[NewsPoster]

Apple has advised developers of an upcoming requirement for apps created for the Apple Watch they must adhere to when producing software for the wearable device, via a brief announcement on the company's developer website. The single sentence announcement says "Starting June 1, 2016, all new watchOS apps submitted to the App Store must be native apps built with the watchOS 2 SDK or later," followed by a link for more information about developing for watchOS.

The announcement gives developers just over five weeks to make the change, or end up finding their watchOS app being rejected by the App Store. Apple initially introduced watchOS 2 in June last year, releasing it to devices the following September, effectively giving developers close to a year to get their apps migrated over to watchOS 2. As part of the updated operating system, Apple added support for "native apps," namely apps that could run from the Apple Watch itself without needing to constantly transfer data with a linked iPhone. This feature that allowed for apps to run faster and smoother, in turn creating a better user experience.

Notably, this works out to be just under two weeks before the Worldwide Developer Conference, which will be held from June 13 to June 17. It is likely Apple will be making some more announcements during the conference relating to its operating systems, including watchOS, as well as new tools to help in app development for the device.

[mr100percent]

This should really speed apps up, since I'm fairly sure many of the sluggish apps on my watch are that way because they never updated to the new SDK.

[SierraDragon]

The biggest limitation of Apple Watch is its inability to fully stand alone. Apple has to be moving to standalone watch operation. My bet would be that the next Apple Watch version will largely stand alone, especially as regards fitness activities.

[Charles Martin]

I agree about the fitness stuff becoming more independent, and indeed I have previously speculated elsewhere that Apple could opt to make a version of the Apple Watch that strips off most of the iPhone functionality and is more of a "pure" fitness band and watch that they could sell a bit cheaper to attack Fitbit's marketshare.

I think we'll soon see the day when Apple updates watchOS to handle more functions on its own, and we might see this even with the current hardware, though I do think its mainly the fitness/health functions that will gain more independence in the near-term.

I have always thought that the current Apple Watch is a prototype for a future model that contains nearly all of the iPhone's current core "phone" functions, but I'm not sure we'll see that so soon -- that's a huge amount of innovation and engineering work that will need to happen, though I have no doubt that's the goal for the "Apple Watch 2" -- or "3" -- which might arrive within the next few years.