Apple Watch will reportedly ship outside the US in April

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According to 9to5Mac, Cook told this plan to employees at the company's retail store in Berlin, Germany last week:

Specifically, Cook said that the Apple Watch will launch in Germany during the month of April. It's possible that the Apple Watch will launch first in the United States in early April, with Germany and other countries following later in the month, but it definitely appears that the Watch's rollout will be more aggressive than the first iPhone and iPad launches…

New Apple products often roll out in a limited selection of countries at first, expanding to a greater selection of locations in the weeks following the initial launch. Germany is often finds itself in the first or second wave of Apple product releases.

At the same event, Cook reportedly spoke about some of the apps that were coming to the Apple Watch, such as apps from hotels that allow you to check in from your wrist. Apps are also apparently expected from companies like Panera Break. From 9to5Mac:

On the other end of the spectrum, Cook said that Panera Bread is working on a WatchKit application that will allow Apple Watch users to pay for their carbs with their wrist. Panera Bread was an early Apple Pay partner with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus last fall, so it's not a huge surprise that the company is working to jump on the Apple Watch bandwagon, too.

Cook also apparently talked a bit about enterprise efforts for the Apple Watch, including apps from Salesforce, but little beyond that was said.

Apple is expected to reveal a lot more about their plans for the Apple Watch on Monday, March 9 at their "Spring Forward" press event in San Francisco. iMore will be on hand to offer a first hand report on the festivities.

Source: 9to5Mac 1, 2

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John Callaham
John Callaham

I have been writing professionally about technology and gaming news for 14 years.
7 Comments
  • I think staggered launches are bullsh*t. Especially in this day and age. Let everyone order it on the web at the same time. If there aren't enough available, then people will wait on a first come first served basis. Especially with Apple products, which update yearly, expecting the majority of the world to wait months to even order the product puts the majority of the world in a situation where they are still hoping to buy a product that might be replaced by a new one less than six months later. One of my biggest complaints about the "new" Apple after Steve Jobs is all this unnecessary focus on the USA. The awful, banal bragging about how f-ing great California is, the xenophobic "made in USA" nonsense (as if where something is made actually matters in the 21st century) and all the other parochial bullsh*t that just makes Apple look like classic "ugly Americans." If there is one area where Apple is decidedly NOT "leading the way" and particularly BACKWARD, it is this. If Apple was instead a product of some country in Europe for example, and was all het up about how great their country was, and putting it on their products, waving their superiority in everyones faces, etc., US citizens would not only hate them, they would be the FIRST to be insulted when the products were not made available there on the first day. It would be considered an "outrage" just as it is now when the shoe is on that other foot IMO.
  • Not sure where you've seen the "Made In The USA" on Apple products (The MacPro is made in the USA and probably says so but I haven't seen one.) It says Designed In California. In fact a lot companies use that just like Germany uses made in Germany. You do know that there are still countries on this planet? And as far as I can remember Apple has always focused on America when releasing its products. It's Apple's largest customer base, although China will most likely pass that eventually.
  • I was talking more of their political desire (similar to a lot of Americans), to have their products "Made in USA" as opposed to anywhere else. It's xenophobic nonsense and it's offensive to anyone not from America. Underlying the desire is this attitude that America is better, that "foreigners" shouldn't own the means of production, and that it's "wrong" for the Chinese (or insert your race of choice) to buy up US industries. It's all BS. Literally the only nations that have this attitude are those that are in essence Imperialistic "Empires." The Yanks do it, the Russians do it, and the fading empire of the UK does it (but to a lesser degree than when they were actually an empire). Most other countries don't give a crap about this sort of thing, and rightly so.
  • You wanna know why we want that? IT'S SO OUR ECONOMY DOESN"T COLLAPSE BECAUSE WE ONLY IMPORT THINGS! You are seriously one of the most ignorant people I have ever met. Just because we enjoy our pride in our incredibly diverse nation does not make us xenophobic. ALL products made ANYWHERE have a "Made In..." sticker on them! Please, just keep quiet.
  • I don't hate the Swiss for bragging about where their watches and chocolate are made, even if they can't grow their own cocoa beans.
  • China, Japan, South Korea and the nations of South East Asia do it. Wouldn't call Vietnam a Imperialistic Empire. As far as it being a political desire, yeah sure nationalist pride. But here in America where jobs are shipped over seas as fast as they can create them, I think its more of a marketing point. I mean there are hardly any cars made here anymore (from the big two cause Chrysler is a part of Fiat now) but the Japanese and there Koreans have car factories all over the US. But we still call Toyotas Japanese and Rams American (which are made in Mexico) So Made In America is just marketing. I believe there are laws (would have to actually look this up) that regulate what can be called Made in the USA. And for the record, sometimes it does matter. Scotch can only come from Scotland and Bourbon can only come from the US and Champaign only from France.
  • I think what this means is that we may have a hope of getting the Watch in late March here in the US