Apple had plenty to brag about at its event earlier this week. Bigger iPhones. Sharper screens. Faster speeds. A shiny new watch. So it was particularly noticeable when Apple left out an important detail for the Apple Watch: the battery life.
Why leave that out? The iPhone’s battery life is clearly listed on its webpage. And as my colleague Nick Bilton and I wrote in January, the importance of battery life becomes even greater with computers worn around our bodies all day.
The curiosity struck me, so I couldn’t resist asking Timothy D. Cook this question when we met after Apple’s event on Tuesday: “So why did you skip over the watch’s battery life?”
Mr. Cook’s response was swift:
“I don’t think we skipped over it. I addressed it in the presentation myself. We think that based on our experience of wearing these that the usage of them will be really significant throughout the day. So we think you’ll want to charge them every night, similar to what a lot of people do with their phone.”
In other words, the Watch’s battery life is probably less than a day, which is roughly the same as a smartphone. Mr. Cook went on to explain that this was why Apple designed a simple power-charging solution, based on magnetic induction technology.
That could change, of course, when the Apple Watch comes out next year. I was curious about this too, and asked why people had to wait until after Christmas to buy the watch. Mr. Cook implied Apple was still applying its finishing touches to the device.
“We wait until we get it right and it’s ready,” he said. He added that Apple was also working to get more software developers involved in making apps for the device.
One of those finishing touches might be improving the battery life. Maybe it will be longer than a day when the Watch finally arrives. Maybe not. Hence the lack of a specific number.