The Apple Watch 7 will come in 41mm and 45mm sizes, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The well connected Apple reporter isn’t the first person to suggest that this change is coming, perhaps hinting at the company’s hopes to make the Apple Watch less of a bridge to the iPhone and more of an independent standalone device.
According to Gurman, this year’s Apple Watch will be less about the features and more about the new look. It will have “a flatter display and edges, a faster processor and slightly larger screens,” wrote Gurman in the latest issue of his Power On newsletter.
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“I’m told that Apple will bundle multiple new watch faces to take advantage of the bigger screen, including an updated Infograph Modular face,” he added, noting that this will be only the second screen size increase in the wearable’s history after the Apple Watch 4 reduced the bezels in 2017.
Gurman reiterated Apple’s intention to produce a flatter, more angular design as seen on the iPhone 12 and 2021 iPad Pro. You can get a rough idea of what this will look like from the latest $60 knock offs emerging from China.
But anybody still clinging on hope for big upgrades to the health sensors will likely be disappointed, with Gurman saying that he doesn’t “expect any major health upgrades until at least next year, when we may see a body-temperature sensor.” Given we were hoping for something as game changing as blood sugar monitoring from the 2022 Apple Watch, that feels a little underwhelming, but there’s still plenty of time for more features to emerge.
Tim Cook to retire?
Away from the Apple Watch, Gurman’s newsletter covers some interesting corporate gossip from Apple. Having passed his ten-year anniversary as Apple CEO, Tim Cook is unlikely to extend his stay far beyond 2025, Gurman says. Cook is apparently set to stay on for “one more major new product category” before hanging up his Apple lanyard at some point between 2025 and 2028.
Given Cook’s long standing belief that augmented reality is the “next big thing”, it would seem appropriate for that product category to be the rumored Apple Glasses, rather than something like the Apple Car which is, as Gurman notes, quite a long way away.
The success or failure of said product will directly impact the work of Cook’s successor, whomever that may be. From the current members of Apple’s executive team, Gurman believes four are especially strong bets: Greg Joswiak, Deidre O’Brien, John Ternus and Jeff Williams. But with a possible departure still some way away, Gurman notes that this list “could change quickly.”
