New Delhi: Apple unveiled its long-anticipated smartwatch on Tuesday, venturing into its first new market in several years with a wearable device tethered to the iPhone that will combine health and fitness tracking with communications.
It's called the Apple Watch, rather than the iWatch that many people had been speculating. The new watch will come in a variety of styles and straps, with a choice of two sizes. Watches from competing vendors have been criticised for being too big for smaller arms.
The Apple Watch will require one of the new iPhones or an iPhone 5, 5s or 5c. It will be available early next year at a starting price of $349.
It's the first new product to be developed and introduced under Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook's reign, the next chapter in Apple's history.
Cook says Apple had to invent a new interface for the watch because simply shrinking a phone wouldn't work.
Much of the interaction would be through the dial on the watch, which Apple calls the digital crown. You use that to zoom in and out of a map, for instance, so you're not blocking the screen, which would have occurred if you were pinching in and out to zoom.
Apple also worked with app developers to create new functionality. You'll be able to unlock room doors at Starwood hotels or remind yourself where you parked your car with a BMW app.
On Tuesday, the company also took the wraps off a larger, 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. They will support more than 200 telecoms carriers worldwide, including all three in China - a key growth market for the company.
It also introduced a new mobile payments service dubbed "Apple Pay." Each phone will come equipped with its new payments service, which launches in the United States next month and allows users to pay for items in stores with their phones instead of physically presenting their credit or debit cards.
Rival electronics giants such as Sony Corp, Samsung, LG Electronics Inc and Qualcomm Inc have already launched smartwatches, albeit without much success.
(With inputs from agencies)
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