“Apple has acquired small semiconductor company, Passif Semiconductor — reading that company’s published patents suggests Cupertino may be looking to use Passif’s technologies in future wearable and contactless payment solutions,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld.
“It’s enough for me to place a bet that the future iWatch will not in fact be an independent, self-powered device capable of running a few apps and making phone calls on its own, but will be little more than a posh Pebble: the device will need to work with a smartphone, the processor on the latter will be the brains of the outfit,” Evans writes. “If this is correct then this suggests the iWatch will only be of interest to those who already own an iPhone (or iPad); it also suggests a relatively limited feature set — these things will pick up exercise and fitness data, make calls (via the iPhone), texts (via the iPhone) and enable verbal interrogation of some apps (via iPhone/Siri), and so on.”
Evans writes, “If I am right about this then I don’t think that constitutes a game-changing device. I do however still believe this may eventually morph into a full-fledged mobile device in its own right.”
Read more, including an interesting Passif patent regarding e-payments, in the full article here.
Related article:
Apple acquires low-energy chip developer Passif Semiconductor – August 1, 2013