AppleInsider Staff
At next month's Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple will release a new software development kit that will allow applications to run natively on the Apple Watch, and those apps will become available to consumers this fall, the company confirmed on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Code Conference with Walt Mossberg, Jeff Williams revealed that native Apple Watch apps will be available this fall. Apple had already revealed that native Apple Watch apps would arrive this year, but the comments made by Williams on Wednesday confirm that they won't be available until late in 2015.
Developers will get their first peek at the updated Watch SDK on June 8, when Apple kicks off its annual WWDC event. The conference will begin with a 10 a.m. Pacific keynote presentation, where the next versions of iOS and OS X are also set to be unveiled.
On the current Watch OS, third-party applications for the Apple Watch are powered by a connected iPhone. Accessing those apps requires an iPhone to be in range and tethered.
But with the new software development kit, developers will be able to create new applications that will run natively on the Apple Watch, without the need for an iPhone to be connected.
As for Apple Watch sales, Williams unsurprisingly declined to give any numbers. But he did tell Mossberg on Wednesday that Apple has sold "a lot" of devices, and that sales thus far have been "fantastic."
Because the Apple Watch is a new product category with much hype and even greater expectations on Wall Street, Apple has publicly said it has no intention of revealing unit sales for the wearable device in the near future. Revenue from the Apple Watch, iPods, and other smaller product categories will be lumped together on future earnings reports.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
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Andrew Orr
27 Comments
That should add considerably to other's app responsiveness.
Revenue from the Apple Watch, iPods, and other smaller product categories will be lumped together on future earnings reports.
And again, it should fairly easy to figure out what percentage of income that represents, even with factoring in declining iPod sales. Trying to figure out which watches that represents will be a little more complicated, especially since there will be Edition sales in the next earnings call in July.
And again, it should fairly easy to figure out what percentage of income that represents, even with factoring in declining iPod sales. Trying to figure out which watches that represents will be a little more complicated, especially since there will be Edition sales in the next earnings call in July.
Apple only "lumps" them together when they are not substantial enough to brag about...even more evidence that the AW is an abysmal failure, chinese dogs wearing Edition watches and all.
[quote name="brlawyer" url="/t/186446/native-apps-for-apple-watch-will-arrive-this-fall-apple-still-wont-reveal-sales#post_2727678"] Apple only "lumps" them together when they are not substantial enough to brag about...even more evidence that the AW is an abysmal failure, chinese dogs wearing Edition watches and all. [/quote] Except well before Apple Watch went on sale Apple said it would be reporting Watch figures in the "other" category. Going by your logic the iPod was an abysmal failure too. It didn't really take off until 2004.
Here's an interesting Q&A: Question: About revenue growth at Apple, about 65% of revenue comes from the iPhone. My concern is that the Watch won’t be the next $10-$20 billion business. Can you talk about industries that Apple is at least looking at with your giant stack of money? Williams: The car is the ultimate mobile device. We look at many categories, we’re exploring a lot of interesting areas. According to the recode live blog apparently Williams dialed this back to say he was talking about CarPlay. Of course not surprised by that but I think it's pretty clear he's talking about more than just CarPlay. No way Apple will get a $10-$20B business out of that. Plus Apple has never been very successful being technology in someone else's product. CarPlay is just an interim step on the way to Apple's own car.