The new iPhone(s) may steal the lion's share of the tech press' attention over in Cupertino, but there's also been a big revelation on the smartwatch front. The all-new Apple Watch Series 3 was announced by chief operating officer Jeff Williams at the first-ever event from the Steve Jobs Theater at the new Apple Park HQ.
The big addition to Apple's 3rd-gen wearable is the inclusion of LTE connectivity. Like Samsung's range of smartwatches and many of the latest Android Wear devices, cellular-connectivity means that wearers will be able to use their new Apple Watch untethered from an iPhone. Sure, the Series 2 model had independent features such as Apple Pay and was able to tap into a Wi-Fi connection for other tasks, but adding 4G to the Apple Watch mix massively enhances its usability and puts it on a much squarer footing with many of its LTE-packing smartwatch rivals.
Not that Apple really needed to do more to win the smartwatch battle. Cupertino keeps tight lipped on sales figures for its tech-timepiece but it's estimated that Apple accounted for 13 percent of the overall wearables market in Q2 2017 - a market that includes much cheaper fitness trackers, shipping 3.4 million Watches over the three-month period. That figure is up 50 percent from the same time in 2016 and puts Apple well ahead of anyone else manufacturing smartwatches. CEO Tim Cook said customer satisfaction levels are at 97 percent.
Back to the new Apple Watch, which packs the new W2 chip, and wearers will be treated to enhanced heart rate features (in a redesigned app), streaming music (using Wi-Fi or LTE) through Apple Music, a Siri who can now talk back, an altimeter and all the fun you'd expect from a cellular equipped device, including phone calls.
The display is actually the antenna for the LTE signal and there's an integrated SIM so you won't need to fiddle around slotting a nano-SIM in. Apple has managed to include the cellular features inside (almost) the same size case as Series 2 - we're told it's just 2 sheets of paper thicker (0.25mm).
Apple's new smartwatch goes on sale on September 15th, shipping on September 22nd. Pricing starts at $399 for the LTE version, or you can get a non-cellular one for $329. As you'd expect there are a ton of colors, straps and designs to choose from, including partnerships with familiar brands like Hermes and Nike.
