What You Need to Know About Android Wear

How Google’s Android Wear Will Change the Smartwatch Game

The Pebble and Samsung Galaxy Gear are certainly formidable devices, but when it comes to the rest of the smartwatch market it has been something of a circus. As it so happens in the tech world, every manufacturer is racing to produce the next latest and greatest smart device. Nearly every smartwatch released on the market is running a custom skinned version of Android or a proprietary OS altogether. They all have separate designs too, most of which are completely unattractive. Until now, it seems like the market has only been fragmenting more instead of coming together nicely.

Cue in Android Wear, and more specifically the Moto 360. It’s a remarkably gorgeous smartwatch that is going to change the game. LG unveiled a new watch rightfully dubbed the G watch, as well. We have also learned there are more models on the way from the likes of Fossil, Asus, HTC, Samsung and more.

What is Android Wear?

All of the aforementioned devices will be running Android Wear, Google’s solution for the modern wearable device. Judging by the demonstrations and preview videos it looks a lot like the version of Android running on Google Glass. The biggest exception, of course, is that Android Wear was designed from the ground up for small screen devices.

Why is this important? To be honest, smartwatches do not – and will not – share the same functionality as their larger screen brethren. Smartphones are capable of a whole lot more simply because of their larger size, but also because they include more internal hardware like extra storage space, increased processing power and more. That’s why it seems a bit silly that a lot of smartwatch makers have been making the move to bridge the gap between wearable devices and mobile devices. Smartwatches are not meant to replace mobile devices so much as they exist to augment them.

No one wants to own a smartwatch so they can visit a full website like this dentist’s site. Instead, they would much rather receive notifications and alerts. For example, a scheduled alert about a dentist appointment would be much better.

That appears to be exactly what Android Wear is offering, through a more streamlined and appealing UI.

How Will the Market Change?

It’s still possible – and probable – that Apple is going to enter the market later and change it more – we’re not arguing that the market will never change again. What we’re merely saying is that Google has successfully pushed the smartwatch market in the right direction. Instead of bumbling with custom-built software, manufacturers can now take Android Wear and slap it on their own device. What this is means is that they can more effectively focus on hardware and design. More power is coming, power that may even rival the latest Mustang models. In other words, Android Wear will help encourage innovation when it comes to how smartwatches are going to look and operate.

Why is this so exciting? Why is a superficial change like that going to help the market? We can all agree that even though there are some decent devices available, most of them – we would probably not be caught dead wearing in public. Worse yet, a lot of the devices are adorned with masculine designs. Since tech-obsessed males are not the only ones inhabiting this world, it means the market has to change if these manufacturers are going to get anywhere.

We Welcome Design Innovation

The Moto 360 is an incredible leap forward because it’s one of the first smartwatches that has a – you guessed it – round and traditional form factor. It’s pretty sad that it’s taken this long to get to that point, but at least we’re finally there. What’s most exciting is that now manufacturers will be encouraged to push those boundaries even further. It’s difficult to imagine a time where a smartwatch doesn’t look like a huge plastic block on your wrist, but that day is coming. If you ask us, that’s pretty exciting.