The new buzz word, wearables, describe many items including – smartwatches, bracelets, bands, monitors and much more – and even though they are everywhere in the media, they are still relatively new. Manufacturers such a Peeble, Sony and Samsung have rushed products to the market, only to find they were not fully embraced by the public…oh, we wanted to be excited about them, but to be quite honest, most are less than inspiring. I said it a little nicer than Mark Randall, Motorola’s Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Operation who spoke exclusively with our source, TrustedReviews, and he stated:
“Moto 360 is a really cool device that we think solves a lot of problems that no one else has solved in the wearables space. We look at the 360 and we look at what everyone has done in that space. To be honest we think they are all pretty crappy.”
Whoa, “pretty crappy” he says – and he may be correct. He would be including the Samsung Gear 2 and Sony Smartwatch 2 into the “crappy” category. Maybe that is a little harsh, but uninspired, limited in their usefulness and clunky are certainly valid descriptions. The smartwatches are unusually large – after all you need a large enough display to make it easy to see and up until now, many finger gestures were needed in order to use the apps on the device. Besides being large and clunky, they have very little ‘style’ to them…a watch, if nothing else, is a fashion statement of elegance and design and many people who have the money to ‘accessorize’ simply do not want to wear, what definitely looks like a mini-smartphone strapped to their wrists.
This will all change soon as Google announced their new Android Wear – an extension of Android designed specifically for wearable devices. Many companies, Motorola included, as well as traditional watchmakers, such as Fossil, have worked closely with Google and they all expect to launch their new Android Wear smartwatches in 2014. The way Android Wear works can allow designers and manufacturers to make a truly stylish device – just look at the Moto 360. Randall said:
“We have come out with what we think is a really beautiful ID. The feedback so far – and we’ve only done a very gentle release into the market – is super positive. People are saying it is finally a device they would wear on their arm instead of being embarrassed about, and we haven’t even talked about functionality.”
Motorola has been pretty quiet about the specifications and actual functionality of the Moto 360, other than hints that it may command a premium price – just because they have attacked the smartphone markets with their recent low-cost Moto G and Moto E offerings, does not mean that their Moto 360 will be priced accordingly…and if it looks and feels as ‘premium’ as the photos and offers true functionality wrapped up in a pretty package, they should sell as many as they can make.
Please let us know on our Google+ Page if you are excited about the new Moto 360 – and do you share Moto’s comments that the other available smartwatches are “crappy”…as always, we would love to hear from you.