Apple Watch Takes Center Stage Amid iPhone Excitement
In Apple’s universe, it’s usually iPhone news and rumors that takes center stage. But this week, it’s Apple Watch that hogged the attention.
First, a report said the Apple Watch come with a new feature that would allow it to connect to cellular networks without having to be tethered to an iPhone. It was quickly followed by an analyst report providing more information about the LTE chip. And most recently, a report detailed how many Apple Watches the company may sell this year.
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But the news didn’t end on the wrist. There was also talk this week of Apple’s (AAPL, -0.21%) efforts in entertainment, and surprisingly, it mulling over a change to the design of App Store icon after years of leaving the image alone.
Read on for a quick look at this week’s biggest Apple news:
This is Fortune’s weekly roundup of the biggest Apple news this week.
- The next Apple Watch, which could be announced in September, may come with an LTE connection, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo told investors this week. The feature would provide Apple Watches with a cellular connection, eliminating the need for it to be linked to an iPhone for an Internet connection. It would be the first Apple Watch to come with LTE since the smartwatch was introduced in 2015.
- Just a day later, Kuo wrote another note to investors to clarify that the LTE compatibility won’t mean that Apple Watch will be capable of placing and receiving calls on its own, as some users had hoped. Instead, the LTE connection will only allow for data transfers, meaning people who want to place calls through the Watch must tether it to an iPhone.
- Although Apple won’t reveal the number of Apple Watches it sells, unidentified suppliers told supply chain news site DigiTimes on Friday that the company is expected to ship 15 million units in 2017. That figure could jump to 20 million in 2018, the suppliers say.
- In response to last weekend’s Charlottesville, Va. rally and violence, Apple this week stopped allowing far-right sites integrate Apple Pay in websitesthat used the mobile-payment service to take payment for merchandise. According to a report, Apple blocked access to Apple Pay on three white supremacist websites. It was part of a broader effort by Apple to speak out against hateful speech and violence.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook blasted President Donald Trump this week for his comments following Charlottesville. Cook said that he didn’t agree “with the president and others who believe that there is a moral equivalence between white supremacists and Nazis, and those who oppose them by standing up for human rights.” Cook also said that Apple would donate $1 million to both the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.
- Apple has allocated $1 billion in its budget to acquiring original video content, according to The Wall Street Journal. Apple will try to buy shows to bolster a video service the company is reportedly working on that would compete against Netflix and Amazon Video. The Journal‘s sources said Apple wants to use the money to produce 10 TV shows.
One more thing…Apple has used the same App Store icon, featuring an “A” made up of a pencil, paintbrush, and ruler, for years. The new design features three sticks all arranged in an A. It’s a simple change, but it’s one that people have been chatting about on social media all week. And some are not too happy.
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