Would you buy an iWatch?

The rumor mills are grinding rapidly. Over the weekend, NYTimes  and WSJ reported that Apple was testing an iWatch concept internally. Bloomberg picked up on it and added some embellishments. The tech blogosphere [1][2] has been on an overdrive speculating on the iWatch. Going with the flow, this article speculates the existence of one such iWatch and what it could possibly do.Wearable Computing- the next big thingFor the last few years, smartphones and tablets have been the areas where much of the gadget wars have been fought. As the post-PC era dawns on us, we have shifted all attention to innovation in smartphone and tablet technology.Wireless technologies, display technologies, device miniaturization, voice control, location based technologies and others have been at the forefront of this tablet and smartphone era. Core innovations are continuing to happen like bendable displays and advanced LTE systems but the devices themselves are close to being in their ideal form factor. This means that a next dimension in the gadget wars will be opened and the bet seems to be on wearable computing.Google while already working on Google Glasses as its first foray into wearable computing is also reportedly working on smart watches. Personal fitness trackers are all the rage these days and they come in multiple form factors from pendants to bracelets to portable dongles.What started it allYou could argue that Dick Tracy's watch was the original inspiration for every smart watch that is out there and it would be a fair assessment. For the last two decades, technology companies have been trying to crack this gadget and have repeatedly failed. This was for a multitude of reasons- lousy internet connectivity, stone age display and technologies not to mention manufacturing that was not yet ready for such a level of miniaturization. Over the last few years, all of this has changed. And we are now ready to make the dream smart watch.Apple serendipitously kicked off this recent interest in smart watches when it made its last generation iPod Nano small enough to be plugged into a watch strap and used as one. The Lunatik TikTok was a cult hit that spawned a cottage industry of iPod Nano watch bands. But in a seemingly odd move, Apple increased the size of the latest Nano, killing the budding market, or so it felt at that time.Enter the iWatchThere was a lot of speculation when Apple increased the size of the 7th generation Nano that it was building its own iWatch. And it makes sense. The time is finally right for the iWatch. There are over 500 million iOS devices out in the wild.Imagine a watch that can sync with those devices and deliver iMessages, provide email notifications, show social network updates, updates with latest tweets, stream songs (both via Airplay and from the Cloud directly via Wifi) and possibly support Siri wouldnt that be a game changer?. Now if it can also support Facetime, how about that for a killer gadget. Other than supporting Siri which is processor intensive and challenging and also Facetime, everything else can be done. And Apple will wrap it up in a package designed to appeal to its hundreds of millions of iFans. At $199, that would instantly be the device to buy this year.There are question marks on Apple's continued domination of the gadget industry. Much of it is overblown but it is a fact that Android has caught up both in the wow factor of hardware and fantastic software. I would argue that the current Jelly Bean Android OS on Nexus 4 is more innovative than iOS 6. It helps Apple then to introduce a new segment to foster its next few years of bottom line growth.CompetitionSmart watches are hitting big time now with the huge Kickstarter success story, Pebble and Sony's very own Smart Watch. Other innovative startup players are also starting to enter the space like Metawatch (another Kickstarter success story) and CST01 (Kickstarter too). But the big guns will come swinging soon. Casio is selling a G-Shock that syncs with iOS via bluetooth. Google is probably building its smart watch as we speak. Samsung and LG wont be far behind. But Apple will have a head start if it does launch its device this year. And given their design chops, they will come in with something that has looks to kill.I believe there is a big potential market for an Apple wearable device like an iWatch. Apple has probably seen the marketplace opportunity and will likely offer one such device before the end of the year. And it will sell. Until then, I will go back to waiting for a shipment update on my Kickstarter backed Pebble.