According to a recent report from the Financial Times, Apple is “aggressively” hiring new employees to help with its smart watch effort. The move suggests that the company needs additional expertise to tackle the obstacles they are facing with the project. Sources also indicate that the “iWatch’ may not appear until late next year, something which was previously rumored. The following was said about the recently revealed information:
The company has begun hiring “aggressively” for the project in recent weeks, say people familiar with Apple’s plans for the wearable device, a move that shows it has stepped up development but which raises questions over the ability of its own engineers to develop wearable technology.
As Apple moves from iPods, iPhones and iPads into an entirely new category of product, it is looking beyond its existing staff in Cupertino for the talent required to build it – an indication that the endeavour involves “hard engineering problems that they’ve not been able to solve”, according to one source.
The report indicates that Apple has been looking into acquiring smaller firms with expertise that would be valuable to its smart watch effort. The company seems to be working hard to retain key employees that would help with their project.
As many of you probably already know, rumors of an Apple smart watch have been circulating for some time now, especially with the company reportedly putting over 100 designers to work on the project. Earlier in the month, it was revealed that Apple hired Paul Deneve, who was formerly the CEO of the fashion house, Yves Saint Laurent, to work on “special projects.” The speculation pointed towards him being involved with the iWatch along with other wearable computing projects at Apple.
Furthermore, the Cupertino California company has been filing trademark applications on the iWatch name in a number of countries, a move the company typically makes relatively close to its product launches. In this specific case, it seems like Apple still has a significant amount of work to finish before it can bring the device to the market.
Ultimately, we’ll have to wait and be patient to see if an “iWatch” is revealed and to learn more about it.
