Rumours that Apple is developing a ‘smart watch’ have gone into overdrive this week following a report in The New York Times that the company is “experimenting with wristwatch-like devices made of curved glass”.
Published on February 10, the report by Nick Bilton quoted anonymous sources who said the device would probably use Apple’s iOS platform “and stand apart from competitors based on the company’s understanding of how such glass can curve around the human body”.
A day later Bilton followed his report with an editorial stating that an iWatch rather than iGlasses was a logical development for Apple.
“The wrist is not a scary place for consumers to add their first computer,” he said.
“After all, we’ve been wearing a type of computer there for decades: the wristwatch. (For many of you in the 1970s, a digital watch, some with a mini-calculator, was your first computer).
“Now that the wristwatch is being supplanted by the smartphone, the wrist is the perfect place to introduce customers to a computer they can wear.”
Bilton’s widely circulated reports followed a blog post by former Apple designer Bruce Tognazzini in which he said an iWatch would “fill a gaping hole in the Apple ecosystem”.
“It will facilitate and coordinate not only the activities of all the other computers and devices we use, but a wide array of devices to come,” he said.
“Like other breakthrough Apple products, its value will be underestimated at launch, then grow to have a profound impact on our lives and Apple’s fortunes.”
