Wall Street Journal:

Apple is gearing up for a strong start. People familiar with the matter said the company is asking suppliers in Asia to make five million to six million Apple Watches in the first quarter.

First quarter translates to this April through the end of June. If these numbers are correct, supply shouldn’t be an issue unless Apple sells many, many boatloads of Apple Watch.

ABI Research estimates that Apple will sell 11.8 million Apple Watches in 2015, accounting for nearly half of all wearable devices, including fitness trackers and non-Android smartwatches.

“People have left the door open for Apple. The others haven’t done a great job here yet,” said Nick Spencer, an analyst at ABI Research.

Amen to that last bit. None of the current crop knocks me out design-wise. Add to that the simple fact that no other watch will have access to the Apple Watch APIs and iOS ecosystem. No other watch will be able to play in this space.

When Apple Inc. started developing its smartwatch, executives envisioned a state-of-the-art health-monitoring device that could measure blood pressure, heart activity and stress levels, among other things, according to people familiar with the matter.

But none of those technologies made it into the much-anticipated Apple Watch, due in April. Some didn’t work reliably. Others proved too complex. And still others could have prompted unwanted regulatory oversight, these people said.

We are about to enter into the same universe of planned obsolescence as the iPhone. Unlike a traditional watch, the Apple Watch will have a shelf life. Just like the iPhone, the hardware will age as miniaturization makes its way into new areas and new components/sensors become available. The hardware will become less performant as the OS itself matures, evolves, takes advantage of new hardware.

At the same time, the healthcare industry will evolve to embrace the brave new world of wearable sensors. The logjam here (at least in the US) is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA is there to protect privacy, prevent fraud. HIPAA is necessary, but is a wall that sits between your watch/phone and your doctor.

As both sides evolve, more and more of the sensors that currently sit in your doctor’s office will make their way into your pocket and your wrist. Ultimately, this means that each successive generation of Apple Watch will render previous generations obsolete. And that fact is yet another of the many factors that distinguishes the Apple Watch from traditional timepieces.