September 12 update below. This post was first published on September 10, 2021.
The next Apple Watch will be revealed in a matter of days, it seems (oh, and check out how cool the invite is with augmented reality). This is good news as there had been rumors of production issues which could have delayed the announcement and release.
I’ll be honest, I never doubted that the Watch would be announced. After all, once it’s out there, pre-sales can begin and even if they have to be delayed for production issues, eager customers can stake their claim to the new smartwatch.
September 12 update. Speaking of dramatic changes, Kuo has also revealed very big news about where Apple Watch is heading. We may not be getting new health sensors in Apple Watch Series 7 because it’s all about the new design, but that doesn’t mean that Series 8 will be underwhelming.
Sure, Series 7’s spiffy design will be carried over, but Kuo expects sales of Series 8 to be strong thanks to a new round of health and fitness monitoring updates.
Chief among these may be the addition of a body-temperature sensor in the Watch. This is something that Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has hinted at previously but, as ever, having the addition of Kuo’s say-so lends even greater credibility.
Such a sensor could be used to measure stress (our skin warms up when we get nervous, as you’ll know) or be used in fertility tracking.
Apple may have other purposes in mind—it’s known for adding extra features later on. Other health features, such as the prospect of glucose monitoring and blood pressure tracking have also been rumored, but not by Kuo in his latest report, so it’s unlikely that these are a shoo-in for Series 8. Of course, that’s a year off, so plenty can change in the coming months. And, meantime, we have Series 7 to look forward to and Kuo has opinions about this as well...
In a new note, incredibly reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said that the initial manufacturing issues were real, but they have now been overcome, meaning that mass production will begin soon.
Kuo says that the biggest change will be a “dramatic change in design”—which tallies with other rumors and fits with the gleaming renders from Phonearena.com which you can see in this post.
That design may have contributed to the issues in production, which promises, according to Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, 16% more pixels than before.
Kuo says that the assembly of this new display caused the headaches thanks to new production processes.
Problems included blinking panels (well, you never want that) and touchscreen sensitivity issues (ditto). Suppliers have sorted these problems, Kuo says, and mass production will start later in the month, around the middle of the month. That’s a pretty tight schedule. I believe the Watch will go on sale on Friday, September 24, so that may be enough for Apple to feel confident it can fulfil early orders. But, oh boy, it must be a close-run thing.
Kuo had more detail about the changes, explaining that a switch from a cable design to a contact design in the display and the introduction of LIPO (Low Injection Pressure Overmolding) is part of the production hoo-hah.
Will this mean that every model will be in bountiful supply from day one? Maybe not, but things look much rosier than they did even a couple of days ago.
I am confident the Watch will be announced at the keynote starting at 10AM Pacific next Tuesday. Stay tuned for more news as we have it.
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