14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is expected to hold a press conference on March 15 to take the wraps off the new 4-inch iPhone and the iPad Air 3, but in addition to these two new models, the company is also very likely to unveil a refresh to its original Apple Watch.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has explained in a note to investors sent earlier this week that the Apple Watch will indeed receive an upgrade in March, but this won’t be the second generation that everybody’s waiting for. While this was kind of a known thing, given the previous reports on the March event, there’s actually a reason the company doesn’t want to unveil the new-generation Watch right now.
The analyst claims that the March makeover will be nothing else but the “S” model of the Apple Watch lineup, as the Cupertino-based firm wants to follow the same approach it uses for the iPhone lineup. This means that a new-generation model would be unveiled every two years whereas a small upgrade would go live 12 months after the core version sees daylight.
S model improvements
So the S model won’t be the new-generation model, but it will still come with some important upgrades, including a new CPU and bigger battery.
“Apple Watch: expect more of an ‘S’ version with similar design, upgraded components including processor[,] battery, new band styles. Unlikely to have a wireless radio, which would allow standalone (i.e. decoupled from iPhone),” the analyst is quoted as saying.
In addition to these upgrades, the new Apple Watch version will also come with new bands, which will be created with premium partners across the world. Certainly, bigger improvements will come next year, when the second generation will officially see daylight and when the company is expected to redesign the device and introduce new features that could make it more independent of the iPhone.