At Apple’s press event today in San Francisco, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that the company’s newest gadget, the Apple Watch, will be hitting some parts of Asia on day one. China, Hong Kong, and Japan are among the nine countries that will get the watches on their global debut: April 24. Other countries will follow, of course, but no specific launch dates were given.
Can’t wait that long? According to Cook, preorders for the Apple Watch will begin on April 10, and customers will be able to get hands-on previews of the watch in “select Apple Stores” beginning on that date. It wasn’t immediately clear whether any of Asia’s Apple Stores will have the watch available for preview, though. We’ve contacted Apple to ask for specifics and will update this post if we hear back. (Update: Apple’s VP of Technology, Kevin Lynch, showed off a bunch of apps on the Watch, including Tencent’s WeChat. Added in screenshots from Apple’s live video feed below.)
The Apple Watch is Apple’s first foray into the world of wearable tech, and prices for the device start at US$349. Apple also announced a major update to its MacBook line of laptops that will be available April 10, but a full list of launch countries for the new laptops was not disclosed.
Update: JD, China’s second-biggest ecommerce company, announced today on Twitter that it will sell the Apple Watch starting April 24, and it promises to deliver the watch to customers’ doorsteps within three hours.
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