Apple is beyond the experimentation phase in its development of a so-called "iWatch" and has a team of about 100 product designers working on it, according to a new report by Bloomberg.
The Bloomberg article follows similar reports by both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal that cited anonymous sources as saying Apple is experimenting with devices made of curved glass that can fit around the wrist and run the mobile iOS platform.
According to Bloomberg, the team working on the project has grown in the last year and includes managers, members of the marketing team, as well as software and hardware engineers that had previously been working on the iPhone and iPad.
It has been noted that Apple is facing pressure from shareholders to produce a new "revolutionary" gadget. Bruce Tognazzini, a technology consultant and former Apple employee, says: "Steve Jobs' true legacy lies not with his products, but his method, the way he would forge revolutionary products from cold blocks of creativity. I know. I was one of his earliest recruits and watched him develop the method. Steve applied it one project at a time.
"My hope is that Apple now has teams applying it across many projects, shortening the historic six years between breakthrough products." He adds that Apple is usually not the first to bring out an entirely new gadget. "They let a few others, sometimes many others, experiment first. (Tablets were out for more than a decade.) Then, they bring out the killer product."
Tognazzini predicts the first "iWatch" may not make its public debut until next year, but he says it will fill a "gaping hole" in the Apple ecosystem.
"It will facilitate and coordinate not only the activities of all the other computers and devices we use, but a wide array of devices to come. Like other breakthrough Apple products, its value will be underestimated at launch, then grow to have a profound impact on our lives and Apple's fortunes."
Share
