Wear 2 – just about keeping time
Google has tried to breathe life into its wearables with Android Wear 2, but is the upgrade too little, too late?
Google is breathing life into its wearables with Android Wear 2, but is it too little, too late?
smartwatches haven’t sold as well as many manufacturers hoped, with IDC figures showing that smartwatch sales crashed to 2.7 million units in the third quarter of 2016, decreasing a massive 51.6% from the 5.6 million units shipped in the same quarter a year earlier.
Those low sales were in part due to the late arrival of the Android Wear 2 upgrade, but the refresh has left market watchers cold. “Google fixed some of the things that it should have got right in the first place,” said Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst at Creative Strategies.“Probably the most impactful addition is Android Pay,” she added.
However, the new version of Wear does bring benefits to the platform, not least the ability to run native apps without the need for a smartphone nearby. It makes devices built on Wear standalone, with the watches working over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or a mobile network instead of relying on handset tethering.
The new features mean users can stream music or take calls when away from their phones, while Google Pay and an improved Fit app that includes activity recognition could also be welcomed by some owners.
However, Milanesi says that complexity may also confuse the market. “If you saw the design of the LG watches, you could easily see how it is not for the mainstream, and the insistence on having now two models – one with cellular and more sensors, and one dumbed down for fitness – is not what the market needs.”
The lack of a Google device to showcase the technology also raises question marks over the company’s passion for wearables. “This is a non-priority for Google, in my view,” said Milanesi. “For Apple, Watch is a key part of the ecosystem, but I do not see the same commitment with Google. If it moves to make its own wearable, like it did with Pixel, I might start to think it cares.” Google partnered with LG to launch the first devices using the updated OS, but some older devices will be upgraded if they meet requirements. Early flagship devices such as the Moto 360 and the LG G Watch are stranded. Others are more upbeat about the new features. “It’s not the groundbreaking revamp many were hoping for, but I believe it still brings plenty of incremental and necessary updates to the platform,” said George Jijiashvili, wearables and VR analyst at CCS Insight. “It’s clear that Apple and Google have identified the need for watches to be less reliant on phones, which stems from the desire to eliminate the perception that smartwatches only duplicate smartphone functions, and to provide additional utility on top of the smartphone.”