LG
The G Watch will be one of the first devices to run Google's Android Wear, a stripped-down version of Android designed to run on wearable devices.
LG and Motorola were the first two companies to show off their Android Wear devices. Motorola's is called the Moto 360 and features an attractive round display. LG's G watch is a rectangular device, similar in design to Samsung's poorly reviewed Galaxy Gear smartwatch.
It's unclear when the G Watch will launch. LG is holding an event on May 27, but that'll likely be to announce its new flagship smartphone, the G3. If we had to guess, we'd say LG won't formally show off the G Watch in public until Google's I/O developers conference in late June.
Let's just call it now. This thing will be a dud.
So far, most attempts at making a smartwatch like this have failed. Manufacturers have tried to take the smartphone, shrink it down, and put it on your wrist. But that adds little value to the smartphone already in your pocket. Why spend an extra $200 or $300 on top of your $600 smartphone for a gadget that does the same thing?
Google's Android Wear operating system and the hardware it'll run on is too obvious and simply doesn't do enough. The tech press seems to love hyperventilating over smartwatches in their attempt to pinpoint the next big thing, but not one savvy person will tell you anything out there is worth buying unless you just want to burn some cash.
As many pundits have pointed out, the state of today's smartwatches feels like the state of smartphones before Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007 and reset our expectations. If smartwatches and other wearables are truly the next big computing platform, what you see below clearly isn't it.