There were enough fresh details in the iWatch stories posted overnight by Reuters and the Wall Street Journal to trigger a flood of headlines Friday morning — more than three dozen by my count.
What struck me was how closely the new reports fit the product timeline produced in April by KGI Research’s Ming-Chi Kuo, a shadowy Apple (AAPL) analyst based in Taiwan with a track record that’s better than most. Among his predictions were the low-cost iMac that Apple released this week, a 4.7 inch iPhone in Q3 and and a pair of iWatches around the same time.
According both the Journal and Reuters, commercial launch of the iWatch could come as early as October — right on Kuo’s schedule.
So what else is new?
• Mass production is set to begin in July according to Reuters, in August or September according to the Journal
• Taiwan’s Quanta will manufacture it, not Foxconn as the Journal had previously reported
• The watches will come in multiple sizes, according to the Journal
• At least one version will sport 2.5-inch rectangular touchscreen, measured diagonally, according to both reports
• The watches will be charged wirelessly, according to Reuters, and for some functions will require a connection to an iPhone
• The devices will be equipped with at least 10 sensors, according to the Journal, to track health and fitness
Both stories were attributed to unnamed sources familiar with the matter, although Kuo makes a brief appearance in one of them.
“I expect Apple to launch multiple smartwatches that come with different designs as watches are fashion accessories,” he told the Journal. “One design doesn’t fill all.”