Apple Meets with Mexican Regulators Ahead of Watch Debut

Apple is paving the way for an international rollout of the Apple Watch: five executives from the company met with Mexico’s Federal Telecommunications Institute President Gabriel Contreras and other officials last week to discuss “advances in healthcare devices,” reports Bloomberg. Among the Apple executives flying to Mexico we find Afshad Mistri, a global healthcare market manager, and Kalinda Raina, a senior manager for global privacy.

The news comes shortly after the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has ordered 5 to 6 million Apple Watch units for the initial launch. Apparently, Mexico will be on the list — at least this is what the meeting suggests. The Apple Watch will hit the shelves in April, Tim Cook mentioned during the earnings call earlier in January.

Although the meeting was held behind closed doors, Bloomberg mentions that Apple has faced questions from US health officials about the forthcoming wearable, as it will be able to collect personal information: health data such as the owner’s pulse.

Also, the Apple health platform, HealthKit, will gather and analyze data from all sensors connected to the device. This prompted regulators to keep an eye on Apple as it develops products that access personal information. Health is one of them, but let’s not forget about the financial data the company gets with Apple Pay.