Apple Watch to Ship in April

The much-anticipated Apple Watch will ship in April.

Chief Executive Tim Cook announced the timing as part of the company’s holiday quarter earnings call, in which it set a record in iPhone sales. Apple had previously said the smartwatch would be available in early 2015.

“My expectations are very high for it,” Cook said of the Apple Watch. “I’m using it every day. I love it and can’t live without it.”

The device marks the first new product category for Apple since its 2010 introduction of the iPad tablet, with some analysts predicting anywhere from 10 million to 30 million of the smartwatches could be sold in the first 12 months.

The Apple Watch, announced in September, will come in three styles and adapts features from traditional watch design, such as the crown, which is used to navigate through the device’s features. The watch allows the wearer to send and receive messages, answer calls or use it as a health and fitness accessory.

Cook described the number of developers writing apps for the Apple Watch as “impressive.”

“We’re seeing some incredible innovation coming out,” Cook said.

Recent speculation has focused on one area of concern: Battery life. Apple has said the watch will require daily charging. However, one report in 9to5Mac claims the device would support 2.5 hours of “heavy” application use, such as playing games, or four hours of straight exercise tracking on a single charge.

Apple refused to comment on that report.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple reasons that we can't rely only on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on.

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. We can’t do that if we have a paywall.

That’s why we also turn to you, our readers, to help us keep Vox free. If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via