Though smartwatches are seemingly poised to be the next big trend in consumer electronics, there are very few companies doing them right. Samsung, the biggest player in the field right now, has been producing Galaxy Gear watches for about a year with little success. The Gear initially intrigued consumers with a discount when bought with a Galaxy Note, and a series of ads portraying it as an entry in a long line of famous fictional gadget-watches throughout the years, from Power Rangers and Knight Rider, to now. Though they were impressive, the ads couldn’t distract from the Gear’s short battery life, confusing user interface, and weak support from third-party developers, as evidenced by its 30 percent return rate at Best Buy last October. LG and Samsung both released new watches earlier this summer with Google’s specially optimized Android Wear- presumably just to say they did it, and Apple’s long-rumored “iWatch” is nowhere in sight.
The best shot at the smartwatch so far has gone mostly unnoticed by the general buying public, from Pebble. Pebble originated in Waterloo with a Kickstarter entry in late 2012. It was a simple cross-platform smartwatch that could be programmed to do pretty much anything. Unfortunately, it still remains a somewhat niche product to this day due to late deliveries, lack of communication from the company, and the Samsung Marketing Machine. Aside from all that, smartwatch manufacturers have so far failed to reach the vast majority of consumers who don’t see the need for a smartwatch. Watches are being positioned as yet another screen, rather than a companion device for phones. Whether it’s the fault of the designers for making interfaces look and feel like a condensed version of a phone, or marketers for reinforcing this view through selling points of the number of apps available to download, one thing remains certain – nobody, including the companies that make them, has figured out what a smartwatch is supposed to be yet. It’s for this reason, and others, which I’ll get to – that nobody should buy one yet.
Motorola has a shaky history with smartwatches, first dipping their toes with 2012’s MOTOACTV fitness-geared device. It received weak sales and not much acclaim from reviewers, and was then quickly forgotten about. Last March, however, Motorola announced their next go-around with the smartwatch, the Moto 360, and it looks to be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. The main draw of the 360 is something that the Samsung, LG, and Pebble have neglected to focus on: design. The Moto 360, unlike other watches, has a circular display, and the choice of leather or metal wristband. It looks like something normal people actually would wear on their wrists. Smartwatch design and marketing up to this point has had a heavy focus on specs and features, so it’s refreshing to see Motorola invest their resources in this department. Whether that investment will yield a great watch remains to be seen, or worn. We still don’t know key points like battery life or price, but right now, it’s looking like the best of the current bunch. Potential smartwatch buyers looking at the market right now- wait until September 4, the date Motorola is set to announce the device. Even if the 360 turns out to be a disappointment, it’s already sparked LG to tease a new circular watch of their own, and they certainly won’t be the last to react in this space.
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