Are you looking to pick yourself up a new smartwatch soon? You could set aside a chunk of cash for Samsung’s new Gear 2 or Gear 2 Neo, or maybe you prefer something more like the Pebble Steel? If waiting isn’t out of the question, going for something from Google and LG might even be an option sometime after we potentially see the unveiling of the rumored smartwatch at I/O. There’s rumors that ASUS is going to be entering this particular market soon as well, with a fairly interesting set of goals for their own device.
ASUS recently announced that they were planning to launch their own wearable device, and that they have their sights set on offering something that could be controlled with voice recognition and hand movement commands(gestures). The CEO of Asustek Jonney Shih, told Focus Taiwan that the wearable device they are planning to develop would be like a companion device to our smartphones, which sounds like just what a smartwatch is for. ASUS is also reportedly working on a brand new UI to complement the smaller display on this wearable device of theirs, which only further supports the idea that they will possibly be offering a smartwatch of their own later this year. We also just learned yesterday that Google is planning to open up an Android wearable SDK to third party developers, so it’s entirely possible that ASUS may be planning to work with the SDK to develop this particular wearable device. Among the so far lofty goals that ASUS has set for itself in launching a wearable to compete with other already or soon to be available devices, they want to to offer something that has decent battery life, is packed full of features and comes in with a low available cost to the consumer.
While we applaud ASUS’s tenacity here it may be quite a challenge for them to pack in tons of features like Voice or Gesture controlled operation, and still be able to offer the device for a less expensive and competitive price tag. There’s also the matter of how they will be able to get great battery life out of a device that has power hungry features like voice commands. If they can manage to clear these hurdles, and ASUS smartwatch that offers gesture controls to operate the device and has decent battery life would definitely be a wearable worth looking into. A problem for many with the wearables or smartwatches currently is the poor battery life, so this will be one of the biggest challenges they face.