The Apple Watch is 'coming in the spring,' says Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts
The Apple Watch is “coming in the spring,” according to Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts.
As reported by 9to5Mac, Ahrendts said as much in a video message to Apple’s retail employees:
Ahrendts stated the timeframe to retail employees in a video message, a transcript of which was provided by a source. While explaining that employees need to conserve energy for upcoming shopping seasons, Ahrendts stated, “we’re going into the holidays, we’ll go into Chinese New Year, and then we’ve got a new watch launch coming in the spring.”
Ahrendts’ statement essentially narrows the much vaunted wearable product’s launch to the aforementioned season. This is as opposed to the vague “early 2015” window that has been said by Apple since the device’s introduction alongside the iPhone 6, the iPhone 6 Plus, and Apple Pay in September.
However, it suggests that the launch is scheduled to take place not as “early” as has been widely expected, considering that spring begins in late March next year.
The Apple Watch is “coming in the spring.”
In any case, the Apple Watch, being an entirely new category in Apple’s product lineup, has been the focus of much planning in Apple’s retail department. “At an all-hands retail employee meeting last month,” 9to5Mac reports, “Cook told staff members that retail employees will be trained to help customers actually try on the Apple Watch, including swapping out different sizes and bands.”
Previous reports have suggested several key reasons for the apparent delay in the launch of the Apple Watch, which was said to be originally planned for release by the end of 2014. These include software issues, given that the device runs a new operating system called Watch OS.
And then there’s the issue of the device’s short battery life. At The Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.D Live tech conference last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the Apple Watch might require daily charging because “you’re going to use it so much.”
At its special media event last month, Apple announced that the Apple Watch’s SDK, WatchKit, would be available beginning this month to allow developers to start working on apps for the Apple Watch ahead of the product’s launch — whenever that may be.
