Apple Inc on Tuesday unveiled a watch, two larger iPhones and a mobile payments service, 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 wearable device tethered to the iPhone that will combine health and fitness tracking with communications. It will price at $349 and go on sale in early 2015.
Ben Wood, a top mobile phone industry analyst with CCS Insight based in the UK, said Apple's smartwatch devices will propel a so-far lackluster product category into consumer consciousness.
"For Apple’s competitors it will turn a tough category into a nightmare,” Wood said.
Indeed, rival watch and wearable device makers are keeping a wary eye on Apple, which up-ended the music industry and drove once-dominant phone makers like Blackberry to the brink of extinction, and whose iPad helped shrink personal computer sales for a time before they recently recovered.
Apple has an enviable track record when it comes to mobile hardware, though it tends not to be the first to introduce a new-fangled product category. Rival electronics giants such as Sony Corp, Samsung, LG Electronics Inc and Qualcomm Inc have already launched smartwatches, albeit without much success.
The price tag on the new "Apple Watch" is loftier than some expected, coming in at $50 more than the cheapest version of the iPhone 6 with a contract.
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