1. Release Date
Early 2015. That’s when Tim Cook said the Apple Watch would be available during the event at which the device was unveiled. That’s pretty vague. That could mean January, but it could also mean April. Apple will, of course, clarify this as we draw nearer the Watch’s release date, but some sense of when we’ll be able to buy the device would be nice.
Answer: The Watch goes on sale April 24 in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK, and the US. Not exactly “early” 2015, but at least it’s still the first half of the year.
2. Battery Life
This could easily be the #1 most important question. Apple pointedly didn’t mention battery life at all during the Watch’s announcement. Rumor has it that that’s because the company wants the time between announcement and launch to improve battery life.
Why is this such a big deal? Imagine having all the terrific, exciting features of the Apple Watch disappear at lunchtime when your Watch runs out of battery. For the device to be truly useful, it’s going to need to at least work for 12 hours without a recharge, maybe longer. If Apple can’t deliver battery life that long, the Apple Watch could be DOA.
Answer: Apple is claiming an 18-hour battery life in regular usage (i.e., not all day, every day). Sounds good, but competing smartwatches like the Pebble can go as many as 7 days without needing a charge.
3. Pricing
Pricing for the Apple Watch starts at US$349, but how high up does that price go? There are some pretty impressive options for the material the watch can be made out of—the watch’s body is made out of 18-karat gold on the high-end Apple Watch Edition models—as well as many different types of watch straps. Presumably the people interested in gold watches aren’t too concerned with price, but for the rest of us, are we likely to be spending $350 or something a good deal higher?
Answer: Prices run from $349 to over $10,000, depending on the model, size, and watch band.Check out this article for more specifics.
4. Advanced Health Features
The rumors leading up to the unveiling of the Watch suggested that it might have tremendous, almost science fiction-style, health tracking features. Rumors said that it could help detect and prevent heart attacks, monitor the contents of your blood, and much more. But when Apple unveiled it, the only health features they mentioned were a heart rate monitor and the ability to track your fitness activity. Are those the extent of the Watch’s health-tracking features or are we going to hear about more advances as the release date draws nearer?
Answer: The heart-rate monitor and the fitness tracking features are indeed the only major health features of the Apple Watch.
5. Healthcare Integration
Going hand in hand with the health-tracking features were rumors that Apple was working closely with major healthcare providers and hospitals, like the Mayo Clinic, to integrate health data captured by the Watch and stored in the Health app with patient medical records and treatment. There was no mention of this during the announcement. Will they be part of the Watch’s launch in 2015?
Answer: The extent of this will depend a lot on healthcare providers, but Apple’s announcement of its ResearchKit framework and apps suggests a robust future for Apple in the healthcare space.
6. What Features Require iPhone?
We know that the Apple Watch will require a connection to the iPhone 5 and newer in order to use features like GPS and Internet connectivity. That makes sense—to get such a small device, you have to sacrifice some features. But the Watch won’t be as great as it seems if you rely almost entirely on an iPhone for the Watch to work. Apple hasn’t provided too much detail yet, but before the Watch is released, we’ll need to know which of its features stand on their own and which depend completely on an iPhone.
Answer: Still essentially TBD, but it seems that most features of the Watch that require any kind of connectivity will require the iPhone.
7. Proximity to iPhone
The Apple Watch will connect to the iPhone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, according to Apple, but that doesn’t tell us exactly how far the Watch can be away from a phone and still work (well, in the case of Bluetooth it does—it can’t go outside Bluetooth’s range of 10 or so feet). For the Watch and iPhone to be connected via Wi-Fi, does that mean the iPhone will have to be running Personal Hotspot (and thus be somewhat nearby) or can the devices simply connect to the same Wi-Fi network and be somewhat distant (on different floors in the same building, for instance)?
Answer: As long as the Watch and an iPhone are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, they’ll be able to communicate. How far away they can be from each other will depend on the signal strength of, and interference affecting, the network.
7 Burning Questions About the Apple Watch
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