Is this the iWatch?

Despite more than a dozen smartwatches now available, the prospect of an Apple option still excites the market. LIRON SEGEV considers one option for the brand.

Rumours. Speculations. When it comes to the alleged smart watch from Apple, we have to go on little more. We have been hearing that Apple is about to enter the wearable tech market since 2012 with an iWatch. However, to date, we have seen nothing more than more speculation and could-it-be-this-or-that guesses, ranging from semi-educated to the downright bizarre (and even stupid).

One designer who caught my eye might be spot on. Todd Hamilton is a user interface designer from San Francisco who had some ‚”spare time over the holidays‚”, and mocked up what he thinks the iWatch could look like:

Could this be the iWatch from Apple ?

There are two reasons why this design makes sense to me:

* Simplicity. This is what Apple is known for.

* Elegant, Out-of-Box useable devices. This design is slick, looks amazingly stylish and takes its cue from the leading wearable technology the fitness bands.

A touch-screen allows for swiping up and down to interact with various apps. Yet, it has tiny buttons on the side for volume and a home button. Little touches that will resonate with consumers.

While this is just a concept and by no means associated with Apple, it does make for an exciting wearable band that people will actually want. However, the race is on.

With CES 2014 showing how many companies are into twearable watches and bands, the clock is ticking for Apple to get in the game. Once someone commits to a device, they are committing their wrist and it will be hard for a competitor to get them to change especially when that device is locked into that company’s ecosystem with apps and phones.

For someone to dump their expensive wearable tech in favour of another option, there needs to be a really compelling reason to do so. If Todd’s design is more in line with what Apple is launching, then perhaps Apple could pull another rabbit out of its tech hat and, possibly, once again sweep this category clean.