Recommended Reading: What Are Google's Smartwatch Plans?

October 05, 2018

We've spilled plenty of ink ... or, I guess pixels ... writing about the Apple Watch lately. And for good reason. But it's important to remember that there are in fact other people out there making smartwatches, trying to figure out what the future of wrist-worn computing devices looks like. Chief amongst them is Google, whose Wear OS (formerly Android Wear) powers almost every smartwatch made by companies not named Apple and Samsung. Last week Wear OS got a pretty major update, but it still leaves a lot of open questions about Google's vision for the platform and for smartwatches more generally. Luckily, the folks over at The Verge have us covered here. On his weekly show and column "Processor," Dieter Bohn takes a long look at Google's smartwatch strategy, analyzing everything from the company's conspicuous lack of its own watch hardware to how Wear OS stacks up against Apple's watchOS. His conclusions? Well, you'll just have to do some reading and watching to find out for yourself. Even if you're not a smartwatch nerd (or even a user), it's well worth your time. You can read the full story and watch the video from The Verge here.