You know that old saying about buses: you wait ages for one and then several turn up at the same time? Well, according to analyst Timothy Arcuri from Cowen & Co, the same is about to prove true of Apple Watches.
In a new note to clients, Arcuri claims that an Apple Watch version 2.0 will turn up later this year and that, unlike its predecessor, it won’t require an iPhone to be tethered to it in order to work. Arcuri also thinks this will be Apple’s first device to boast an OLED screen exclusively supplied by Samsung.
Will it happen? At some point, certainly. I’m not going to speculate about Samsung being Apple’s exclusive provider of OLED screens, but I’d be surprised if there’s not a follow-up Apple Watch in 2016 (so a bit later than Arcuri says), especially once Apple has figured out the sensors it apparently wanted for the first generation device.
As the Apple Watch grows as its own product, it also makes sense that it will be less a second screen for your iPhone and more its own class of device. Will Apple ditch the idea of you having to tether it to your iPhone, though? Given the company’s tightly interlocking ecosystem, I think that’s very unlikely.
Sure, it’s likely that Apple will open up more features of the device to developers, which means that we’ll get apps that don’t require the iPhone to work, but I just can’t see Apple abandoning the idea of the Apple Watch being a useful accessory for its best-selling product category. The Apple Watch may succeed on its own terms, but it’s also there to make the iPhone experience better.
In the meantime, we’ll wait and see if Arcuri’s previous prediction about a 4-inch iPhone 6s comes true. If it does, that makes this rumor slightly more believable — although only slightly.
Via: Barrons
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
12 responses to “Sketchy rumor claims Apple Watch 2 is coming later this year”
now it’s much more skinny and battery dies in almost half time!
“I just can’t see Apple abandoning the idea of the Apple Watch being a useful accessory for its best-selling product category”
My first iPhone (the original) was tethered to my iMac. I used to joke it was the most expensive smartphone you could buy because you needed a computer to do anything ‘smart’ with it. Then iPhones went ‘PC free’ and sales went thru the roof.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect the Apple Watch to move in the same direction. To eventually migrate the target customer from ‘iPhone users’ to ‘people who want a smartwatch’ regardless of what other tech they own. Perhaps future Apple Watches would have wi-fi (or some bluetooth to wi-fi bridge) and be configured thru iCloud.
While most Apple devices are designed to work well together, they are also designed to work well alone.
Dumbest thing I’ve read all week
Actually that’s exectly what’s going to happen.
This is the same they did with the iPad 2.
Let a bunch of costumers buy one, make it better accourding to the needs of them, then bring out a secound one and sell it like nothing ever bevore.
This would work perfectly together with a rumor, that a plastic (sport) and a platinum (edition) will be released in late 2015.
Plastic for all the normal people at a starting price of 259$ and you’re the smartwatch winner.
This didn’t happen with the iPad 2. It actually happened with the transition between the iPad 3 retina to the iPad 4 a few months later. The iPad 2 had a normal release schedule but has received all the software updates unlike the original iPad which got cut off very early. If you’re going to complain please get your facts straight.
Do you even think before writing stuff like this?
Me: Apple Watch 2 will be like iPad 2. Replace The FIRST one!
You: “unlike the original iPad which got cut off very early”
Now think again!
And by the way this was NO Complaint!!!
Do YOU even think before writing what you write. I wrote under the impression that you were writing in response to the article. Apparently you’re just writing to be a dooshbag.
So, you’re saying that the Apple Watch 2 will eventually replace the original Apple Watch? OMG, brilliant!
We are not worthy to be in the presence of such a genius
It certainly won’t be this year, but it won’t be long either… So, will anyone still want to spend $15,000 on that gold Edition model when you know that within a couple of years an Apple Watch 2 will make it look soooo 2015 ? This doesn’t happen when you buy a Rolex…
Anytime an Apple rumor involved an OLED screen, it’s been 100% false.
Click bait, they say this every time there is a new Apple Product.