The Apple Watch is here

Cupertino, Calif. – Tech geeks rejoice: the Apple Watch from Apple Inc. is here. From a retail perspective, the device Apple Inc. calls “our most personal device yet” offers new ways to engage consumers, who are obtaining new ways to stay digitally connected.



In addition to letting users send and receive messages, calls and emails, Apple Watch allows users to automatically reach out to preselected “Friends” with a single tap. It also lets users sketch and animate drawings with their finger, create customized tap patterns they can send for other users to feel on their wrist, and record and send their heartbeat. Predictive technology will present users with preset options for messages, based on message context.



Messages, calls, and email from Apple Watch can be easily and sequentially transferred to iPhone, so users can pick up an Apple Watch interaction where they left it off on their iPhone. And of course Apple Watch has functionality for consumers to make payments via the Apple Pay digital payment service.



Retailers including Amazon.com and QVC have already released Apple Watch apps, and many more will undoubtedly follow in their footsteps. The iPhone 6 and Apple Pay have not yet reinvented retail the way some observers had predicted, and Apple Watch most likely won’t drastically alter the retail landscape by itself, either.



But Apple Watch is another step in the disruption of the retailer-consumer relationship, with more power held in the hands (or wrists) of the consumer.