In the wake of recent reports from The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal,  Bloomberg is now chiming in to report that Apple has a team of about 100 product designers working on a wristwatch-like device that may perform some of the computing tasks now handled by the iPhone and iPad. The team’s size suggests Apple is beyond the experimentation phase in its development.

The developmental team is said to include managers, members of the marketing group and software and hardware engineers who’ve had previous experience working on the iPhone and iPad. It is further rumoured that Apple’s James Foster, senior director of engineering, and Achim Pantfoerder, another manager, are part of the efforts to introduce the Smartwatch.

A wearable device like a Smartwatch would signal a new track for the ever evolving consumer electronics industry. Apple debuted the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010, and is looking at other avenues to further expand its market. The wearable electronics industry is seeing a big push by the industry giants. Google has been working on its Project Glass and plans to introduce the augmented reality head-mounted display in 2014.

“There’s more people that would wear an Apple watch than would wear Google glasses,” Josh Spencer, a fund manager at T. Rowe Price Group Inc. said.

There will obviously be no confirmation coming from Apple regarding these rumours as it tends to keep such news close to its chest until it plans to announce them to the world. But if it does turn out to be true, the project has moved beyond the experimental phase and has moved on in the staircase of development.

Source: Bloomberg