Apple Watch moves Internet to user's wrist

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple wants to move the Internet from your pocket to your wrist.

Time will tell whether millions of consumers are willing to spend $350 on up -- there's an 18-karat gold version that starts at $10,000 -- for a wearable device that still requires a wirelessly connected smartphone to deliver its most powerful features.

But CEO Tim Cook is selling the Apple Watch as the next must-have device, able to serve people's information needs all day long, like no other tool has quite been able to do.

"Now it's on your wrist. It's not in your pocket or pocketbook," Cook said before unveiling the new line Monday. "We think the Apple Watch is going to be integral to your day."

Apple wants this wristwatch -- which piggybacks on a nearby smartphone's Internet connection through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth -- to be seen as so revolutionary, it requires its own new lingo.

So while the watch face provides most of the same information smartphones do, the back of the watch sends "taptic feedback," tapping the wrist to remind the wearer to get up and burn more calories.

"It's like having a coach on your wrist!" gushed Cook, touting the potential health uses of a computer that sticks to your skin all day.

The gadget also introduces "digital touch," a new way of messaging that lets people draw and send little figures with their fingertips and have them arrive on a friend's watch face dynamically, in the same way they were drawn.

Convincing consumers they can't live without an expensive new device isn't easy, but Apple's strongest selling points include "convenience and immediacy," along with high-end design features and some useful new apps, said Carolina Milanesi, a tech analyst with Kantar Worldpanel.

"If you don't have to be fumbling around for your phone, that can make a difference," agreed analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy.

Initial consumer reactions ranged from die-hard Apple fans vowing to buy the watch immediately to naysayers who don't see the point of paying so much to see updates on their wrist instead of their smartphone.