Apple Watch 2 to have its own cellular connectivity

Just over a year ago, Apple released the Apple Watch but they are yet to announce its successor which is a bit of change from their usually reliable annual release schedule…

Yet, this may be because Apple isn’t planning on releasing a simple revision of the original Apple Watch but a more advanced piece of wearable technology.

According to a new report, Apple may be gearing up to release an Apple Watch with standalone cellular connectivity.

This means that the Apple Watch 2 will be a free (at least partially) from the iPhone. At the moment, like most smartwatches, the Apple Watch piggybacks off the iPhone from where it pulls notifications and uses its network connection.

This is why the Apple Watch can sometimes be rather slow when using apps, even after the watchOS2 upgrade which allowed apps to run directly from the Apple Watch.

However, with its own connection you won’t have to always keep your iPhone within range or deal with lag due to slow iPhone to Apple Watch communications.

The report claims that the Apple Watch 2 will be significantly faster because of this.

If the report is to be believed, the updated version could do two important things for the Apple:

1) Existing Apple Watch owners aren’t likely upgrade £300 to £600 watches every year.

2) A standalone cellular connectivity Apple Watch will definitely be more attractive to first time buyers.

We expect the Apple Watch 2 will be released later on this year alongside the iPhone 7, so we still have quite some time to wait before we can get our hands on the next generation Apple Watch.