Tim Cook made a highly anticipated presentation on the Apple Watch today at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The watches will be priced from $349 to $17,000 (in gold) while the bands will sell for $49 (plastic) to $449 (the link bracelet).
Apple made several other announcements:
- It has a new, thinner MacBook which is shipping on April 10. It only weighs 2 pounds, making it the lightest laptop Apple has ever sold. It has a Retina display.
- Apple also announced Apple TV will be the exclusive launch partner for HBO Now, HBO's standalone streaming service. The Apple TV will be cut to $69.
- Apple also announced ResearchKit, which is a new way for medical researchers to use the iPhone to collect research data. This seems like a really exciting development. If it works, it could help scientists collect data on serious diseases like Parkinson's.
Here's what Apple announced at today's big Apple Watch event.
Business Insider's coverage of Apple's presentation starts here >
Steve Kovach at Business Insider asks whether we need smartwatches. He's trying to answer the question "why?" (Apple failed to explain why we need a smartwatch, but it did give us a hint.) But does it matter?
Kovach writes:
Here's the biggest question I had leading up to Monday's Apple Watch event: Why?
Why do we need a smartwatch? Why do we need to spend between $350 and $17,000 on a device that already does a lot that the $650-plus iPhone already does? Besides being a pretty thing on your wrist, what can the Apple Watch do that will make lives better?
After watching Apple's event for over an hour, I didn't see a clear, concise answer…
Here's Tim Cook answering all your questions about the Apple Watch
Does it matter that instead of looking at our cell phones 40 times per hour we will be looking at our wrists?
Top right picture source RANsquawk? here.
