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Rumor: Apple Watch 2 Likely Coming Mid- To Late 2016, Will Have Thinner Body

Rumor: Apple Watch 2 Likely Coming Mid- To Late 2016, Will Have Thinner Body

September 28, 2015

According to research firm Cowen and Company, Apple’s second-generation Apple Watch is predicted to come no earlier than mid-2016 and will feature a thinner body and faster processor.

Cowen believes Apple will ship abut 18 million Watches by the end of 2015, but predicts that the company will ship a whopping 45 million Apple Watches in 2016. Yes, nearly 3 times as many. The firm believes that the next-generation Apple Watch will not arrive until at least May or June, or possibly even later in the year.

Apple Watch 2

Take all this with a grain of salt. We don’t know whether these claims are speculative or based on actual insider information obtained by the company. As we haven’t heard much about the second-gen Apple Watch (and since C&C isn’t exactly an established source for accurate Apple production rumors), this seems unlikely. All we really think may happen in 2016 is that Apple includes FaceTime camera and would likely make room for a larger battery.

However, Cowen believes that we’ll see some physical changes to the outside of the Watch including a thinner body and better performance. We certainly believe better performance is in the cards, given that one of the major complaints about the first-generation Watch is that it’s not super fast. We’ve also seen Apple make major changes in the past to the design of its products. Both the iPhone and iPad saw increased speed and design tweaks within 12 months of their debut. However, a thinner Apple Watch wouldn’t exactly jibe with better battery performance, so I wouldn’t count on it.

The Apple Watch has been available since April of this year, and the company just released watchOS 2 along with both Gold and Rose Gold finishes for the Apple Watch Sport. Perhaps Apple is looking to aggressively push updates both in the hardware and software department in order to get the device onto more people’s wrists. But the external hardware will likely remain the same for another year or two.

Still, my bet is that we’ll see the next Apple Watch — with whatever new features it turns out to offer — within the first half of next year.