‘Haven’t quite hit the right formula yet’

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame, who was previously chief creative officer at Beats Music, elaborated on his new role at Apple which will take him away from making music.

“This is very creative work that’s not directly making music, but it’s around music, Reznor told Billboard. “It’s exciting to me, and I think it could have a big enough impact that it’s worth the effort. I’m fully in it right now, and it’s challenging, and it’s unfamiliar and it’s kind of everything I asked for — and the bad thing is it’s everything I asked for.”

Apple is expected to integrate the Beats Music subscription service, which is only available in North America, into the iTunes brand next year seeing iTunes move into the streaming model shown popular by rivals Spotify and Deezer.

“I think the right streaming service could solve everybody’s problems,” Reznor said. “I just think we haven’t quite hit the right formula yet.”

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