Tasfia Rahman
City College, New York
03/12/2020
Contents
The Apple Watch……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4
Background………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4
Innovation…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4
Need For Innovation and Innovator………………………………………………………………………………….4
Apple Watch Technical Description…………………………………………………………………………………….5
Exterior Parts………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5
Display……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5
QWERTY Keyboard…………………………………………………………………………………………………..6
Stronger Glass……………………………………………………………………………………………………………6
The Back Panel………………………………………………………………………………………………………….8
Interior Parts…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9
Display……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..9
Battery……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10
Speakers………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….11
Package…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..11
Using the Series 7……………………………………………………………………………………………………………12
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12
References……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..13
The Apple Watch
Introduction
Background
Apple Inc. has revolutionized the world of electronics. The company’s products are easily recognizable widely used because of quality. Though a little expensive than other brands, Apple products are durable, and not many replicas exist. Among Apple products’ most common are iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Apple Watches. The Apple Watch is Apple Inc.’s production line of exceptional smartwatches. The smartwatches’ owners can also pair them with existing iOS or another Apple-created electronic device. The watches are superior to ordinary watches since they can track health and fitness and enable wireless communication.
Innovation
The Apple Watch first graced the market in April 2015. It quickly became famous such that by the second quarter of that financial year, Apple had sold approximately 14 million watches. It was rated the bestselling wearable device of 2015 (Isakadze & Martin, 2020). As of December 2020, some studies estimated that over a hundred million people used the Apple Watch. Since 2015, the company has relentlessly pursued further development in its smartwatch line with continuous improvements in every version. Since 2016, the company has produced a new series of watches every September. A series represents every new generation, model, or version of the previous product with better internal components. The new series also fixes glitches present in the older models. Apple Inc. released its latest series on the 15th of October, 2021 (Apple Inc., 2022). Each series has product variations such as color, size, and material. For this technological description, this paper will focus on the latest version, Apple Watch Series 7.
Need For Innovation and Innovator
The primary goal for this Apple Inc. adventure was to give people an alternative for their phones. The Apple Watch compliments the iPhone and has additional functions. Apple Inc. hired Kevin Lynch to fashion a wearable technology specifically for the wrist. The innovator sought to maintain people’s level of engagement with their phones but make the whole process a tad more humane for the instances where people interact, and phones are just too ‘out there.’ There had been whispers of the company’s undertakings to develop an alternative for its wearable iPods as far back as 2011. The specifications known to the public were that it would be wearable on the wrist and would have a Siri Integration. Siri is Apple’s virtual assistance available in most of its products. Several magazine publishers followed closely on Apple’s steps towards developing and releasing the wrist wearable technology with Siri. Upon its release, the watch lacked an “iWatch” logo like most of Apple’s products because OMG Electronics already owned the trademark. Since its launch in 2015, the watch has gone international with sales across the US, India, South Africa, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
Apple Watch Technical Description
Exterior Parts
Display
From the exterior, the Apple Watch Series 7 has a nearly less bezel (a grooved ring holding the watches’ face cover in place) display. The company replaced the previous square displays with rounded corners to improve consistency. The display can now go from edge to edge because of the minimized bezels. The model offers screen area compared to its predecessors.
Figure 1: Apple Series 7 Display
Note The series 7’s bigger screen. Source: The Guardian
QWERTY Keyboard
A peak onto the internal feature and software screen reveals a fully QWERTY keyboard. The previous versions of the Smartwatch only enabled users to scribble when sending messages or typing things because of their tiny screens (Newsroom, 2021). But since the series 7 has more screen space, the watch provides users with a full QWERTY keyboard for better typing experiences.
Figure 2: QWERTY Keyboard
Note: Series 7’s fully Qwerty keyboard. Source: CNET
Stronger Glass
The company strengthened the series 7’s glass display for durability. The glass is the watch’s cover screen and is 50% thicker than the one on series six and even higher percentages for the older versions. Together with the CPU and flex cables, the screen is responsible for the display and touch commands. The sapphire glass material makes it scratch resistant. It is also harder to crack because of the two-pack tempered glass.
Figure 3: Two Pack Tempered Sapphire Glass
Note: Apple’s more robust glass display. Source: AliExpress
In addition to the stronger glass, the series 7 has an IP6X certification meaning that the watch is dust resistant. It also has a WR50 certificate for water resistance (Newsroom, 2021). However, the structure lacks a diagnostic port. Apple uses a diagnostic port during services such as watchOS restoration through wired connections. The company compensated for that subtraction with a 60.5GHZ wireless data transfer module.
Figure 4: Diagnostic Port
Note: The diagnostic port available in series 6 Source: macrumors.com
Figure 5: Missing Port
Note: Series 7’s missing port Source: Ifixit
The Back Panel
Similar to series 6, series 7 has equally composite health monitoring features. The applications within the watch draw their information from the sensitive sensors on the back panel.
The watch can monitor rhythm and blood oxygen levels from the sensors. Such information is essential during workouts, sports, adventures, and other sports.
Figure 6: Sensors on the Back Cover
Note: Health monitoring sensors on the S7. Source: The Guardian.
Interior Parts
Display
The Serie 7 is a little bigger than its predecessors, making its division into smaller components simpler, not easy, though. During the teardown, the Apple Watch Series 7’s larger displays came in handy (Suovanen, 2021). After grilling the watch face-down on an 80°C mat, the suction handle could lift the screen higher enough to allow access underneath the bezel.
Figure 7: The Apple Watch Cover Lift
Note: Post heating and lifting of the watch’s bezel. Source: Ifixit.com
A closer look at the disintegrated screen shows that series 7 has a single flexing cable fold at the bottom. This contrasts with series 6, which had two cables at the top and bottom (Suovanen, 2021). Flexing cables, otherwise known as continuous flex, are electric cables fashioned to keep moving applications that create physical stress through bending radii. The single flex cable for series 7 indicates that the company has unified the touch signals with the OLED display, unlike series six, which had individual cables for both functions.
Battery
The battery powers and sustains all the devices operations. Without it, the watch is just a black screen. Apple Inc. created the series 7’s battery to last for 18 hours. The digit is accurate because the company tested the smartwatch under different metrics. After a full overnight charge, the watch is likely to sustain its user throughout the day.
Figure 8: Apple Watch Series 7 Batter
Note: The 18-hour series 7’s batter. Source: Ifixit
The battery is slightly wider compared to last September’s series. In addition to the size, the batter has a little more capacity and density. The batter specifically targets the improved display that may take up more power, so despite their bigger capacity, they still last just as long as the previous models (Suovanen, 2021). From the image, the battery has a capacity of 309mAh.
Speakers
Back to the IP6X certification, the watch is dust resistant. Specifically, the speaker is safe from dust. Some reviewers explain that the watches have always been dust resistant, just that the company had never included the factor in its durability tests (Suovanen, 2021). Apple Inc.’s measures to make the watch water-resistant for up to 50 meters deep automatically sealed it from dust.
Figure 9: Dust Resistance
Note: The speakers dust sealing. Source: Ifixit
Package
The watch has a t8301 CPU similar to the one in series 6. The package hosts 32 Gigabytes of storage, is dual-core, and is version 8.0, which is upgradable to 8.4 (Apple Inc., 2022). The CPU is what enables all the watch’s functions.
Figure 10: The Central Processing Unit
Note: S7 processor. Source: iFixit
Using the Series 7
The first step in using the smartwatch series 7 is the setup. One needs to customize their watch by pairing it with other Apple devices, specifically the iPhone. Upon a successful setup, the watch tracks activities and workouts, encouraging users to be more active through reminders and healthy competition (Basza et al., 2021). The watch tracks sensitive information, including menstrual cycles, heart rates, and irregularities that raise concern. In addition to the health services, the watch keeps track of messages, emails, and phone calls to streamline communication while reducing contact with the phones.
Conclusion
Apple Inc. has produced a market conquering version of their Smartwatch line. The smartwatch does more than anyone would expect, with operations ranging from health monitoring to effective communication. With every series being an improvement of the previous, it is a guarantee that Apple has even better gadgets to come.
References
Apple Inc. (2022). Apple Watch Series 7. https://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-7/
Basza, M., Krzowski, B., Balsam, P., Grabowski, M., Opolski, G., & Kołtowski, L. (2021). An Apple Watch a day keeps the doctor away?. Cardiology Journal, 28(6), 801-803.
Isakadze, N., & Martin, S. S. (2020). How useful is the smartwatch ECG?. Trends in cardiovascular medicine, 30(7), 442-448.
Newsroom. (2021). Apple reveals Apple Watch Series 7, featuring a larger, more advanced display. Press Release. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/09/apple-reveals-apple-watch-series-7-featuring-the-largest-most-advanced-display/
Suovanen, J. (2021). Three Former Apple Engineers Helped Us Tear Down Apple Watch Series 7. https://www.ifixit.com/News/53688/three-former-apple-engineers-helped-us-tear-down-apple-watch-series-7
