Apple DesignチーフJony IveBecame 10月にスティーブジョブズが死亡した直後に時計の構築に興味がある 2011. その12月, The New York Timesreported that Apple was exploring various ideas, aを含む “手首を包む湾曲したグラスiPod”, どのユーザーがSirivoiceアシスタントを介して対話するか, そしてどちら “情報をiPhoneにリレーすることができます”. 2月 2013, the NYTand The Wall Street Journalagain confirmed that Apple was working on a smartwatch with a curved display,and Bloomberg Newssaid the team had grown to about 100 designers.
In March 2013, Apple hired ex-Adobe chief technology officer Kevin Lynch, reporting to Bob Mansfield, to lead the watch project, which would become the company’s first major new product without input from late co-founder Steve Jobs. Apple started the project without specific use cases in mind, not knowing what problems the watch would solve, but felt that “technology was going to move onto the body”, according to Alan Dye, who was in charge of its user interface. According to Kevin Lynch, the team felt people spent too much time on their phone, nagged by notifications, and a watch would provide “that level of engagement […] in a way that’s a little more human, a little more at the moment when you’re with somebody”.
In July 2013, Financial Timesreported that Apple had begun hiring more employees to work on the smartwatch, and that it was targeting a retail release in late 2014.
The software evolved more quickly than the hardware. To test it, the team created its first prototype, an iPhone strapped to the wrist with Velcro, which showed the Apple watch software in its true size and an onscreen watch crown for input. The crown was later turned into a physical dongle plugged into the headphone jack. Early on, the user interface and bundled apps were inspired by the iPhone, but they were too complex and underwent three rounds of redesigns, to avoid awkwardly long interactions that would annoy users. The team worked on notification vibrations and sounds for more than a year, attempting to make them reflect the nature of different notifications. They also added a way to show a contextual menu by pressing the display more deeply, called Force Touch. In contrast with Apple’s usually narrow design options, the team thought a watch would need to appeal to users’ diverse tastes in fashion, so they opted to give a choice of bands, models (like the gold-plated Apple Watch Edition) and watch faces.
Unveiling and release
In April 2014, Apple CEO Tim Cooktold The Wall Street Journalthat the company was planning to launch new products that year, but revealed no specifics.
In June 2014, Reutersreported that production of a smartwatch product was expected to begin in July for an October release.
During a September 2014 press event where the iPhone 6was also presented, the new watch product was introduced by Tim Cook’s “one more thing” section. After a video focusing on the design process, Cook reappeared on stage wearing an Apple Watch.
In comparison to other Apple products and competing smartwatches, marketing of the Apple Watch promoted the device as a fashion accessory. Apple later focused on its health and fitness-oriented features, in an effort to compete with dedicated activity trackers. The watchOS 3 added fitness tracking for wheelchair users, social sharing in the Activity app, and a Breatheapp to facilitate mindfulness.
The device was not branded as “iWatch”, which would have put it in line with its product lines such as iPod, iPhone, and iPad. In the United States, the “iWatch” trademark is owned by OMG Electronics – who was crowdfundinga device under the same name; it is owned in the European Unionby Irish firm Probendi. In July 2015, Probendi sued Apple Inc. for trademark infringement, arguing that through keyword advertisingon the Google search engine, it caused advertising for the Apple Watch to appear on search results pages when users searched for the trademarked term “iWatch”.
Release
Pre-orders for the Apple Watch began on April 10, 2015, with the official release on April 24. Initially, it was not available at the Apple Store; customers could make appointments for demonstrations and fitting, but the device was not in-stock for walk-in purchases and had to be reserved and ordered online. CNETfelt that this distribution model was designed to prevent Apple Store locations from having long lineups due to the high demand. The first ever retail store to display the Apple Watch to the public was Colettein Paris. Later on, selected models were available in limited quantities at luxury boutiques and authorized resellers.
On June 4, 2015, Apple announced that it planned to stock Apple Watch models at its retail locations.
On August 24, 2015, Best Buyannounced that it would begin stocking Apple Watch at its retail stores by the end of September.Both T-Mobile USand Sprintalso announced plans to offer Apple Watch through their retail stores.
In September 2015, Apple launched a new subset of Apple Watch, with a stainless steel body and leather band, in collaboration with Hermès. he following year, Apple launched another subset of Apple Watches in collaboration with Nikedubbed “Apple Watch Nike+”. Both subsets featured cosmetic customization, but otherwise functioned like standard Apple Watches.
Apple Watch went on sale in Indiain November 2015. The device also launched in Chile, the Philippines, Indonesia, and South Africa.
