Apple makes products that change the way we are able to communicate and work simultaneously."
Last September, after years of speculation, Apple formally announced the Apple Watch, its first entry into a new product market since the iPad’s launch in 2010.
By that time, other tech firms had long since released their own smartwatches. Some, such as Sony and Samsung, were already several generations deep into their wearable product lines.
Sounding off
“Batman and Dick Tracy had this tech back in the 1940s. It took Apple 75 years to develop?” — Ronnie Long, Cleveland, Tenn. “Is a cellphone not tiny and portable enough? Why would you need the watch?” — Jessica Campbell, Chattanooga “I think if anybody has the slightest chance of making the smartwatches big, it’s Apple. I won’t be buying one right away, and I said the same thing about a smartphone. If they become more affordable and mainstream, I’ll probably get one. I love the idea behind the smartwatch.” — Marissa Monroe McCauley, Chattanooga “I have several Apple products, and there is no way I will buy this watch. It’s a phone for your wrist. You have to charge it nightly. You have to treat it gingerly. It’s $1,200!” — Brandi Docev, Fairbanks, Alaska (formerly of Cleveland, Tenn.) “I have a phone for that.” — Melanie Carter, Chattanooga
Despite the increasingly crowded smartwatch field, however, critics and consumers were holding their breath, waiting to see if Apple’s smartwatch — or “iWatch,” as the rumor mill insisted on calling it — could ignite the same fervor for wrist-based computing that the iPhone and iPad had done for smartphones and tablets.