Google has been rumoured for months to launch its ‘Pixel’ branded smartwatches alongside the upcoming Pixel smartphones. But it looks like this might not be the case after all. The search giant, although making several changes on the smartwatch OS-front, won’t be entering the wearable hardware market for now, if the latest report from the Tom’s Guide website is to be believed.
Google has been rumoured for months to launch its ‘Pixel’ branded smartwatches alongside the upcoming Pixel smartphones. But it looks like this might not be the case after all. The search giant, although making several changes on the smartwatch OS-front, won’t be entering the wearable hardware market for now, if the latest report from the Tom’s Guide website is to be believed.
The website on August 31 reported that Google’s director of engineering for Wear OS, Miles Barr, has confirmed it won’t be launching a Pixel smartwatch this year at least. The search giant confirmed the news to the news website over an interview.
Barr however, did mention that instead of launching a smartwatch it will be focussing on streamlining its Wear OS and will continue working with watch makers. Some of the OEMs include Fossil, Casio and others.
“To think of a one-size-fits-all watch, I don’t think we’re there yet,” Barr said. “Our focus is on our partners for now.”
Barr’s comment of not launching a smartwatch this year was confirmed by the Google’s PR representative by the news website.
Although there won’t be a smartwatch this year that according to Google could’ve been the ideal Wear OS device, Barr still drops a hint at what would be Google’s focus if it ever came with a smartwatch.
“Our Google Pixel line of phones is the best experience and Google’s take on it, so I imagine we would focus heavily on the [Google] Assistant to integrate AI and machine learning into the device, which is Google’s forte,” Barr added.
It was widely expected that Google will launch two Pixel watches this year. The devices even leaked in an image months ago but we never hear anything concrete ever since. The rumours for the launch however, grew stronger when the company couple of days ago announced a big update for the Wear OS.
The search giant will be making it easier to access certain features among other changes with the next big update.
