Before the iPhone 5s announcement some were speculating that there would be an iWatch announced similar to the LAME Samsung Galaxy Gear watch. Luckily for Apple, they did not go down this route of releasing such a useless device that only uber geeks would ever purchase.
Apple no longer has the product visionary that was Steve Jobs to keep them from doing stupid stuff like releasing a tablet to the market or integrating 4G LTE to the iPhone before the technology was ready so there was at least some risk that they would "jump on board" with the iWatch craze but they did not. The fact is that the technology is not quite there yet. The technology was not quite there yet for smartphones either until Apple put all the right bits together when they launched the iPhone. Apple needs to do the same for the wrist based mobile computing market as well.
If I were the product visionary at Apple, here is what I would be telling the product design teams are the required elements before Apple can launch such a device.
First and foremost the iWatch must be a full featured phone with all of the things we have come to expect from a phone like video chat, 4G LTE connectivity, and mobile hotspot and it should be designed to support 48 hours of battery life under normal usage to ensure that even under heavy usage you never have to charge the thing more then once a day when you sleep. It also needs to be waterproof so you can feel safe about wearing it while jogging (eww sweat!) or swimming.
Hardware in such a tiny device needs to be simplified and somewhat modular to more easily support growth in the product line as technology increases. I see this device as having three primary components: Storage, CPU, and I/O.
The wrist band, screen, and sensor package would be considered the I/O to make upgrades in new product and maybe even third party designs possible. The sensors should include a front facing camera for video conferencing as well as health monitoring devices like heart rate, temperature, and blood pressure sensors. As far as the screen goes 4x3 is the right aspect ratio for such a device as no one is going to be watching HD movies on their wrist. An initial launch with a 640x480 resolution would be sufficient although a retina display at 1280x1024 would be better. There should be a single waterproof connector joining the I/O casing to the CPU.
The CPU is, of course, the heart of the device. This will require an entirely new System On a Chip design incorporating a smaller GPU (less screen real estate and nobody is going to be playing 3D accelerated games on their wrist) but including the basic Flash memory in the chip. 8GB of integrated Flash memory should be sufficient to hold apps and music and maybe a couple SD video files. Inside the SOC should also be a couple dedicated co-processors to deal with listening for voice commands, handling input from the sensors, and providing a low power limited display of date-time and notifications without bringing the main processor online. The circuit board should only need some power circuitry, the SOC, and a radio chip (for 4G LTE, WiFi, GPS, etc), The Lightning connector for power and data should come right through the casing and directly into the CPU unit. It would be even more innovative if Apple could make this work with a magnetic connector for both the power and the data. Having the power handled in the CPU is important for reasons I will get into lower down.
The "Storage" device would encompass the storage of power and data. That is, additional Flash memory would be grafted onto the battery allowing different options like 8 and 24GB of additional memory so there would be options of 16GB and 32GB storage at different price ranges.Like the I/O component a single waterproof connector would join the storage to the CPU
What the hardware design gets Apple is the ability to have the three different components manufactured in secret by three different factories that have no knowledge of what they are building. This thing would need to be top secret so Apple will initially probably want the final assembly to be done domestically for that first launch. Maybe even the I/O component should be done in the states initially.
Now the device itself alone is not compelling because not that many folks are going to want to talk into their wrist like a speakerphone Dick Tracy style. What that means is that Apple needs to launch this thing with their own custom designed Bluetooth accessories. The innovation here needs to be in how these devices are charged because the thing that sucks the most about bluetooth headsets is remembering to charge them. To that end, the CPU should be responsible for charging the bluetooth wirelessly and balance power usage such that the battery on the wrist will last exactly as long as the bluetooth. There is no need to have a full charged bluetooth when the phone battery gives out and vice versa.
The base model bluetooth device Apple should include for free should be stereo bluetooth voice only. That would be two devices so that you can wear just the one for phone conversations or put in both for stereo music while working out.
The next level of bluetooth device would include a camera that pokes out from under your ear and includes an LED flash. Because, seriously, no one is going to take photos by pointing their wrist at things and then reaching out with their other hand to click the shutter. Instead they can look at what they want to take a picture of Google Glass style. Once people get used to it they won't even look at their phone as a viewfinder trusting that the camera will capture what they are looking at.
The third level of bluetooth device would be a small tv looking unit you stick on your desk for stereo music and video on a bigger screen and would include its own front facing camera for video conferencing.
IMHO launching the device I describe here with the accessories available at launch would be the game changer that would put wrist based mobile computing into the general public.
