We get slammed 24/7 with new Apple rumors. Some are accurate, most are not. To give you a clue about what’s really coming out of Cupertino in the future, we’re busting out our rumor debunker each week to blow up the nonsense.
This week the Apple Watch rumors have reached a crescendo as invites to a not-so-mysterious event in March were released. Will the Apple Watch really launch with 100,000 apps? Will demand for the gold Apple Watch wreak havoc on the world’s gold supply? And don’t forget about the Apple car either. New rumors are claiming Samsung could be the biggest boost or roadblock for project Titan.
Find out the truth behind the week’s wildest Apple rumors below:
Photo: Josh Baré/DeviantArt CC
The Rumor: Samsung’s battery experts are fleeing to build iCar?
We don’t even know if the Apple car project is real, but this rumor doesn’t surprise us. Apple tries to get the best talent in the world, even if they come from its number one rival. Sources at the Korean Times say Cupertino is poaching Samsung’s battery experts, which makes sense because Samsung is of the few companies that supplies batteries for electric vehicles like BMW and Tesla.
The Rumor: Samsung wants to put the brakes on Apple’s car project.
Nah. They want to make money off it. Samsung bought the battery pack division of Magna International this week, just a couple weeks after it was reported Apple had met with the company as part of project Titan. Samsung might be trying to make it harder for Apple to build its electric car, but it’s more likely they want to become THE supplier for all electric car batteries, like they supply components for most of the PCs made in the world. It looks like Apple might not be able to break its Samsung dependency for another decade.
The Rumor: Apple Watch will launch with 100,000 apps?
I’m an Apple Watch believer, but this rumor is ridiculous. Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research has gone to like six attending six Apple Watch-Kit hackathons over “the past few months” and is telling investors to expect 100,000 watch apps at launch based on the developers he’s talked to. We expect plenty of apps to be available at launch, but it took the iOS App Store 16 months before it hit the 100,000 apps mark, so don’t get your hopes up.
The Rumor: Apple Watch demand could use 30% of world’s annual gold supply?
No way, but we also wouldn’t be shocked if it did. Based on rumors that Apple expects to sell 1 million gold Apple Watch units a month, TidBits’ Josh Centers did some back-of-the-envelope math and calculated that Apple would need 746 metric tons of gold to meet the demand. The world only mines 2500 metric tons of gold a year, so even if you cut those projections in half, Apple is about to become the world’s largest gold buyer. Based on current gold prices, Apple would need to buy $28.8 billion worth of gold per year to satisfy the hordes of ridiculously wealthy Apple fanboys that are dropping $10k on an Apple Watch.
There are only two logical explanations: The mad scientists at Apple’s R&D center finally discovered how to make the Philosopher’s Stone. Or the Wall Street Journal’s sources were totally wrong about Apple Watch Edition sales projections.
The Rumor: Apple Pay will be available in Europe by mid-April?
Most likely not. Visa Europe announced that it is putting in place the infrastructure needed to accept contactless payments like Apple Pay by mid-April. That led some experts to speculate that Apple Pay would be ready by the same time, but Tim Cook gave this rumor a deathblow during an interview in Germany where he said Apple Pay will come to Europe “before the end of the year.”
The Rumor: The next flagship Samsung smartphone will be an iPhone 6 copycat?
Probably. Photos of an alleged Samsung prototype leaked this week and revealed Samsung might be taking some more design cues from Apple. The device ditches a replaceable battery for a solid back, and the bottom looks almost identical to the iPhone 6. The full reveal is expected to take place at Mobile World Congress next week.
