Apple iWatch aiming for 2014 launch

Apple is aggressively hiring new employees to help launch its first wearable — the so-called iWatch — for sometime in 2014, according to multiple reports.
Financial Times reported about Apple’s recent hiring spree for the iWatch, which indicates that some outside talent was required for such a new-type of product. For more than a decade now, Apple has engineered iPods, iPhones and iPads using its in-house expertise, but apparently, the iWatch is proving to be a tad difficult.
“As Apple moves from iPods, iPhones and iPads into an entirely new category of product, it is looking beyond its existing staff in Cupertino for the talent required to build it – an indication that the endeavour involves “hard engineering problems that they’ve not been able to solve”, according to one source.”
The iWatch has been in the rumor mill for sometime now, with more than 100 designers reportedly being put on the job to make it another iconic device from the world’s most valuable computer company. One notable designer, Paul Deneve, the former CEO of fashion house Yves Saint Laurent, was hired for the special project. Deneve could also be possibly pegged for other wearable devices, such as a competitor to Google’s Glass computing glasses.
The iWatch name has already been trademarked in several countries, including Brazil and Japan.
Many Apple fans have questioned how an iWatch would work. Would it simply be a Bluetooth peripheral that talks with the iPhone in one’s pocket? Would it have data? Or would it would rely on a hard drive? The former seems like a better bet.
Apple wants to sell one iWatch — not a device that comes in 32 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB. So it’s very likely the iWatch will simply communicate with an iPhone — perhaps with an in-house type of Bluetooth technology that doesn’t drain an iPhone’s battery as drastically.
But if the iWatch is designed to simply be a notification center on one’s wrist, it’s not going to be a hit. No one wants to type on a small watch face; the iPhone is already difficult enough to type on.
If these reports prove to be true, expect to see the iWatch in an Apple Store near you sometime in mid-2014.

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