Apple's iWatch Could Come With IOS, Earn $6 Billion a Year

Nerval's Lobster writes "Apple's long-rumored "iWatch" could earn the company $6 billion a year, if an analyst quoted by Bloomberg proves correct. Citigroup analyst Oliver Chen estimated the global watch industry's annual revenue at $60 billion a year, with gross margins of roughly 60 percent. "This can be a $6 billion opportunity for Apple, with plenty of opportunity for upside if they create something totally new like they did with the iPod," he told the newswire, "something consumers didn't even know they needed." Meanwhile, The Verge reports that Apple has " chosen to rework the full iOS to run on the watch instead of building up the iPod nano's proprietary touch operating system," which has led to battery issues: while Apple would like the device to last "at least 4-5 days" between charges, the current prototypes give somewhat less. While an "Apple TV" long dominated the rumor mill as Apple's next big product, the frequency and detail of "iWatch" rumors over the past few weeks suggests that a timepiece could be the company's next big project."

Great, but what does it *DO*?

[crazyjj]

Aside from the fact that the Apple logo alone will have people lined up outside of Apple stores across the country to buy this thin, I'm inclined to ask what this watch actually DOES (aside from the obvious "tells time").

The screen is going to be way too small to type on. And if Apple claims that Siri won't run on even older iPhones, it seems unlikely that it's going to run on this watch. So that leaves only the simplest of input options.

And the screen is going to be crazy small for much output, not that it will have much CPU or memory to do much anyway (unless the form factor is HUGE).

The only thing I can figure is that this is going to be a blutooth front-end for an iPhone, but in that case, having a full iOS install seems like overkill.

Has anyone actually seen a working prototype of this thing in action, who could maybe clue us in?

Put another way...

[kenh]

If every number I made up turns out to be true, this product I know nothing about could represent $6BN in revenue for Apple.

Seriously, it's speculation built on top of more speculation... Oh, wait, it's slashdot, never mind.

Exercise Watch Potential

[getto man d]

Definitely something for the atypical slashdotter, but if Apple can bring something to the market which combines iOS, the Nike+t [nike.com], the Fit Bit [fitbit.com], and/or the Suunto Core [suunto.com] they could potentially capture a good portion of the exercise watch / band market. Current options aren't truly versatile (e.g. hiking, running, backpacking, daily activity), but combine this with Apple's UI and they could produce a very interesting product that I'm likely to try.

Yes, I've looked at Motorola's GPS watches and was far from impressed.

Re:Watch wearing is a declining trend

[HornWumpus]

Came to say this.

What we need is an iPocketwatch. Make it fit into old gold watch cases and work as a cell phone.

I wouldn't buy one, but every suit in the world would be all over it. Hipsters perhaps, depends on how that herd stampedes next.

Who is going to buy this?

[TheRedDuke]

I have a watch already. It's called a smartphone.
I have a device that runs apps already. It's called a smartphone.
I have a device with Bluetooth for my headphones. It's called a smartphone.
etc. etc.

Re:Hey... kid...

[tompaulco]

Remember Swatches? They were cool when I was a kid. Some people would wear 5 or 6 of them at a time.