Apple Watch Price And Key Dates To Be Revealed

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Apple is to give the lowdown on its new watch later - the company's first new product for five years.

Announced in September, technology fans will get a more detailed look at what it can do, how the apps work - and crucially the price and release date.

The watch can deliver a small 'tap' alert to the user's wrist, and as well as email, call and text functions, Apple says it will deliver news, health functions and other notifications in a bite-sized way.

It comes in two sizes - 38 mm and 42 mm - and the display is navigated and zoomed using a rotating digital crown on the side of the device.

'Smartwatches', such as The Pebble Watch and the Samsung Gear, have been around for a while and were one of the buzz products as the recent Mobile World Congress.

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Gallery: Apple Watch: What It's Up Against

The Samsung Gear is one of the rivals to the Apple Watch. Features include a camera and a super AMOLED screen, and you can also use it to control your TV

The Samsung Gear can hook up to 17 phones and tablets and there are more than 200 third-party apps available. Basic models start from around £160

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LG's Urbane LTE watch includes GPS and is also 4G. Importantly, like the Samsung Gear S, it can make its own calls and messages without needing an accompanying smartphone

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Chinese company Huawei showed of its own watch at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress (MWC). It runs on Android Wear, a version of Google's Android operating system

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Like many smartwatches, the Huawei watch includes a heart rate monitor. It comes with a quad core 1.2Ghz processor - there is no word on a release date or price yet

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However, they have not yet caught the attention of the mass market and remain a niche product.

All eyes will now be on Apple's Spring Forward event to see if it can make shoppers see the benefits, when most are already content with the ability of their smartphones.

Doubts over the Apple Watch - which crucially needs an iPhone to work - also include battery life and worries people could be irritated if the apps deliver too many alerts.

To head off concerns, Apple is reportedly asking developers to design apps to be used just briefly - a maximum of 10 seconds, according to Bloomberg.

Price is also a big question mark.

The base model is rumoured to start at around £300 in the UK, but the Sport and blinged-up Edition model - which comes in gold - could run into the thousands.

However, many experts believe Apple's remarkable track record - succeeding, for example, where others have failed with tablet devices - could see it take wearable technology to the next level.

"Apple's long-awaited entry to the wearables space will no doubt supercharge a market that otherwise seemed destined to be the preserve of techies and early adopters," said uSwitch.com technology expert Ernest Doku.

Facebook, Instagram and Pininterest are some of the names reported to be cut off from the internet at a top secret Apple lab working on new versions of their software.

There is also pressure on Apple boss Tim Cook as the watch is the first new product to be unveiled without the presence of talismanic founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2011.

The Apple live event, from Cupertino in California, begins at 5pm UK time.

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