Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an Apple event announcing the iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, in Sept 9, 2014. (Photo/File photo)

　　Apple Inc has sent out invitations for a press meeting on March 9 in San Francisco, fueling rumors that it plans to launch Apple Watch at the event.

　　According to Reuters, the world's largest technology company did not specify what the event will be about in the invitation which reads simply "Spring Forward," a word play on the resetting of watches for daylight saving time.

　　Chief Executive Tim Cook said last month that the company plans to launch the smartwatch in April. The watch, which will let consumers check their email, pay for goods at retail stores and monitor personal health information, represents Apple's first major new product introduction since the 2010 launch of the iPad, Reuters reported.

　　Shares of Apple were up 88 cents at $129.67 on Thursday.

　　According to 9to5mac.com, Apple previously said that the wearable product will ship in "early 2015," while Senior Vice President of Retail Angela Ahrendts got a bit more specific by telling employees that the launch will occur in the "spring," after the Chinese New Year.

　　The Apple Watch will come in three collections, standard, sport, and edition, and several distinct wristband designs will be sold.

　　"While Apple has only revealed pricing for the metal and glass sport model ($349), rumors indicate that Apple will price the stainless steel and sapphire crystal standard model around $500, while the gold version will be priced in the thousands of dollars range," said 9to5mac.com.

　　According to wsj.com, Taiwan-based Quanta Computer, the sole assembler of Apple Watch, started mass production of the new gadget earlier this year.

　　To get ready for the launch date, thousands of Chinese workers continued to work round the clock during the Spring Festival holidays at Quanta's factory in Changshu, China.

　　In addition to the smartwatch, the company "is pushing its team to begin production of an electric vehicle as early as 2020,"said bloomberg.com on Feb 20, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

　　According to the report, the company's R&D costs were $6.04 billion in the past year, and Cook is facing increased pressure to return cash to shareholders. The CEO has been pushing the iPhone maker to enter new categories to further envelop users' digital lives with Apple's products and services.

　　The number of employees Apple had already poached from Tesla and other car makers implied that Cook had ambitions that went far beyond auto software like its existing CarPlay, bloombergview.com reported on Feb 25.

　　A source tells appleinsider.com that both Jony Ive, Apple's famed designer, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk were among the attendees at Madonna's A-list Oscar after-party on last Sunday and they had a conversation for about 30 minutes.

　　"The meeting also comes after Musk himself revealed that Apple has been offering 250,000 bonuses and 60 percent raises in an effort to recruit some of his top Tesla engineers," said the report.

　　Technology giant Apple is looking beyond mobile devices to learn how to make a self-driving electric car, and is talking to experts at carmakers and automotive suppliers, a senior auto industry source familiar with the discussions said on Saturday.

　　The Cupertino, California-based maker of phones, computers and, soon, watches is exploring how to make an entire vehicle, not just designing automotive software or individual components, the auto industry source said.

　　"They don't appear to want a lot of help from carmakers," said the source, who declined to be named.

　　Apple is gathering advice on parts and production methods, focusing on electric and connected-car technologies, while studying the potential for automated driving, the source said.

　　"Fully automated driving is an evolution. Carmakers will slowly build the market for autonomous cars by first releasing connected and partially automated cars," the auto industry source said. "Apple is interested in all the potential ways you can evolve the car; that includes autonomous driving."

　　Whether it will build and release an electric car or a more evolved autonomous vehicle remains to be seen, the source said.

　　But clearly Apple has sharply raised its ambitions in automotive technology. Car technology has become a prime area of interest for Silicon Valley companies ranging from Google Inc , which has built a prototype self-driving car, to electric car-maker Tesla Motors Inc.

　　An Apple spokesman in London on Saturday declined to comment on "rumours or speculation".

　　Trying to build an actual car would mark a dramatic shift for the maker of the iPhone and iPad. Apple often researches projects which are then discarded, but has so far mainly stuck to its core expertise in mobile and electronic devices.

　　The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple had set up a secret lab working on the creation of an Apple-branded electric car, citing people familiar with the matter. The lab was set up late last year, soon after Apple revealed its forthcoming smart watch and latest iPhones, the Financial Times said.

　　The Journal said that the Apple project, code-named "Titan", employed several hundred people working a few miles from Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.

　　Apple executives met with contract manufacturers including Magna Steyr in Austria, a unit of Magna International, the Journal said. A Magna spokeswoman declined to comment.

　　The path to self-driving cars

　　Autonomous driving is likely to emerge progressively as driver assistance systems become more sophisticated.

　　Already, carmakers such as Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen's Audi have revealed cars that can travel long distances without human intervention.

　　Analysts at Exane BNP Paribas have said they see a $25 billion market for automated driving technology by 2020, with vehicle intelligence becoming "the key differentiating factor". But the brokerage does not expect fully automated cars to hit the road until 2025 or 2030, in part due to regulatory hurdles.

　　Short of building entire cars, there is money to be made from the software to run a self-driving vehicle, as well as the services associated with autonomous driving, such as mapping, car-sharing and car recharging services, the auto source said.

　　"It's a software game. It's all about autonomous driving," the industry source said.

　　Apple may be pursuing mainly auto industry expertise rather than full-scale partnerships with established car companies.

　　With its soon-to-be-launched Apple Watch, the company had held limited discussions with Swiss watchmakers, but no broad-based alliance emerged from the talks.

　　Instead of partnerships, Apple pursued a go-it-alone strategy and turned to poaching talent from top watch brands.

　　Two different sources have told Reuters that Apple has tried to recruit auto industry experts in areas such as robotics.