AppleInsider Staff
A suspect new report out of China claims to have a great deal of specifics on Apple's rumored "iWatch," namely that it will debut in the third quarter of this year and will include advanced sensors to detect a user's heart rate and blood pressure, among other things.
The sketchily specific details from China's Economic Daily News, reported on Tuesday, claim that the supply chain for the device was recently finalized. The report states that Taiwan's Quanta Computer has received an exclusive contract to build the device, with 65 million units expected to be built in the first year of availability.
The report goes on to say that the so-called "iWatch" will sport custom chips designed in-house by Apple but that some of them will be built at Samsung's foundry, suggesting the company will continue to rely on its fierce rival for silicon.
It's claimed that Foxconn and Inventec were also in the running for assembly orders with the rumored "iWatch," but Quanta secured the exclusive contract. Other Taiwanese companies are said to supply the main assembly, touchscreen controls, and some integrated circuit and printed circuit boards for the final product.
iWatch concept by Todd HamiltonThe report also goes on to say that the glass screen on Apple's anticipated wrist-worn accessory will be made of sapphire. Apple late last year signed an exclusive deal with GT Advanced Technologies Inc. for supply of sapphire glass, a material already used by Apple to protect the cover of the Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5s, as well as the glass coating on the camera lens on the rear of the device.
As for Apple's rumored watch, another report this week suggested the company could include a UV light exposure sensor in the accessory. Its inclusion could warn users about sunburn or general concerns about sun exposure.
Apple has made a number of key hires in recent years related to health and fashion, suggesting to many that the company is working on a new wrist-worn device that could serve both functions as an advanced iPhone accessory. The wearables market has been an area of considerable interest for other technology companies — including Samsung, Google, Sony and others — all of which plan to release new wrist-based electronics this year.
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38 Comments
So when they underestimate the 1st get iPad they make so they don't do that again? You can't build 65M of anything until you know how well it will sell.
[quote name="Ireland" url="/t/177821/rumor-quanta-to-build-65m-apple-iwatch-units-in-first-year-q3-2014-release-expected#post_2512146"]So when they underestimate the 1st get iPad they make so they don't do that again? You can't build 65M of anything until you know how well it will sell. [/quote] All one can do is laugh at a rumor like this. The only way Apple would be building 65M of a wearable device is if it was being included with an iPhone. I highly doubt that is happening.
Apple is from California and they like to export that culture in their products. And many times that is a good thing, but there are some negative aspects to that culture such as obsession with body image and fad diets and plastic surgery.
These obsessions all begin (as they logically must) with simply thinking about food and exercise too much. Instead of food just being the thing you use to keep you going (so you can get on with your main interests), it becomes the whole focus of your life. Instead of exercise being that simple walk to work in the morning, it becomes something you obsessively do for hours every day. This unhealthy amount of thought about one thing is the start of what ultimately becomes anorexia and/or obsesity.
And what could cause people to think about food and exercise an unhealthy amount, more than having it on their wrist all day, spitting statistics about their body to them? I'm sure when Apple think about what this product will do they are hoping it will help with the obesity epidemic. But I worry about the ordinary young woman with a well balanced diet and regular exercise putting one on and developing an eating disorder.
This is my thought exactly...these insanely high predictions could only make sense if Apple was either giving it away, or charging some ridiculously low amount for it, and it would be considered an iPhone accessory that is available in store at launch.
Think about that for a moment....If the iWatch were, say, $79. And it launched in September along side iPhone 6 as an accessory (for iOS 8 devices with Healthbook)...how many could they potentially sell? Probably....a LOT.
65 million in the first 12 months is probably not a gross overestimate in that case.
Not to be that guy but Sapphire is not glass.