Google is likely to announce the Pixel Watch during Google I / O this month, whether it will be available for purchase immediately or only teased at a later date. We’ve learned a lot about the accessory over the past week, and a ton of real-life images surfaced thanks to a delicious one that managed to catch the watch after a group of supposed Google engineers forgot it at a bar. While the early images of the hardware look extremely promising, the Pixel Watch should also offer the smart features, health features and seamless integration that make the Apple Watch such a huge success in leading the Android suite.
Software that matches the look, look that matches the software
We already know a lot about the Pixel Watch. It will be one of the smartest wearables for Android phones that seems to take the Apple Watch head-on in the design department. Unlike the Apple Watch, Google will go for a round clock rather than a rectangular one, and it already looks timeless and weightless on the leaked reality images.
But the look is not everything, as beautiful as the Pixel Watch looks on the surface. The Apple Watch is equally beautiful to look at, but it has long been smart to match the look.
Pixel Watch’s exterior design must match the software and internal hardware. Google has made progress since combining efforts with Samsung to create Wear OS 3 and introduced a working user interface good enough on a small screen, all the while both Qualcomm and Samsung finally offer good processors for laptops that have not lagged behind smartphone SoCs for years. But there are still many improvements to be made.
In particular, pairing and canceling the pairing process is incredibly painful when you move phones, requiring a full reset of the watch, where you struggle to reinstall all your apps and dials, all the while already working hard on setting up your new phone. An Apple Watch, on the other hand, can simply be paired with a new iPhone.
Battery life is another issue for many Wear OS devices to this date, with many products lasting no more than 18 to 20 hours on a single charge – you can forget about proper night sleep tracking with such a device.
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It’s rumored that the Pixel Watch is one of the better watches when it comes to battery life and performance thanks to its supposed Exynos-based custom chip, but we have no confirmation yet. Unlike Apple, however, Google does not have the same brand recognition when it comes to hardware, so it can still be difficult to stand out.
The Pixel Watch needs an important differentiation feature
It’s also unclear how exactly Google wants to differentiate the Pixel Watch from the rest of the Wear OS crowd when it comes to software. It’s possible that the Google Watch may be the first to receive Google Assistant support, which has been sorely missed by Wear OS 3 ever since its introduction. However, Samsung is already preparing ads around the assistant for its Galaxy Watch4, so if the Pixel Watch does not go on sale soon, it is possible that the Korean company could debut the assistant before Google itself.
Google could add some murderous Fitbit integration to the Pixel Watch, but at the moment it’s still unclear what exactly it’s going to look like. Is the Google Watch supposed to be controlled via the Fitbit app instead of the Wear OS app? Or will Fitbit just be another point that receives your fitness data, requiring you to use two or maybe even three apps when you throw Google Fit into the mix, the app that is usually responsible for fitness tracking on Wear OS devices. It’s definitely more cumbersome than what Apple offers with its seamlessly integrated ecosystem.
Fitbit integration can only take Google so far. Anyone who is just interested in the Fitbit aspect could also just get a Fitbit tracker or smartwatch which Google also still sells and promotes. This is an issue that the Apple Watch also has to contend with, but Google is shooting itself in the foot by offering too many similar products, whereas Apple only offers different generations of the same watch, with the latest version always clearly the most coveted. .
Pixel Watch can also have a hard time standing out from Fossil watches. Google is not really a big name in the fashion world, and there are many people out there who choose their smartwatch based on its design and the fashion brand behind it, rather than the processor or the Fitbit integration it offers — after all after all, Fossil only introduces one new device a year for all of its sub-brands, which are exclusively customized in the exterior design department, and that seems to work for the company. When someone sees a collection of Wear OS watches in a store, all in the range of $ 300 to $ 400, would they then choose Google over others?
Google does not have all the time in the world
Unlike Apple, Google also does not have time to experiment with the form factor until it finally fixes the use case, which Apple has done back in the day. The Google watch is late for the party and is being launched in an increasingly mature space dominated by Apple and Samsung, with all sorts of uses already explored. Google may have released Wear OS (born Android Wear) before Apple launched its product, but times have changed.
Pixel Watch will earn double as it comes on the market so late. It must handle all the basic smartwatch aspects, while at the same time providing an insight into the future, leading the development of Wear OS and showing the way for other manufacturers. It will be very difficult to achieve this for Google, and if the company does not, its first-party monitoring efforts may seep out sooner rather than later and join the ever-growing cemetery of failed Google projects.
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