We already know that there are a number of manufacturers that either already have or are planning to put the Android OS onto watches. So far probably the most talked about device has been the Pebble, but there are also rumors of an upcoming Samsung smart watch called the Samsung Galaxy Altius, as well as a curious patent filing from Google hinting at their own possible wrist accessory. These watches aren’t stand alone devices though since they need to be paired with a smartphone in order to take advantage of most of the features.
Enter a new startup company called “Androidly“. This group out of India has put their idea out on kickstarter and they claim to have put the entire Android smartphone experience on your wrist. Up until this point the smart watches out in the wild were limited to things like caller ID or social network feeds and had very small app stores with which to draw from. The Androidly smart watch wanted to take this concept a step further as it will have full access to the Google Play store. Apurva Sukant, one of the partners in the company had this to say: “We essentially combined a phone, camera, GPS, and an array of sensors to a computer. Then we miniaturize such a computing device to the size of a conventional wristwatch. One needn’t pick any other device up, as the watch will always be strapped onto the wrist and available for use anytime, anywhere.”
The idea of this device is not to just cram a smartphone OS onto a smaller screen but to optimize the experience for the device. Ankit Pradhan also part of the new company says: “We have optimized the Android Operating System, for the smaller 2 inch screen of the watch, and for optimally using the processing power and sensors available to it on the watch. Currently, the Androidly Smart Watch is the world’s smallest fully featured Android device and we take great pride in the fact.”
Obviously The next question you may have are the specs and the price. The Androidly smart watch can be had for US $299-$349 and sports the following stats:
- 256 MB RAM
- WiFi b/g
- Bluetooth 2
- GSM 2.5G Edge
- GPS
- Accelerometer
- 3 mega pixel Camera
- Speaker + Mic
You can find out more about Androidly from the above link or check out their Facebook and Google Plus pages.