Apple apparently working on smartwatch with cellular connectivity
One weakness of Apple's computer watch so far is that it needs the owner's iPhone to connect to the cellular network. According to the financial service Bloomberg, the company will soon be ready to make the Apple Watch largely independent.
At least some models of the Apple Watch are now to get chips for connection to LTE mobile networks, the financial service Bloomberg wrote over the weekend. Apple is already in talks with network operators in the U.S. and Europe, it said, citing informed persons. At the same time, the market launch could also be delayed beyond 2017, Bloomberg qualified.
The Apple Watch has been the best-selling computer watch since its market launch in spring 2015. The company itself does not give any concrete sales figures, but market observers assume around three million devices per quarter. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently only said that sales had increased by 50 percent year-on-year in the past quarter.
With the second generation last fall, Apple already made the watch a bit more independent of the iPhone with its own GPS chip. This can be used to record the distance during a training run, for example.
Competition ticks the same
Samsung already introduced a computer watch with mobile connectivity about two years ago and followed up with an LTE version of the current Gear S3 model. LG also launched an LTE watch last year. The sales figures for these devices are not known.
According to Bloomberg, the mobile communications chip in the Apple Watch is to come from Intel - and not from semiconductor specialist Qualcomm, with which Apple is involved in an escalating licensing dispute. Intel's communication chips are now also used in the iPhones sold in Europe. Intel gained some experience in the smartwatch business in recent years. The chip company tried its hand at offering a fitness watch itself after buying Basis, but discontinued the device relatively quickly. Most recently, Intel played a leading role in the development of the smartwatch "Connected" from the Swiss watch manufacturer Tag Heuer and also wants to get into business with other providers from the classic industry.
For a long time, battery life was considered a challenge for watches with LTE connectivity in view of the limited battery size. However, Intel manager Jerry Bautista, who is responsible for such new devices, said on the sidelines of the Baselworld watch fair in March that in the meantime this is no longer a problem as long as one limits oneself to the transmission of data. "As soon as it comes to transmitting voice, however, much more energy is needed." (SDA)
Photo: Pixabay.com
