Alphabet subsidiary Google’s first smartwatch, an Android phone-only affair with a round-faced display with huge bezels, dubbed “Pixel Watch,” will go on sale October 13th for $350, or $100 more than Apple’s more fully features Apple Watch SE, which starts at just $299.
At $100 more than Apple Inc’s lowest-cost model and limited to people with Android phones, the Google Pixel Watch faces enormous obstacles to adoption, market analysts say.
“The market is not as robust as it once was,” said Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at market intelligence firm IDC, adding that aggressive discounting will be crucial to Google.
The watches will be sold in the United States and several other countries. They will not pair with iPhones…
Google also said its latest smartphones would go on sale in 17 countries starting Oct. 13. They include a $599 Pixel 7 with a 6.3-inch display and a shinier $899 7 Pro with a 6.7-inch display.
MacDailyNews Take: The Google phones are the next iteration of a long, continuous, weak-selling yawn.
As for Google’s watch, that wrongly shaped display’s huge, wide bezel is a gigantic, waste-of-space moat!
Google’s bargain-hunting consumers are being hammered by rampant inflation. Good luck peddling over-priced wearables to the demographic who settles for poor man’s iPhones, Google.
Some consumers today, far fewer than in 2015 when Apple Watch debuted, think they want a round-faced smartwatch because the majority of wristwatches throughout history have been round since basically all they have done/continue to do is to tell time and, ta-da, most clocks are round.
Obviously, Apple Watch is much more that just a clock. Consumers thought they needed a beard of plastic keys on their phones and floppy drives in their computers, too. Because that’s all they knew. And then, somehow, they learned to Think Different™.
Just because “this is the way it’s always been done,” doesn’t make continuing to do so valid.
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. — Henry Ford
Android watch makers [still have to] figure out they need to make square displays (lists are square, not round, and lists dominate smartwatch uses)… — MacDailyNews, August 14, 2015
Round is wrong. — MacDailyNews, September 9, 2015
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Waste of money anything from google
Will it work with Stadia? 🤡
And how long before they knife that baby?
Already knifed.
Also rans like Google are using the round watch face despite it’s limitations just so they can claim that they aren’t copying the Apple Watch “because it’s round”. They are cutting off their nose to spite their face.
Having a round watch face isn’t necessarily a bad thing IMO. Since we can assume the face is a touch display, I wouldn’t find it unusual to have the edges work as a dial interface, something which would be less intuitive with a square face. Imagine if the original iPod came with a square touch area instead of the round area that intimated a rotational gesture method.
Been wishing for a round Apple Watch since day 1, but somehow Google made this thing fug ugly.
With a mug like yours, it would be wise not to pass judgement on appearances.
The Moto 360 came out much before the Apple Watch. Are you suggesting Apple didn’t make a round watch so as not to copy Moto?
Give it 2 years and we’ll be hearing “Pixel Watch is discontinued by Google due to poor sales” where have we heard that before? 😂😂
Is that what you want?
I hate everything Google stands for but when has any company improved in the eyes of the customer over time without competition? Beware that the next Apple CEO doesn’t turn evil. Even your favorite company needs checks and balances.