One smartwatch to rule them all ? Cell Phones & Mobile Device ...

We are standing on the precipice of a critical point in time for the smartwatch industry. For the first time, smartwatches are being seen as more than just the geek gadget. The smartphone push has led to the hope that more people would adopt an accessory on their wrist that offered up snippets of information for rapid consumption. Imagine, the ability to look at your wrist instead of your phone for turn-by-turn navigation or that text message you got in the middle of a meeting. There?s more than a couple of companies that have put themselves in a position to spread awareness, but also to decide the fate of the smartwatch by ?delivering a quality product.

As it stands right now, no one is ready to dominate this market, but there are more than a few companies willing to try?

I?m Watch

Of the many different ways to approach the smartwatch, the I?m Watch takes the most interesting route at first. By taking low-end smartphone hardware and condensing it, the idea was that they could make an Android 1.6-based smartwatch that just ran the whole OS on your wrist. This way, the device could act as a standalone device in limited situations, but also serve as the wrist mounted assistant to your phone. In many ways, this isn?t all that different from mounting an iPod Nano to your wrist, just with software to enable communication from your phone.

Unfortunately, this watch is still a no-show. In fact, the delays that were announced recently were to acquire faster hardware to prevent a laggy interface. Since the shape and size of the device has already been shown off, the faster hardware will now also need to keep a reasonable battery life in order for the watch to be usable. It is bad enough many users find themselves charging their phones throughout the day, I can hardly imagine being happy with needing to charge my watch over lunch as well. I?m watch is still technically the closest anyone has come to delivering a smartwatch for the consumer that isn?t tied to an Android OEM, however, so perhaps this delay will be for the best.

The Pebble

The Pebble watch is a fantastic example of the world at large being ready for a smartwatch. What started as a simple Kickstarter campaign to create a new project in the smartwatch ecosystem has blossomed into a $10 million project with over 65,000 people eagerly awaiting the watch that thy pre-ordered as part of the Kickstarter. The potential for the Pebble smartwatch to really start something huge in making the average user interested in a smartwatch is truly significant, and the promotional videos look like the team really has a solid plan for deployment.

Unfortunately, Pebble doesn?t exist. Not yet, anyway, the Kickstarter is entirely made of renders and features that don?t exist. The people who have backed Pebble have been promised a watch that is both iOS and Android compliant, looks amazing, and has earned a ton of press as a result. These guys at Pebble have a huge challenge in front of them, though, since they now have to go from concept to delivery by September if they want to keep those 65,000+ backers happy. On top of that, Pebble needs to be able to put their product in a store, which means mass production and a flawless launch. I have a lot of hope for Pebble, but as of right now the only thing they have invented is a really cool video.

WiMM Watch

The guys at WiMM are also trying to cram Android on smartwatch, but their plan of attack is a little different from I?m Watch. For starters, they are already shipping developer units out to those interested in supporting the platform. As developers work to get their apps WiMM ready, this team is tweaking every part of the device in preparation for an eventual product launch to mass market. The WiMM tam is hopeful to have Android 2.3 on the device soon, but currently it is running 2.1.

My initial impression of the WiMM wasn?t great. The battery life wasn?t there, and the device was noticeable larger on my wrist than a normal watch. There?s only so much larger than the traditional watch you can go with these devices and still keep users interested. In the end it is really going to be on WiMM to put their best foot forward when they are finally ready to deliver their product to consumers.

Metawatch

The team at Metawatch?(pictured in gallery below)?are also stuck in developer preview mode, and have been for awhile now. Their approach to the smartwatch is to simply have the device receive commands from the phone, with minimal work being done on the actual watch compared to a whole OS. Their designs are focused on function, and their screens are designed to use as little power as possible and still function in direct sunlight. The developer community around the Metawatch is strong, but a consumer ready product is still yet to be found.

Metawatch did recently offer up a slight design refresh to their developer devices, in order to make the end product more competitive with the guys that have started to circle in this market. Of the newly updated features, iOS support and Bluetooth 4.0 are among the leaders that will help Metawatch be a real competitor. The only thing holding back the Metwatch guys at the moment is the lack of a consumer product and a reasonable price, which hopefully we will see in the coming months.

Cookoo watch

In an attempt to re-create the wealth of support seen by Pebble, the Cookoo watch showed up on Kickstarter. Just like Pebble, they have a very pretty video and really great renders, but no real product to speak of. Additionally, they have yet to reach their kickstarter goal, despite having nearly a thousand backers on the project already. Cookoo is making a lot of promises, not the least of which is one of their watched for only $80 in support. If Cookoo were able to deliver a product at that price, it would seriously undercut most people in the smartwatch world today.

Unfortunately, this product also still doesn?t exist yet. The video demonstrates an incredibly simple UI that acts as your notification system underneath a classic looking watch on a very colorful band. This means that the watch will provide you with less information than most, and won?t be able to offer things like navigation, but will be able to look nice and give you a quick glance into your phone while you are unable to look at your phone. Hopefully this watch survives Kickstarter, and we see more on it soon.

Sony LiveView

Sony?s attempt at the smartwatch is probably the oldest of the current generation. The device has been out for some time, and has even seen some extreme price cuts, but the adoption was never quite there. The watch itself was a little slow, and there was a lot that needed to be done on the developer side to make their apps compliant with the watch itself. Sony still includes LiveView support on their Android phones, but an update to the platform has not been seen for some time.

Watches like the LiveView threaten to keep the smartwatch in the geeky gadget category permanently. The device required far too much work to keep running smoothly, and didn?t offer enough of a benefit to encourage adoption. If Sony were to update the platform to be competitive with the devices that have been recently announced, things would get a lot more interesting for LiveView.

Motoactv

With their last major release, Motorola unveiled a sport smartwatch designed to act mostly as a personal fitness accessory. Motoactv is designed to work most of the time detached from your smartphone. With internal storage options, you can use Motoactv to store music and record a wealth of personal data during exercise. When you do connect your phone to it, you can use it like a smartwatch, or in collaboration with a variety of health apps. The real benefit to Motoactv is in the variety of different ways you can use it, instead of being bound to one specific use case.

Despite being offered at Verizon Wireless, right alongside their latest Motorola phones, Motoactv hasn?t seen a lot of adoption. With a price point like $199 for 8GB, it is possible that there?s just not enough awareness in the right places for the device to really sell. Since Motorola has recently seen a change in ownership, it will be interesting to see where Google takes Motoactv, or if they just allow the project to fade into obscurity.

Final Thoughts

I love the idea of having a snapshot of my phone on my wrist. For me to not have to reach for my phone every time I hear a notification, or to be able to drive with just my wrist is a terrific notion. The next few months will truly make or break the smartwatch category of devices. By Christmas, many of these devices need to be in primetime slots for consumers to not only see, but realize that they need one on their wrist. Any one of these companies could be the big push needed to raise awareness, but they could also be the bad egg that sinks the category back into the depths.

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