The Apple Watch is now a year old and Apple has yet to reveal exactly how many it has sold. In an article published a week ago, The Wall Street Journal pegs sales at 12 million in that first year alone. At an estimated average price of US$500, that would have been worth about US$6 billion in revenues to the company. Despite that, a recent survey found that more than half of Americans agreed that “the Apple Watch is a successful product.” Many are wondering how Apple will improve the Apple Watch. Citing “people familiar with the matter,” The Wall Street Journal suggests that the next-generation Watch (the Apple Watch 2?) will come with its own cellular connectivity and a faster processor.
Giving the Apple Watch 2 its own cellular connectivity would further reduce if not completely eliminate the need for it to tether to an iPhone for a wide range of functions. It would also allow Apple to catch up to competitors. For example, Android Wear now supports this feature natively and devices such as the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE now offer such capabilities.
The report is less clear on when Apple could add cellular connectivity to the Apple Watch. Recent rumours have suggested that the next model will benefit from upgraded hardware and minor cosmetic changes but will not benefit from major new features. If so, we may not see a fully connected Apple Watch until 2017 at the earliest.
Source : The Wall Street Journal