AppleInsider Staff
A rumor out of East Asia on Wednesday claims chip manufacturers responsible for supplying silicon for the upcoming Apple Watch are ramping toward production ahead of an expected early 2015 launch.
Citing industry sources, DigiTimes reports Apple's chip suppliers are nearly ready to start production for components bound for the Apple Watch, the company's first foray into the wearable device segment.
Judging by the the first batch of orders, supply chain sources estimate Apple to turn out an initial 30 million to 40 million Apple Watch units. By comparison, Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch sold some 800,000 pieces during its first two months on sale.
With Apple Watch, Apple is employing advanced system-in-package (SiP) technology that goes beyond the current A-series chip designs to include an entire computing system on a single chip. Dubbed "S1," the Apple Watch SiP is a custom-designed piece of silicon that stacks and integrates multiple subsystems into an area small enough to fit within a wristwatch's small footprint.
Apple expectedly has not revealed much about the S1 aside from touting it as an industry first. In a video presented during the Apple Watch reveal in September, Apple SVP of Design Jony Ive said the S1 is entirely encapsulated in resin for superior protection against the elements.
Along with the S1 SiP, the Apple Watch features a Force Touch Retina display capable of discerning taps from presses, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, Taptic Engine for haptic feedback, NFC for Apple Pay, wireless inductive charging and a so-called Digital Crown for OS navigation and invoking Siri.
As far as availability, the most recent rumors point to a Feb. 14 debut date, though industry scuttlebutt has the device launching closer to the second quarter of 2015.
Amber Neely
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
121 Comments
We are hearing about who the chip suppliers are, but who is making the Watch case materials. Maybe it will be like the Mac Pro aluminium case which is made in the U.S. edit: case made in u.s.
Who are the chip suppliers for ?Watch? With the rest of the product many things come from different countries like Italy, The Netherlands and France. It will be interesting to see where it's all pulled together. So far photos we've seen of ?Watch don't say where it's being manufactured.
With a design like the S1 package, this watch is beautiful inside and out.
This Apple Watch is the new iPhone folks.
Everyone else has made their primitive clunky smart watches just like they did with the mobile phones, some will now try to copy the Apple Watch over the next 5 years.
Remember how Google panicked and changed Android's designs at the last minute to copy the iPhone? Well, they can't do that with the Apple Watch now. If you look at the Android ware crap and think it is in the same category as the Apple Watch then good luck with that, you must still be using a Samsung feature phone.
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Not too long ago there was a fight for the watch that lives in your pocket and the watch that lives on your wrist. The wrist won.