Apple Under Cook Takes Shape With Watch, Bigger IPhones.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-10/apple-under-cook-takes-shape-with-watch-bigger-iphones.html

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, after three years of incremental changes to products created under Steve Jobs, delivered on his promise to take the world’s most valuable company into new categories including wearables and payments.

Apple yesterday revealed a smartwatch with health and fitness capabilities, and smartphone-like features such as maps and messaging. The company also introduced new bigger-screen iPhones, along with ways to use Apple’s latest gadgets to make payments at retail outlets like Macy’s Inc. and McDonald’s Corp.

The moves showed how Cook is leading Apple -- already an entryway into digital entertainment and communications through its iPhones, iPads and App Store -- further into how people pay for goods and how they care for themselves and exercise. He called the new products the “next chapter in Apple’s story.”

The strategy builds upon Apple’s key product, the iPhone, which remains the backbone of the company’s $171 billionbusiness and has given it financial flexibility and a vast customer base to pursue new initiatives. Cook’s strategy is an extension of the one started under Jobs: to make Apple the digital hub of people’s lives for music, pictures, apps and more -- because once they are tied in, they are likely to remain loyal customers.

“This was his biggest event,” Richard Doherty, an analyst with Envisioneering Group, said of Cook’s product unveilings at an event in Cupertino, California. “To have them synchronized, nobody else could have come close to this.”

Rectangular Face

Apple Watch, which was met with a standing ovation at the event, has a rectangular watch face and a dial on the side that can be turned to zoom in or out, or scroll up and down. The touch-screen device comes in two sizes, as well as in classic, sports and gold edition models. Six strap designs are available, including leather and steel.

Cook said health features in the watch were a priority for him personally. The device can be used to detect a pulse rate and has other fitness-tracking capabilities, such as letting a user monitor calories burned during a workout.

The watch also includes applications that have long been associated with smartphones, including maps, photos, music and messaging capabilities. It works with the voice-command software Siri, so if a user wants to see what movies are playing nearby they can speak into the watch to get the latest show times.

The Apple Watch is displayed after a product announcement at Flint Center in Cupertino, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014.