As part of the advertising campaign (the one for which users will be paying premium on opening day) Apple has released the Apple Watch into the wild, so to speak. For one thing, there are reports that Apple has asked some “high profile” app developers to have their Apple Watch applications ready for mid-February. This is generally a good idea if Apple wants said high tech gizmo to do something other than look pretty for the masses during said advertising campaign. It seems the reason for this request is that the company is now letting its employees wear the smartwatch in public. Over on the MacRumors forum, users have posted a series of Apple Watch paparazzi shots, showing what can only be the wrists of various employees. Unless, of course, Apple has been robbed by some highly enterprising thieves who could not bear to be without the Apple Watch until April.
Speaking of (deterring) thieves and looking pretty, Apple is making special preparations for the more upmarket versions of its wearable. The gold Apple Watch Edition, expected to be priced in the thousands of dollars, will be securely stored in special safe’s at the company’s retail stores. Apple has allegedly already placed these safes in many of its stores in anticipation of the Watch’s arrival. One suspects that these watches will not be released into the wild ever.
Still for those of us not in a position to catch glimpses of Apple employees wearing the new smartwatch, the important news is that Tim Cook and co. have asked one of Apple’s biggest Apple Pay partners to have its software ready to go live on the App Store by February 12. Also according to some, users will have a chance to peek a the device’s software quite soon. Doubtless this will also be the point at which the advertising campaign will also go into overdrive.