[E031]The right time? Apple takes leap into new territory with……

The right time? Apple takes leap into new territory[领土，领域；范围；地域；版图] with smartwatch

Apple’s mysterious March 9 ”Spring Forward” event is here, and we know that there’ll be plenty of new details on the Apple Watch, Apple’s first new product type since the iPad in 2010, including its much-anticipated[万众期待的] spring release date. We know that the watch promises a five-hour battery life, your heart rate at a glance[一瞥；看一眼], an iPhone companion app, a range of apps and sensors for health and fitness, and music.The watch is also expected to include map software that guides people to destinations with gentle[温和的；文雅的] “taps” on the wrist[手腕；腕关节]. But it remains unclear whether Apple - a latecomer to the wearables market - would do for smartwatches what the iPod did for MP3 players and the iPad did for tablet computers.

There will be 10 million people who will buy it because it’s from Apple. But the larger question is whether this category really has legs.

Roger Kay, analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates

Apple enters a segment[段；部分] crowded with vendors[供应商，销售商] ranging from South Korean giants Samsung and LG, to Japan’s Sony and startups such as Pebble[硅谷创业公司Pebble Technology]. Pebble burst[爆发，突发；爆炸] on the scene with a crowd-funded[众筹] smartwatch in 2012, this month broke the record on the Kickstarter[在线募资网站] platform with more than £10million raised. A key question is whether Apple can create the same kind of buzz[嗡嗡声] and energy around a new product without its legendary[传说的，传奇的] leader Steve Jobs, who died in 2011.