Will Apple's Upcoming iWatch Be the Next Big Thing?

New technologies often leave older electronic devices in the dust. The average person now leaves their camera at home, relying on their smartphone to snap photos and record videos that can be shared online almost instantaneously. At this point, some may have even ditched their watches for their iPhones. And soon, a new Apple product will have watchmakers facing some serious competition. 

The iWatch could be yet another device that preserves Apple’s status as a technological front-runner. 

Of course, Apple is not the only company trying to get into the smartwatch market, but considering that the company has been hiring “aggressively” to get the iWatch developed and launched, and given the popularity of its current products, Apple likely has a leg up on the competition. 

The smartwatch could become a device that manages health, by checking its user’s heart rate and blood pressure, and may make it easier to keep updated, showing notifications for phone calls, texts, and tweets. The coming of the smartwatch is likely an exciting prospect for people who are neurotic about checking updates on their phones, but find themselves in settings where it would be inappropriate to constantly pull out their device. 

As one might expect, these new smartwatches will come with a hefty price tag, and as such, some question whether theirs is a market worth pursuing. Why should a consumer pay several hundred dollars for a smartwatch that, while convenient, could end up performing the same functions as a smartphone? This is a question that Apple and other smartwatch developers must address. 

Although smartwatches remain unpopular, the idea behind them is not new. Several devices already out on the market are the Pebble Smartwatch, the Martian Smartwatch, and the i’m Watch Smartwatch. The Sony Smartwatch 2 will be released later this year, and will allow users to receive and read notifications, answer calls, and manage their music, among other things. 

There are hopes that Sony’s Smartwatch 2 will make smartwatches the next hot item to own. But even if Sony does rise to the top with their smartwatch, it won’t be long until Apple, with both its brand power and perhaps better developed smartwatch, comes in and dominates the market. That said, Apple will have to truly bring something new to the table in order for the iWatch to be as successful as the iPad, iPhone, and iPod were.