苹果发布会推出智能手表

Apple's much-anticipated smart watch will be unveiled to the media at the same San Francisco theatre where the tech giant introduced the iPad five years ago.

But the Apple Watch will only be officially launched in April.

So what can we expect from Apple's press event today?

Lindsey Turrentine is the editor-in-chief at CNET, a tech industry news and review website.

"I think that Apple is going to show some 'gee wiz' features that will hopefully set the Apple watch apart and some of those will be linked to other services Apple has already been working on, like Apple payments. The Apple Pay feature on the watch could be pretty compelling, and may drive more stores to adopt Apple pay, and get more people using it."

The Apple Watch, which will let consumers check their email, pay for goods at retail stores and monitor personal health information, will be Apple's first major product launch since the iPad in 2010.
But the company is entering an already crowded space.

One of China's top mobile technology companies Huawei raced to outpace Apple and unveil its first smart watch at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this month.

Motorola, acquired by Chinese tech giant Lenovo last year has also produced a popular smart watch.
But Apple's latest announcement is expected to overshadow these efforts by its rivals.

Roger Cheng, Executive editor of CNET:

"All that attention, all that hype around the watches that were shown, and some of them are actually really beautiful, I think a lot of that is going to disappear when Apple makes its announcement."
Apple first announced its plans to create a smart watch when it unveiled the iPhone 6 in September 2014.

Outside an Apple store in New York City, customer reactions were mixed about this latest gizmo.

"I feel like since Steve Jobs died it hasn't been the same. I just feel like Apple was one of the pioneers that pushed things and innovative things. I feel the Apple watch is cool but I expect more."
But other customers were more positive.

"I would love to have something that I could use on my hand or my arm so yeah I think that would be something I would be interested in seeing more of and seeing the reviews and checking it out."
Smart watches have been around for several years with companies like Samsung pushing them to the forefront of their marketing plans.

But sales have been low and many people aren't convinced.

But industry observers say all this might change overnight after Apple's announcement today.

For CRI, I'm Poornima Weerasekara.