LG To Manufacture The Google Smartwatch
This is without a doubt the year of the smartwatch. After a long series of articles about Apple’s upcoming smartwatch, the iWatch, which is rumored to be paired with the next iteration of iOS (iOS 8) and include many health monitoring biosensors, we switched to Samsung as the South Korean company will unveil, in less than 24 hours, not one but two (if we are to believe the rumors) new smartwatches, the second generation Gear (it seems that Samsung ditched the Galaxy branding for its line of smartwatches) and the Gear 2 Neo, which is rumored to be made of plastic and priced lower than the Samsung Gear 2. We now have our attention on Google. The innovative company doesn’t like to be left behind which is why it is hard at work on its own smartwatch, not that anyone would be surprised at this point.
It would seem that Google is working with LG to manufacture the smartwatch. The Wall Street Journal cites “a person familiar with the situation” in Barcelona, saying that after Google partnered with LG Electronics to co-develop the latest entry in the Nexus series, the Nexus 5, the two companies are also working together on Google’s first smartwatch (and its second wearable device, after the already famous Google Glass). However, the interesting thing about The Wall Street Journal’s report is that other manufacturers could also be involved in the developing of Google smartwatches. It may sound strange, but in fact it is the same situation as the Nexus line of devices, that use hardware from a wide range of manufacturers.
According to (a reputable online source), Google’s smartwatch is going to be unveiled at the company’s I/O conference this year. We recently reported that Google’s senior vice president Sundar Pichai announced the dates for this year’s Google I/O conference on Google+, and the conference will be held from June 25 and June 26, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, just like last year. So June is when we will see the unveiling of the first smartwatch from Google, if the rumors are true.
Last year, The Wall Street Journal mentioned that the first smartwatch from Google “could be ready within months” but it seems that Google decided to keep it in the oven a bit more, maybe to focus more on integrating Google’s own personal intelligent assistant, Google Now. Google’s upcoming smartwatch is also rumored to be released with a plastic band, a square shaped full color display and of course a Bluetooth 4.0 LE connection so that you can use your headphones to listen to your music from the Google smartwatch and to communicate with the smartphones. Also, there doesn’t seem to be app support at the moment according to rumors, but Google is certain to release a SDK (also known as software development kit) for developers. It is also strongly suggested by rumors that Gogole’s smartwatch will make heavy use of gestures for interactions, for example swiping alerts and tapping to select.
Speaking of connecting your smartwatch to your smartphone so that they can communicate and offer you notifications on your wrist, it is of course a certainty that you will be able to pair Google’s smartwatch with the company’s Nexus line of smartphones, but the real question is: would users be able to pair the upcoming smartwatch from Google with smartphones from other manufacturers? Samsung’s Gear line of products (including three smartwatches and a fitness tracker) can only be paired with the South Korean company’s line of devices and it is safe to assume that Apple’s upcoming smartwatch, the iWatch, will only be able to be connect with the company’s iPhone line of devices. So it is interesting to see what Google will choose: would Google allow users to connect its smartwatch with any kind of smartphone or only with its Nexus line of devices? Probably the latter.
Other than that, we don’t have any other information or rumors about the upcoming smartwatch from Google as it is probably in the early stages of development. And it will probably spend quite some time in development as we are sure that Google intends to release a very good smartwatch, one that would be able to face the fierce competition it will face from Samsung’s Gear line of devices (which already includes three products – four if we also count the company’s recently unveiled fitness tracker), from Pebble and even from Apple’s upcoming smartwatch, the iWatch, which is shaping up to be quite an impressive wearable device judging from all the rumors we have reported about it.
Both the iWatch and Google’s smartwatch are rumored to be released later this year. However, while the iWatch is rumored to be unveiled later this year, in the Fall, Google’s smartwatch is set to be unveiled at the annual Google I/O conference held by Google in San Francisco, California. At least according to @evleaks’s tweet: “Apparently Google’s smartwatch is being made by LG, and will launch at I/O“. As we reported not long ago, Google’s senior vice president Sundar Pichai announced that this year’s Google I/O conference will be held on June 25 and June 26, and it will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, just like last year. The rumor is believable as Google has the habit of announcing new hardware at its annual Google I/O conference (last year for example, Google announced Chromecast at the conference).
Update: We have an update on the story. It seems that The Wall Street Journal has actually confirmed the report due to some comments that Park Jong-seok, LG movile chief, made in Seoul. It seems that LG indeed will continue its partnership with Google and will be the manufacturer behind Google’s upcoming smartwatch. Park Jong-seok also answered one of the questions we asked above: it seems that Google will allow users to pair the smartwatch with smartphones from a wide range of manufacturers, not just with Google’s Nexus line of devices; however since The Wall Street Journal confirmed that the smartwatch will run Android (which of course was to be expected), it will most likely only be able to connect to Android based smartphones, so you won’t be able to pair Google’s smartwatch with an iPhone or with a Windows Phone 8 smartphone.
