EXCLUSIVE: Apple, Swatch working jointly 'iWatch'

Apple has been working with a minumum of one associate, Swatch, to release a line of nike free run 5.0 v4.martwatches in variety of branded styles and price points, a source with knowledge of the scenario tells VentureBeat. While most Apple-watchers and media have been laser-focused on one or two "iWatches" from Apple itself, the Cupertino, Calif.-based electronics and media giant may truly be working a lot of partners in the watch business. Apple and its associates offer a fam womens nike free run 3 pink?.ly of smartwatches to suit all preferences "from geek to chic," our source says. The tech giant is interested in shoving Well-Being Kit ecosystems, and its iOS, iTunes to an incredible number of wrists, our source says; a cheap nike free 3.0.d in this particular case it's not special about sharing the branding glory to do that. The Swiss conglomerate is the biggest watchmaker on the planet, with a market cap of more than $33.5 billion, and makes watches in many styles and price points under 18 different brand names. This also suggests the chance that Swatch could be assembling more or one Apple smartwatches that bear just the Apple brand. Our source also said "he'd be shocked" if Apple weren't also working with Timex on one or more smartwatches. Timex already has an Ironman brand of fitness watches, which might be very compatible with a fitness watch that contains multiple biometric sensors in the group, as VentureBeat reported, which Apple appears to be developing. Like recent smartwatches from Samsung, LG, and Motorola, the smartwatches Apple is building with no cellular radio will be contained by partners and will rely heavily on smartphones for content and communications, our source says. The watches, our source considers, will rely on Bluetooth -power and smartphones to link. Nike fitness tracking technology has been assembled by the company into iPhones and its iPods, for example. Not only tech, but fashion Behind the partnership strategy is a realistic acknowledgement of the market for wearable technology. Smartwatches, Apple knows, aren't merely another tech gadget. They are fashion statements, jewelry. Watches are bought by consumers, smartwatches comprised, like they purchase dresses or shoes -- they expect to find a way to choose from a wide variety of products to find the one that suits their own personal style. One-size- fits all just will not cut on it. Folks will often purchase the blingiest thing they can manage. Apple, obviously, has practically no experience with these issues. So it shrewdly is working with partners to build and promote the apparatus. "It is practical that they might try and work with existing brands," Greengart says. "And the fact they've been getting folks from high-end goods brands to work with the job would appear to back up the idea that they are working with other brands." Really, Apple has hired several luxury goods executives within the last year. Mainstream trend brand Burberry's CEO Angela Ahrendts last October was also hired by Apple, ostensibly to work with Apple's retail stores. Greengart points out that these and other fashion industry people might have been hired to work as well as smartwatches' retail plans, on Apple's own itself. But see that Pruniaux is not a designer, a sales and marketing guy or an engineer. Apple may have needed Pruniaux's name to help improve the Apple brand in the retail trend world. Despite the partnerships, our source points out that Apple might also be developing a smartwatch or smartwatches that could have an unique branding alone. So the iWatch may be real, after all. As Gartner analyst Van Baker has pointed out, confining one's efforts to building an individual detector-laden health and fitness device is not any means to take the market by storm. Just a sliver of the market would even contemplate buying a device like that. Apple is increasingly concerned about reaching (and hanging on to) a mass-market audience, and to reach a broad range of consumers it'll probably need the support of some well entrenched watch brands. So the iWatch, if it's called that, might hit on the marketplace alongside others which are compatible with Apple's Health Kit and may comprise Apple's technology, or watches from Swatch, Timex. Apple, Timex, nor Swatch reacted to requests for comment.