iWatch with curved OLED screen rumored to launch in October

iWAtch C (three-up, Martin Hajek 001)

A new report by the Japanese business newspaper Nikkei alleges that Apple’s rumored wearable project, the iWatch, will be ready for launch in October.

The device will be reportedly outfitted with a curved display which uses power-efficient OLED screen technology, as opposed to the traditional LCD panels utilized on Apple’s existing devices family.

According to an unnamed parts manufacturer, Apple anticipates strong demand and is therefore planning to produce between three and five million iWatch units per month – a figure that would potentially exceed combined sales of all the various smartwatches floating around, by a large margin…

Nikkei reports that the “wearable health-monitoring device” will expectedly run iOS 8 and feature a “centralized function to manage users’ biometric information” via smartphones.

For the sake of completeness, an October launch contradicts both yesterday’s analyst report calling for a September launch and earlier supply chain chatter mentioning July/August production.

The report goes on to reiterate that Apple is partnering with Nike on fitness services integration, in addition to partnerships with the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic announced during the WWDC keynote earlier this week.

Specs for the new product are being finalized, according to industry sources.

It will likely use a curved organic light-emitting diode (OLED) touchscreen and collect health-related data, such as calorie consumption, sleep activity, blood glucose and blood oxygen levels.

These functions will be in addition to other expected features, like the ability to read messages sent by an iPhone. Again, the iWatch should run iOS 8 which features a new capability called Handoff (part of another new feature, Continuity).

It’s therefore fairly safe to assume that the device uses Continuity to tap an iPhone authorized with the same Apple ID and within the Bluetooth 4.0 range to read and send text messages and iMessages, maybe even make and receive phone calls.

iOS 8 also brings a new Health app, which acts as a central system repository for health and fitness data provided by third-party apps and accessories. Programmers can tap the new HealthKit in iOS 8 to develop software which interacts with the Health database.