An Apple iWatch? It's About Time

All signs indicate Apple will indeed bring out an iWatch. The question of when still remains.

If you're hesitant to believe the blogs that giddily report a dumb watch is coming, consider the fact that Samsung is also apparently developing a smartwatch of some sort. Samsung is like Microsoft in that it is always copying what Apple does. The only difference is that when Samsung gets wind of something, it develops its own version of the product and beats Apple to the punch, making it look like its own idea. It hopes nobody notices. Clever.

If that doesn't convince you an iWatch is coming, note the sudden appearance of Jay Blahnik on the Apple campus. He's one of the guys behind the Nike+ FuelBand ( at Amazon) and is supposedly working with Apple on the wearable something-or-other. To me, this means a smartwatch.

The idea of a wearable computer has been around forever. Various geeks out there seem content when draping a bunch of hardware all over their bodies and in pockets so they look like Borg fanboys.

Clothing company Scottvest makes apparel with millions of hidden pockets so you can store a central command in your jacket. It is all an attempt to turn humans into packrats lugging around all sorts of unnecessary gear because it's cool. There are actual people who wear gear on every body part to monitor their heart rate, blood pressure, brainwaves, and whatever they can measure as part of the "quantified self movement." It's as if they are in an ICU about to die. What kind of life is this?

So along comes Blahnik who has experience with this sort of technology. I suspect he is going to be the guy who comes out on stage to introduce the revolutionary wristwatch for people who need to constantly check in on themselves. "It's a watch! It's a blood pressure monitor! It calls the police if you fall over! It's a phone! It runs Office for Writstwatches 2014," he'll yell. For all we know it may stab you every so often to analyze your blood.

The Samsung device will likely be different but the second iteration will definitely be similar, if not identical. And of course, Samsung can still say it was first to market. I'm thinking the Samsung product will just be a phone watch and not much more.

So let the speculation begin! Someone will leak drawings of the thing, someone else will phony-up a prototype and claim it is the Apple iWatch. The rumors will be flying.

It is always possible nothing will happen but there is just too much chatter to ignore. And while I'd rather see something like an Apple 4K TV instead, we are probably going to get a stupid watch.