Updated at 4:39 p.m. ET
The cheapest one will cost $349 and prices go all the way up to $10,000 for one that is gold plated. For that, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Monday, you can use your Apple Watch to make calls and send emails, check your heart rate and your Twitter feed and, yes, tell time, as well.
Apple, of course, has never been shy about touting its products, and Cook, at an event in San Francisco to announce the launch of the much-anticipated watch, called the device "the most advanced timepiece ever created."
Here are some other features of the Apple Watch, preorders for which start April 10 (it goes on sale April 24):
-- Models: The watch will be available in three models — the Watch Sport, the entry-level model that starts at $349; the stainless-steel Watch that starts at $549; and the Watch Edition, plated with 18-karat gold that's priced at $10,000.
-- Apps: The company said thousands of apps have already been developed for the watch, including several from media companies. We should note that NPR is one of many organizations that have worked with Apple to develop apps that work on the watch.
-- Battery life: Cook, announcing the products at the Apple event in San Francisco, said the watch's battery life is 18 hours. He said it would last "all day."
-- Travel: NPR's Laura Sydell, who was at the event, tweeted that the watch can be used to check into a hotel and used as a room key. Laura's tweets from the event are embedded below.
Apple's other announcements: a new MacBook that weighs 2 pounds; a cheaper Apple TV; and, perhaps most significant for TV watchers, a deal with HBO as a stand-alone service on Apple TV starting next month.
As Rachael Myrow and Christina Farr of member station KQED reported onMorning Edition, Apple's entry into the " smart watch market is expected to have a huge impact. How much of one is a multibillion dollar question."
It enters a market with plenty of wearable tech, but few smart watches: the LG G, the Samsung Galaxy Gear S2 and the Pebble, the market leader.
Ben Bajarin, principal analyst at Creative Strategies, told Myrow and Farr the Apple watch will likely sell 10 million to 20 million units in the first year.
"Apple has a very loyal and large base that will purchase things just because they're Apple," he told them. "Meaning that they'll give these products the benefit of the doubt."
That will likely be true in China, too, he said, even if the watch starts at $349.
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