Apple is due to officially unveil its Apple Watch on March 9 in a special event which the American tech giant aptly titled “Spring Forward.” But this early, a market analyst is already predicting that the latest smart wearable may be a game-changer in the market.
Strategy Analytics, a market research and analysis firm, predicts that the Apple Watch will capture more than half of the global smartwatch market in 2015, reports Skynews of Australia.
The research firm also made fearless projections that the launching of the iWatch to the retail markets beginning this April could actually perk up overall sales of smartwatches by 511% or a total of 28.1 million units this year.
That’s a fearless and obviously a very optimistic forecast for Apple which is foraying for the first time into the emerging wearable tech market.
An iPhone interface
More than just telling the time, which has sort of become just an add-on feature of the Apple Watch, the smartwatch serves an an iPhone interface, which enables users to access messaging, photos, phone calls and data from their smartphone to the Apple Watch.
Accessible data include stock market quotes as well as the American tech company’s mobile payment system known as Apple Pay.
The Apple Watch combine the web-connecting capabilities of the iPhone with those other features of existing smart wearables including fitness-tracking FitBit in a highly customizable, status-symbol design.
In a recent video released by Apple formally introducing the smart wearable, Apple design chief Jonathan Ive explained that the next-generation electrode screen on the sapphire face of the Apple Watch adds a new dimension to the touch screen.
It actually senses and differentiates between a finger’s tap and a press for the user to access its different functions in a seamless and naturally interactive way. Twisting and pressing the crown of the smartwatch also provides further navigation.
Filling in the blanks
Apple has already revealed a handful of features about the Apple Watch since the last week of February and also in its upcoming 12-page full-feature advertisements in the March issue of Vogue magazine.
Its March 9 event will just be a matter for the company to fill in the remaining blanks that people, particularly the Apple enthusiasts have yet to know about the iWatch.
While consumers are already aware that Apple is looking to retail the smartwatch beginning this April, the specific prices of the various designs of the iWatch have yet to be divulged.
Initial reports indicated that retail prices for the base model of the Apple Watch will be at $349 but it could actually go up to five digits or near five-digit figure for its 18-karat gold edition.
Apple has hyped that the Apple Watch is its most personal and personally interactive device yet. Now it would be interesting to see how the company will convince people to make the Apple Watch a must-wear where Samsung and other manufacturers of smartwatches still have difficulty doing up to this time.