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Google to Launch Two of its Own Android Wear 2.0 Smartwatches

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday December 27 2016, @05:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-prefer-a-dumb-watch dept.

takyon writes:

The smartwatch isn't dead, it's just waiting for a new service pack:

Google will be launching two new flagship smartwatches in the first quarter of next year, according to Jeff Chang, product manager of Android Wear at Google. In an exclusive interview with The Verge, Chang said that the new watches will be the flagship Android Wear 2.0 devices and will be the first ones to launch with the new platform. The new smartwatches had been rumored before, but Google confirmed the upcoming launch today as part of a larger effort to convince consumers that wearables — smartwatches specifically — are still in demand.

The new models will not have Google or Pixel branding, but will be branded by the company that is manufacturing them. Chang says that Google collaborated with the manufacturer — which he wouldn't name, but said has produced Android Wear devices in the past — on the hardware design and software integration for the watches. He likened the partnership to Google's Nexus smartphone program in terms of collaboration and goals.

Quick, get in the market while Apple is bleeding! Don't forget the fitness-related branding.

More information about Android Wear operating system. In other news, Niantic has launched Pokémon Go for the Apple Watch.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28 2016, @03:07AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28 2016, @03:07AM (#446533)

    My sister got her a health app on her phone that tracks 'steps per day' based on cellphone movement. Only my mom doesn't carry her phone around most of the day so the numbers are always quite low.

    She was joking the other day that since she always places 'dead last' in her health group stats, that she is just going to hang the phone off our dog's harness and send the dog out in the yard to play so she'll have 'first place' on the statistics next time.

    I personally don't see any of these techniques working well as non-dedicated fitness monitors (outside of only enabling them during intentional fitness, since lots of false positives are possible during normal daily movement.)

    But then I'm not the sort of person lazy enough to require an app to keep track of my fitness (or lack thereof.)