Apple has invited several third-party iOS app developers to Cupertino to provide assistance with testing and finalizing Apple Watch apps, 9to5Mac reports. The company is apparently also holding workshops for over 100 different developers throughout the month of February.
The select group of developers reportedly includes companies working on sports applications, productivity software, banking applications for Apple Pay functionality, and more. As is typical with the pre-launch secrecy Apple normally employs for its products, developers noted that they were in many cases asked to travel to Cupertino on an urgent timeline with very little notice, and that the meetings themselves were conducted with anonymity between developers in attendance, with individuals labeled by unique number identifiers rather than names.
Several of the developers in attendance were also able to provide some initial impressions of the Apple Watch, highlighting some of the more impressive and unique features, describing the Watch OS as “more sophisticated” than the competing Android Wear solutions. However, some functionality is reportedly not yet active, and the built-in Watch features were said to be limited in much the same way the original iPhone was in 2007.
