Not surprisingly, there are number of people still waiting to receive their Apple Watch. For the last few weeks, Apple has been shipping watch after watch trying to fulfill the huge amount of Apple Watch orders, but continue to fall behind. While people continue to wait, third party manufactures are hard at work as well, designing and building accessories for the coveted Apple Watch–now that Apple has released its design specifications on their developer resource page.
Today, Apple posted a PDF document which outlines the design of the Apple Watch, its specifications, and the do’s and don’ts for third party manufactures. These details have opened the doors for endless Apple Watch accessories. One may think anyone can get the design specifications and build away, however that’s not the case. Apple is determined to have third party manufactures build only quality accessories for their smartwatch. So no cheap Amazon finds for us penny-pinchers (though I am sure you will be able to find some). Apple indicates that manufactures must “comply with applicable environmental regulations in the regions in which such bands are to be sold”. If you want to know what that means, you can check out the PDF that is provided, but take precaution that it might be a little hard to understand.
In addition to the environmental regulations, builders have a number of other guidelines they need to follow. For example, the band must not prevent the Apple Watch from touching users’ skin. This ensures that the heart rate monitor functions correctly. While some of the guidelines may seem strict, Apple has these guidelines in place to ensure manufactures create products that live up to the pristine Apple Watch.
This may be surprising news for some, as many were under the impression that Apple was not going to allow third party manufactures to create accessories for the Apple Watch. Now users will be able to choose from a large variety of bands that fit their style. We are starting to see rumors surface of bands that could provide an additional charge to the Apple Watch to improve its battery life. According to reservestrap.com:
We’ve developed and tested a completely rethought design that takes advantage of the 6 pin port underneath the band slide of the Apple Watch. This port hadn’t been deciphered by anyone until now but we’ve been able to make significant enough observations so far to warrant shifting our development focus to this new method. We’re looking forward to sharing more design details and technical specification of this new Reserve Strap as soon as we can.
I am sure this Reserve Strap is not the only band we will see that can charge the Apple Watch; lets just hope the other manufactures don’t price their band at $249.99. Regardless, more choice for the consumer is always a better situation. Thank you Apple for opening up such possibilities. (For once…)
Do you think Apple made a good decision by allowing third party manufactures to create accessories for the Apple Watch? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below