Watch out for innovations

Apple Inc has unveiled a watch, two larger iPhones and a mobile payments service as chief executive officer Tim Cook seeks to revive the technology company’s reputation as a wellspring of innovation.

The first new product to be developed and introduced under Cook’s reign is a timepiece tethered to the iPhone that will combine health and fitness tracking with communications. It will be priced at $349 (BD132) and go on sale early next year.

First impressions were mixed. Some expected Apple to blow away the current competition but others warned the fact that it requires a paired iPhone may limit its sales.

The lofty price tag of $349 – $50 (BD19) more than the cheapest version of the iPhone 6 with a contract – may also keep some consumers on the sidelines. It could go up to more than $1,000 (BD377) for higher-end editions, IDC analyst Danielle Levitas said.

The Apple Watch can receive phone calls and messages, play music, serve as a digital wallet to pay for goods and monitor heart rates via special sensors. The watches will come in three collections, including a sport edition and an upscale line coated in 18-karat gold.

“People are kind of scratching their heads on this watch, especially the fact that to successfully use the watch and to take advantage of its capabilities, you also have to have an iPhone,” said Daniel Morgan, vice president at Synovus Trust Company in Atlanta. “I don’t know if they’re in the right direction with this iWatch.”

Still, rival watch and wearable device makers will keep a wary eye on Apple, which upended the music industry and drove once-dominant phone makers like Blackberry to the brink of extinction.

Sony Corp, Samsung, LG Electronics Inc and Qualcomm Inc have already launched smartwatches, albeit without much success.

“Not the knockout some were anticipating. A bit gimmicky also on the health end of the wearable bands market,” said Jon Cox, an analyst of Swiss watch companies at brokerage Kepler Cheuvreux in Zurich.

“Not as cool as I feared. Nick Hayek is probably sleeping a little easier tonight,” Cox said, referring to the chief executive of Swatch Group.

The company has also taken the wraps off a larger, 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus.

And it introduced a new mobile payments service dubbed ‘Apple Pay’. Each phone will come equipped with its new payments service, which launches in the US next month and allows users to pay for items in stores with their phones instead of physically presenting their credit or debit cards.

Launch partners include Walt Disney Co, McDonald’s and Whole Foods. The move gives Apple access to a trove of data on how consumers shop in brick and mortar stores.

Each new iPhone will come with a ‘secure element’ chip and a near-field communications, or NFC, antenna.