Apple Watch News: Reports Say Cellular Apple Watch Series 3 to Be Announced September 12 | iPhoneLife.com

A new report from DigiTimes, based on an article on Chinese-language site Economic Daily, predicts a big revenue increase for Quantas, Apple’s Apple Watch manufacturing partner. This is seen by many as a confirmation of the rumor that a new Apple Watch Series 3 will be announced along with the much anticipated iPhone 8 at the September 12 Apple event, with the Series 3 expected to be available for purchase before the end of 2017. The exact release date and price of the Apple Watch Series 3 are still unknown.

Related: Apple’s watchOS 4 Workout & Activity Updates Are Awesome. Here’s Why They Don’t Matter.

The Apple Watch Series 3 Details

• New Apple Watch Release date: late 2017 or early 2018
• New Apple Watch Cost: $349, possibly more. Especially if there is an LTE model
• New Apple Watch Best Features: LTE chip

What to Expect from the New Apple Watch

Faster processing speeds and better battery life can almost always be expected any time Apple releases a product update, and a faster Series 3 with better battery life will hopefully allow Apple Watch users to fully make user of watchOS 4 when the new OS is released in the fall. However, though there have been a few rumors of a form factor redesign, the lack of any concrete details make that rumor unlikely to be true. At least when it comes to this iteration of Apple’s popular fitness tracker.. The only rumored changes to the form of the new Apple Watch  are the possible switch from OLED to micro-LED and the replacement of the current touch-on-lens screen with a glass-film touch screen, which is said to be more scratch resistant and cheaper and more reliable to produce.

Update: it is now rumored that the Series 3 Apple Watch will in fact debut a completely new form factor, though what changes the form factor would see are still unclear.

Coolest Rumored Features of the New Apple Watch

Another exciting and much more likely rumored feature of the new Apple Watch Series 3 is an LTE chip. An Apple Watch with cellular connectivity will almost certainly come with a higher price tag than those with only WiFi connectivity and would also require users to purchase a data plan. But with LTE service, users will finally be able to use Siri, make calls, stream music, and more while completely untethered from their iPhones.

Update: Reports continue to support this rumor. If a new Apple Watch is released this fall, we can pretty much count on the next Apple Watch having an LTE chip at this point, but but it still may not be possible to make direct phone calls from the new Apple Watch.

A more far-fetched rumor predicts expanded health-tracking capabilities for the new Apple Watch, including the ability to measure respiration. It’s within the realm of possibility that additional health-tracking features could be added to the Watch Series 3, but it’s far more likely we will see those capabilities introduced with a later Apple Watch model.