"For us this is a giant moment," said Apple CEO Tim Cook during the company's annual developer conference on Monday. "This is how we felt when we launched the App Store."By empowering developers to create more robust applications, Apple is creating the foundation for making the Watch more than just a watch. Notifications and quirky watch faces aside, one of the early knocks on Apple Watch is that it hasn't been able to do anything useful enough to justify the cost (it ranges between $349 and $17,000). But like the App Store transformed the iPhone, the rise of native apps on Watch could foster the next killer app -- something innovative and useful that will have you running out to buy the wearable.

"Opening up native apps and access to the Watch hardware and software features to developers will make a huge difference," said Jan Dawson, an analyst at Jackdaw Research, "Third-party apps are key to mainstream adoption of the Apple Watch and what Apple announced this week will finally make really compelling third-party apps possible."Apple Watch's success could have ripple effects on the broader market, While a myriad of tech companies ranging iphone case nordstrom from Samsung to LG have barged into the wearables, few have really taken off, Google's platform for wearables, Android Wear, has struggled since its launch, with market research firm Canalys reporting vendors collectively shipped only 720,000 units last year out of a total 4.6 million wearables, Motorola's Moto 360 is widely believed to be at the head of the Android pack..

Many analysts believe Apple's smartwatch will change things. Forrester Research expects Apple to sell more smartwatches in 2015 than any of its rivals have cumulatively sold, include fitness companies like Fitbit that have been selling trackers for years. At the same time, Apple Watch could provide a lift in awareness and interest that could drive sales for the rest of the category. Market researcher Strategy Analytics forecast in March that Apple will ship 15.4 million Apple Watch units in 2015, giving the company 54.8 percent of the global smartwatch market. All other smartwatch makers combined will ship just 12.7 million units in 2015, according to the forecast. Strategy Analytics believes the Apple Watch will ignite the wearables space, saying total worldwide smartwatch shipments will jump 511 percent, from 4.6 million in 2014 to 28.1 million this year.

Apple didn't share any sales figures at iphone case nordstrom the developer conference, and said it wouldn't be breaking them out, When Apple Watch hit the market in April, it wasn't wholly without apps, In fact, there were 3,500 available, On paper, that fared considerably with the 4,000 apps developed for Android Wear since the software was released a year ago, But the third-party apps developed for Apple Watch's early run actually ran on the iPhone, which is paired with the smartwatch via Bluetooth, That resulted in a frustratingly slow experience for users trying to take full advantage of an app..

With Watch OS 2, Apple said it would let developers build apps that lived in the Watch itself, as well as take advantage of the device's motion sensor, haptic feedback engine, microphone, digital crown and other components. "That gives developers a pretty rich playground to work with," said Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis. Apple's two advantages with its iOS software has been a consistent product to develop for and the sheer number of users on the platform. The company has a similar advantage on the Watch.