Apple Watch more powerful than the first iPad

“The original iPad, launched back in early April 2010, packed an Apple A4 chip,” Chris Smith reports for BGR. “The device was a powerful computing tool at the time and it set the bar for tablets.”

Apple’s Watch’s “processor is called Apple S1, a ‘system-in-package’ (SiP) that contains a chip, RAM memory, NAND flash, and other components,” Smith reports. “The S1 is “surprisingly close in performance to the version of Apple’s A5 processor found inside the current-generation iPod touch,” according to 9to5Mac.”

Smith reports, “Apple was highly secretive about the S1 SiP, choosing not to reveal any details about this special component of the Apple Watch during the device’s launch, or at any time thereafter.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]

15 Comments

  1. I wonder why they need it to be so powerful? I gather that most of the heavy lifting will be done by an iPhone to reduce battery consumption, so surely they could have squeezed more battery by lowering the performance of the chip. I’m sure there are all sorts of reasons for what they do and don’t do, it would be fascinating to know how they come to the decision as to what spec to use.

    1. Lead times. And when your first run of production is going to be say 30 million watches, then Apple has to gear up a massive production system all the way from Cupertino to China and back.

    2. Wow that Watch special event must have been organised by those insane people who fooled everyone into thinking they landed on the Moon. I mean honestly everyone knows you would get to close to the sun and burn up. The Apple watch is clearly just a figment of our imagination.

  2. I was originally impressed but didn’t think it practical enough – due to my idea of rapid changing technology. I don’t see a problem now because I think Apple may offer upgrades to the innards at a moderate cost 5 to 7 years down the road.

    The AWatch has grown on me. Mainly for my wife who is diabetic. I am warming up to it more and more.

  3. Apple is seriously locking in the chips market. I don’t mean a stranglehold and certainly not a monopoly, but if they ever get desperate or even just want to branch out, other companies could contract Apple for excellent, finely-tuned chips, something that the other guys have not been doing (or possibly ever done).

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