Apple can now cure cancer, sort of. The tech giant’s new product, the Apple Watch, has been presented by chief executive Tim Cook with health as its key selling points.
At the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, Cook was interviewed about the upcoming smartwatch’s features. including hourly reminders to owners to be more active.
“If I sit for too long, it will actually tap me on the wrist to remind me to get up and move, because a lot of doctors think sitting is the new cancer.
Ten minutes before the hour, it will remind you to move. We have a lot of people using the Apple Watch at Apple, and ten minutes before the hour, suddenly they all get up and move. It took a little to get used to, but it’s great.”
The revelation conjures peculiar images of Apple offices turning into a musical chairs style parody of itself at ten to every hour. But hey, if it kicks cancer, who are we to argue.
Launching in April , Cook was optimistic about the Apple Watch’s prospects, conceding that there are already several main competitors but indicating how none of them are as profoundly behaviour-shifting as Apple’s product will be.
“None have changed the way people live their lives… one of the biggest surprises for Apple Watch will be the breadth of what it can do”.
It also plays nice with privacy, employing Apple Pay – the company’s newly launched mobile payments technology. Cook states that this runs against the industry trend of collecting data about shoppers.
“When you make a purchase, we make a little bit of money. It’s very simple, very straightforward. You are not our product, that’s our product. There’s no need for us to know what you’re buying, where you’re buying, I don’t want to know any of that.”
Cook also spun the old lines on Apple quality, pointing out that Apple’s strategy of high-end products at a premium price works around the world, including in China.
“We had lots of people telling us we needed to do something different in China to compete. That’s a bunch of bull. People everywhere want quality. Not everyone can afford one, but there’s a big market there.”
While some might accuse Apple of being late to the smartwatch market, Cook said this would be the first product people will actually care about. He also pointed out that they were technically “late” to the market for MP3 players with the iPod, but that that didn’t stop Apple from dominating that market all the same.
The Apple boss is undeniably right on that score, but with its cancer-defying powers, could this springtime be time for your smartwatch move?
[Lead image via Apple.]
