Google does not seem to have given up hopes on smartwatches yet. Jeff Chang, product manager of Android Wear at Google, in an interview with The Verge, informed about the Android Wear 2.0 flagship watches. This comes as a surprise because Android Wear which was two and a half years ago amidst much popularity, the LG G Watch and the Moto 360, was abandoned later by Motorola. Since then there was a big slump in smartwatches. However, there were many rumours about a new smartwatch by Google, expected to be named as Pixel smartwatch. Chang did not name their hardware manufacturing partner with whom Google is going to create the new device. But the branding will be of the OEM which makes the hardware.
Earlier a leak from Android Police showed two new Google smartwatches with speculated names of Angelfish and Swordfish. This new device with an experienced partner means this device will go on the lines of Nexus smartphones which were made by someone else but under Google itself. Google meanwhile will roll out its final developer preview of Android Wear 2.0 in 2017, which will be present in the latest flagship devices. This time it is expected that the devices will support the Google Assistant as well as Android Pay. Chang also said in the interview that the OS, when launched, will be available for all the previous version of smartwatches as well, like the Moto 360 Sport, Gen 2, LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE, Tag Heuer Connected, Huawei Watch Ladies, Asus ZenWatch 2 and Asus ZenWatch 3, Michael Kors Access Bradshaw Smartwatch, Michael Kors Access Dylan Smartwatch, and others.
The good news is that after the launch of two flagship smartwatches, other companies will release new devices with Android Wear 2.0 throughout the entire year. During the interview, Chang told The Verge that Google is ‘quite optimistic’ about the future of smartwatches saying that it is a ‘marathon’, not a ‘sprint’. This gives us hope, even though companies like Motorola have said that they will not be coming out with new wearables anymore.
