Jason Mick (Blog) – February 26, 2015 12:17 PM
Apple may also add Broadwell chip options to the MacBook Pro and Air lines, but the star of the show is expected to be the Apple Watch
Apple, Inc. (AAPL) has sent out invites to exclusive media and developer partners for an event held on March 9. Like any Apple event, there’s a great deal of hype and speculation about what product launches, demoes, or refreshes might be on the agenda.
The event is titled “Spring Forward”, an homage to the Daylight Savings Time change that occurs in the month of March. The chronological reference, combined with Apple CEO Timothy Cook‘s assertion that the upcoming Apple Watch wearable would ship to customers in April 2015, strongly suggests that the event will cover the Apple Watch.
The Apple watch was first demoed at a highly anticipated event last September, but that was just a tease at Apple’s general plan for the device and a pitch to bring developers onboard to create apps for the device. At the new event, Apple will likely fill in the blanks in terms of iOS companion features (to be included in the iOS 8.2 or possible 8.3 updates) and details of the watch’s functionality. A finished device spec and the price points for various variants — still unknown — will also likely be revealed.Apple’s watch is anticipated to be one of the most expensive smartwatches on the market, with an introductory price of $349 USD, and with luxury models price substantially higher than that. Apple’s smartwatch also reportedly has been forced to scale back its scope, dropping sophisticated, but unreliable health sensors.
It also is coming late, with Android wearables already enjoying an established sales stream. The predecessors to the current crop of devices on Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Android Wear watch platform began to trickle out back in 2013. And last year their successors saw sales success slowly heating up in 2014.
That said, Apple’s enviable marketing machine could sell virtually anything to customers. When you add in the utility that Apple Pay in a watch form factor would provide, Apple shouldn’t have trouble quickly moving up the ranks of smartwatch sellers.
The MacBook Pro & Air notebook lines could get a boost from Intel’s Broadwell chips at the event, as well.
Apple’s MacBook Air and Pro notebook lines are also due for a refresh to Intel Corp. (INTC) 14 nm Broadwell processors, with the higher end Retina models likely getting more powerful Core i-Series processors and with lower end MacBook Air models getting the fanless Core M chips.
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