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Android Wear Needs More Than a New Name To Fight Apple Watch (cnet.com)
Less than two months before Google I/O, Google has rebranded its Android Wear watch platform to "Wear OS." The recent name change is part of a move to have its watches stand apart from Android, but it could also indicate that Google's smartwatch strategy is about to shift. Google may release a completely new Wear OS focused on the Google Assistant or a Google-branded smartwatch. Scott Stein writes via CNET that Android Wear needs more than a new name to fight the Apple Watch: The Apple Watch took over the top spot in global wearable sales recently, according to IDC, despite the fact that it's only compatible with iPhones. Fitbit just announced the Versa, a promising casual smartwatch that will interface with any iPhone or Android and starts at just $200. The wearable market is growing. But where is Google in that picture? The Fossil Group, maker of many of the Android Wear watch products last year, reported some promising numbers: "In 2017, Fossil Group nearly doubled its wearables business to more than $300 million, including 20 percent of watch sales in Q4," said Greg McKelvey, Fossil's chief strategy and digital officer, as part of Google's Wear OS announcement. So it sounds like Android Wear -- sorry, Wear OS -- is still in the game. But the problem, for me, is that I've never found Android Wear watches to be particularly great. Google relaunched Android Wear over a year ago with new software and added fitness smarts, plus standalone phone functions. But Apple's watch strategy has advanced faster, with better hardware. The Apple Watch S3 can be a phone, now. So can Samsung's Gear S3, which runs on Tizen. Google, meanwhile, stopped adding cellular functions to watches after the lackluster LG Watch Sport last year.
Smart Watches have flopped. I bought a Pebble, but am back to a $30 Casio. Most people wear no watch at all, and have no intent to do so.
Usually Google suffer from poor marketing, and this is part of the issue here. Android Wear, however, is a major part -technical- issues.
I got 2 android wear watches so far. The first was the LG one from launch. It was slow as hell and very buggy at the beginning.
I eventually got a Moto 360 second gen. It was better, but also buggy. Connectivity issues, weird glitches, random battery drains. The stupid flat tire meant none of the watch faces looked good, too.
It got worse though: when they updated to Android Wear 2, a lot of options changed or were hard to find. Worse, now when I get a new phone, because of the requirement to reset the watch to pair, it becomes semi-incompatible with the current version of the phone software. That makes pairing incredibly difficult. If you try enough times it eventually works. Or you can just download an APK of an old version on a sketchy website and have it work for sure (wtf?)
If they could just get the software to work reliably and consistently, they'd have a chance.
Why would you go back to a Casio after having used a Pebble? I backed the Time Steel and it's my favorite watch by far.
I love the ability to change watch faces, the always on e-paper display and the 5+ day battery life. If I get a text, a Hipchat message or an email, I can just look down at my wrist instead of fishing my phone out of my pocket and then keying in the passphrase. It sounds simple, but is extremely convenient. I can reply by talking into the watch or selecting a canned message. I also run Music Boss so I get album art on my wrist for whatever I'm listening to on Spotify and can change tracks and adjust volume with the watch.
Now that Fitbit's destroyed Pebble I'm kind of stuck. I won't buy an Android watch because the battery life is unacceptable. I can't buy an iWatch because they only work with iPhones. I won't buy a Fitbit because I want a smartwatch and not a fitness tracker. I really liked that Sony watch with the e-paper wristband, but it's only sold in Japan. The Pebble Time Steel met my needs perfectly and there's nothing else on the market like it.