Edible Apple

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple’s rumored iWatch may drop sometime in 2013. This of course comes hot on the heels of a previous Bloomberg report claiming that Apple has over 100 employees, from engineers to marketing managers, working on the product.

What’s particularly interesting are remarks from Citibank analyst Oliver Chen who details who lucrative the watch business may be for Apple. While the overall market for HDTVs is about twice as lucrative than it is for watches, the gross margins on watches is much much higher, coming in at around 60%. And if there’s one thing we know about Apple, it’s that they love their healthy margins.

All told, Chen estimates that if Apple can get a 10% share of the global $60 billion watch market, it can net about $3.6 billion in profit.

As for what this mythical iWatch will be capable, of the report adds:

Features under consideration include letting users make calls, see the identity of incoming callers and check map coordinates, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. It would also house a pedometer for counting steps and sensors for monitoring health-related data, such as heart rates, this person said.

Interesting, but given how personal watches can be – you do have it on your person 24/7 after all – Apple will definitely need to implement some cool and intriguing functionality to really get people excited about it.

Back when Apple released the iPhone, the finished product was eons ahead of what most rumor sites were anticipating. Perhaps the iWatch will be the same.

via Bloomberg