On Tuesday, July 22, electronics giant Apple started a new round of rumors when they were granted a patent for a smart watch design. The patent filing showed what looks to be a square design but, besides that, very few other details were disclosed about what most are calling the “iWatch”.
What was revealed, including an accelerometer, a touchscreen, Bluetooth, a GPS receiver and vibration alerts, are quite similar to the features found on many of the smartphones recently released by Apple’s competitors. Similarly, it can connect to a mobile device like a smart phone or tablet, allow its user to either accept or decline incoming phone calls and also display certain types of notifications.
One thing that is a bit different from some of the other smart phones that have been released is that Apple’s design allows their watch to be used without having to use a smart phone at the same time. In other words, it will function just fine on its own. It also appears that music can be stored on the device and directly played from it, and it has a headphone jack that will allow the user to plug headphones directly into the watch rather than into their smart phone as most other smart watches require.
An announcement from Apple about the filing of the new smart watch design said that it will possibly respond to movements that its wearer makes, including shaking, tapping their wrist and bouncing. They also announced that the Smart watch would be able to receive text messages as well as social and news alerts. As for actually making phone calls or sending messages, Apple had no comment.
Then there is the question of what the new watch will be made out of, and the only thing that Apple has said so far is that the band would be produced from a material that isn’t metal.
Analysts and Apple watchers were quick to note that, patent filing or not, the end product released by Apple in the future might look very different from what’s now being shown in their patent filing. The reason is that Apple, quite famously, has a habit of patenting many technologies, some of which are very different from the ultimate designs of the devices they bring to market. In fact, many of the technologies that the company has patented haven’t even been made into products yet.
If and when this new Smart watch design is released to the public, Apple will enter what’s becoming a crowded market segment as Samsung, Google and a number of other electronics companies have already introduced their own Smart watches.