John Paczkowski at Recode:
October. That’s the tentative launch date Apple has set for its first, long-in-the-offing foray into wearable devices. People familiar with Apple’s plans tell Code/red the company hopes to schedule a special event that month to show off the device, which is designed to make good use of the HealthKit health and fitness information-gathering app it recently showed off at WWDC.
New Apple hardware in October? Well, I never. How shocking! This is completely new information! Why, my monocle has popped right off my face!
Actually there is some interesting info in this tidbit, particularly that the Nikkei reports Apple is planning to build between 3-5 million of these devices per month.
That number (if true) indicates to me this is going to be 1) a multi-country device, 2) fairly affordable and 3) a device for everyone; something in the same realm as their other iOS device-sized businesses.
3-5 million a month definitely ain’t a niche.