Google isn't giving up on smartwatches. After two-and-a-half years of leaving the hardware up to third-party manufacturers, Google will finally produce its first "flagship" Android Wear device. In an interview with The Verge, Android Wear Product Manager Jeff Chang confirmed earlier rumors that Google was developing a pair of smartwatches in-house.
Interestingly, the report says the device will not use Google's unified "Pixel" branding and would instead be branded by the (unnamed) company that is manufacturing the devices for Google. In the interview, Chang "likened the partnership to Google’s Nexus smartphone program."
We first heard about two "Google" watches from Android Police, which says they are codenamed "Angelfish" (a larger, LTE-enabled watch) and "Swordfish" (a smaller watch without LTE). According to the interview, the watches will be the first to launch with Android Wear 2.0, which was recently delayed into 2017. In addition to a total interface redesign, Wear 2.0 will finally bring Android Pay support to Google's wearables.
The smartwatch market is in rough shape at the end of 2016. Market pioneer Pebble recently bowed out with a sale to Fitbit. According to the IDC, Apple Watch sales are off 71 percent year-over-year. CEO Tim Cook disputes that number, but not enough for Apple to release actual Apple Watch sales figures the way it does for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
In addition to the shaky overall market, Android Wear has its own set of problems. Wear follows the standard Android playbook of fighting a higher-profile Apple product with a slew of models from many different manufacturers, but one key difference this time is that Android's biggest OEM, Samsung, isn't producing Android Wear devices. After a single attempt at an Android watch in the form of the Samsung Gear Live, Samsung has switched to its in-house Tizen OS to power all of its smartwatches going forward. With Google's delay of Wear 2.0 into 2017, the updated wearable OS will have missed the holiday season, leaving hardware OEMs with nothing new to sell.
Qualcomm has not been helping out, either. Its latest "Snapdragon Wear 2100" SoC launched in February of this year, leaving nothing for a holiday upgrade. If you're hankering for a smartwatch that doesn't run iOS, you're probably going to have to sit on your hands for a few more months.
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