Skip to main content

Apple said to be planning October event to unveil wearable device

Apple said to be planning October event to unveil wearable device

Share this story

Apple is said to be planning a "tentative" October event to show off its wearable device. That's according to Recode, which says the unit will make use of HealthKit, something Apple unveiled earlier this week at its annual developer conference. That system tracks all sorts of health data from apps and fitness hardware, and can display it in a separate, upcoming iOS 8 app called Health.

Recode's report follows one from Nikkei, which also noted that Apple plans to launch its wearable device this October. Citing sources, the Nikkei says Apple plans to produce 3 to 5 million of the devices each month, and is partnering with Nike, which recently trimmed back its own efforts on the Fuelband fitness tracking hardware.

Apple's last big hardware event was in October 2013

Recode, which is made up of former All Things D employees, has a very good track record of predicting when Apple holds its press events.

Indications that Apple was developing a wearable device first surfaced in 2011, with a report from The New York Times saying that Apple along with Google had both begun wearable projects. Things were quiet for a year, but then dueling stories from The Times and The Wall Street Journal in early 2013 said Apple was planning to make use of curved glass displays. Google's since outed its own wearables platform with Android Wear, an entire operating system designed for wearable devices.

The last time Apple debuted new hardware at an event October 2013, which brought the iPad Air, the iPad mini with Retina display, the new Mac Pro, new MacBook pros, and redesigned versions of iWork and iLife. Just two months before, the company held a special event at its Cupertino headquarters to announce the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C.