Al Gore's sitting in the front row. He's on Apple's board. Angela Ahrendts, the head of online and in-store retail, is a couple seats down from him.
Laurene Powell-Jobs, Steve Jobs' widow, is also sitting in the front row. Craig Federighi is also in the front. He's the head of software for Apple.
Laurene Powell-Jobs is sitting next to Apple's head of design, Jony Ive. He and Steve were close friends.
Apple’s iPhone has become more vital than ever to the company’s financial results. It generated about 69 percent of its sales from the smartphone in the December quarter, the first full period after releasing the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus in September. Typically, the iPhone accounts for closer to 50 percent of Apple’s revenue.
That makes it even more vital for Apple to expand beyond iPhone into new markets, as well as bolster its businesses like iPad. Apple Watch, while not expected to be anywhere as big as iPhone, has the potential to generate more than $6 billion in additional revenue, according to an estimate by Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty.
And Apple Pay, the company’s new mobile payments service, also could be a boost for the company. It has grown quickly since Apple launched it in October.
Good morning and welcome to CNET's live coverage of Apple's "Spring Forward" event, where the company is expected to announce final details its new Apple Watch like pricing and availability.
The event itself starts at 10 a.m. PT at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Live onsite are CNET's Shara Tibken, Scott Stein and Dan Ackerman.
For onsite tweets from our live blog team follow, @sharatibken, @Tim_Stevens, @danackerman and @jetscott.
Now playing: Latch by Disclosure (w Sam Smith)
I'll be providing your playlist info.
Impressive that Scott could just ask Siri to identify the music playing, and it worked, despite heavy background noise.
We're starting with a video from West Lake, China.
Nice peaceful lake scene, Chinese structures, bridges. And of course, a new Apple store.
Apple has a common look for its stores across the globe.
Very minimalist, glass cube.
Tons of Chinese Apple fans cheering. This is the typical sort of video Apple does for its product launches.
Video is lots of happy people with their new iOS devices.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has stepped out on stage, sporting his normal uniform of jeans, button-up shirt and sneakers. The look among Apple execs -- and most people in Silicon Valley -- is super casual.
He's also wearing a sweater on top. It's a little chilly this morning in SF.
Cook: Welcome to SF. What you just saw on that video was the opening of our latest store in West Lake, China...It is an incredible place and it's a gorgeous new design.
I know everyone is very fixated on the Apple Watch and its price details, but for me, the pressing question is -- Will we see more than simple Intel Broadwell updates for a few Mac computers?
Cook: It's the perfect place to experience our products, open, bright and of course with a great team.
Photo shows almost no walking space in store. Totally packed
Cook: We are really proud to have this fantastic new home in China. We've opened 6 new stores in China in last 6 weeks. Now have 21 new stores in China. Have very aggressive plan to be at 40 by mid-next year. 453 stores worldwide now.
Cook: Over 120M customers visited our stores last quarter.
Cook: I am so incredibly proud of our retail and all the great things they do for our customers.
Since his first time leading one of these events a couple of years ago, Tim Cook has clearly become a better public speaker -- much more comfortable and casual on stage.
Cook: Customers love to stream their favorite movies, their favorite TV shows, their favorite photos to the big screen. Adding more and more content each day.
Cook: One channel I'd like to talk about this morning, and that's HBO
Cook: We loved HBO. Over the years they have created groundbreaking shows. Really become a part of our culture and shaped our cutlure.
HBO has been a big hole in the Apple TV lineup, plus nice to see a CBS News logo up there.
Cook: On April 12, the return of "Veep." "Silicon Valley." (listing a bunch of shows). And of course one of our favorites, "Game of Thrones." (Huge cheers for that)
