14 DAY TRIAL // Apple wants at least one third-party watch app ready by February 12, according to a person who is familiar with the company’s plans. It appears that the iPhone maker wants to provide one last demo of the wearable before launch.
In the Q&A session of its quarterly earnings call this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that, “Development for Apple Watch is right on schedule, and we expect to begin shipping in April.” This led to a flurry of reports stating that the highly-anticipated wrist-worn gizmo would hit the shelves around that time, but it seems that Apple has extra plans for the hardware.
“One more thing”
Apple seems determined to showcase the watch’s capabilities once more, this time with third party software installed, to better demo the key features that they hope will make it a hot selling device, like the iPhone and iPad before it.
A source who spoke on condition of anonymity to MacRumors reportedly said that “Apple has asked one of its biggest Apple Pay partners to prepare an iOS application with WatchKit support that's ready to launch in the App Store by February 12.”
That’s much earlier than Tim Cook’s estimated launch, which indicates that there might be some sort of demonstration set up before its debut. Other third-party developers may have been asked the same thing. And we expect this theory to prove correct, as Apple has done the same thing with the iPhone and the iPad in their fledging days.
Sources close to the situation also said that Apple staffers in the Cupertino area are actively testing the watch in the wild. This claim seems to have been confirmed by one tech editor who recently spotted one such tester (and the device itself) as he was commuting to work.