14 DAY TRIAL // The Apple Watch has been showcased to the public as early as September, but the Cupertino tech giant wasn't then ready to launch it on the market.
Only several months later, in early March, was Apple ready to really talk about its first wearable extensively.
We now know that the smartwatch is expected to hit retail locations on April 24, so we’re more than a month away from the device’s public debut.
The Apple Watch is facing production troubles
While we’re hoping that Apple will be able to maintain things on schedule, analyst Timothy Arcuri from Cowen & Co has written claims that Cupertino is facing low yield issues with its first wearable.
According to him, the company will manage to build “only” 6 million units by June, despite earlier claims saying that Apple will have 3 million Watches ready and awaiting to be shipped out at launch.
It appears there are multiple problems at the core of the situation. First off, Cupertino’s supplier Quanta is struggling with manufacturing defects, while Apple is trying very hard to find alternative partners.
For the time being, Foxconn is lending a helping hand by borrowing 3,000 employees from its workforce to Quanta to assist on the matter.
Apple is purportedly already prepping the Watch 2.0
The analyst also reveals another very interesting deal. It appears Apple is gearing up to release a sequel to the yet unreleased Apple Watch, dubbed the Watch 2, as soon as the end of 2015.
The wearable is apparently capable of working autonomously, so you won’t need to have an iPhone around for it to function. Taking the path of Samsung who already has a standalone smartwatch on the market (the Gear S), Apple’s second wearable will take advantage of its own connectivity tools and of an OLED display.
No other information about the Watch is revealed, but we shouldn’t be surprised if we end up seeing Apple roll out a model with a curved display like Samsung’s Gear S or the ASUS ZenWatch.
Despite the claims, you shouldn’t be holding your breath on seeing the Watch 2 launch this year. It remains to be seen if Apple fans will be willing to embrace the first Watch or not and depending on what happens, the Cupertino company will probably carve out future plans.
