Forget an Android gaming console, Google can make a killer ...

Finally, my dream of a Google smartwatch is looking more like a reality!?News hit the rounds on Thursday that Google is taking its next steps into becoming a hardware maker as the Wall Street Journal reported plans for an Android gaming console, media streaming device and a smartwatch.

I?m not too excited about a gaming console: There are already enough gaming devices available and as far as media sharing hardware, Google has already attempted this with its ill-fated Nexus Q last year.?But a smartwatch? Now that sounds exciting for a few reasons.

For starters, the wearable device market is finally showing signs of life. There have been intelligent watches for years but it?s only recently that the hardware needed to make a fantastic smartwatch has appeared. Chips are becoming more powerful, even as they use less juice and become smaller. Wireless technologies are advanced as well: The Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy standard is a great example. Touch screens and noise-cancelling array microphones now help with input on devices of nearly any size.

So it?s not surprising to me that some recent smartwatches have quickly gained a following or raised millions of dollars in crowd-sourced funding. Think of the Pebble or, more recently, the Kreyos Meteor, for example. Sony is also participating here, having just announced a newly updated SmartWatch 2 that arrives in September. Various other companies too are all taking a crack at being on your wrist: MetaWatch, WIMM, I?m Watch?. and the list goes on.

I?ve tried a number of these wearables in the past, but time and again, I keep returning to the Motorola MotoACTV smartwatch. It continues to impress me because unlike most of the other smartwatches, it?s not a simple second screen for your smartphone. Yes, it can show incoming messages, calls or social networking status updates when paired with a phone but it provides plenty of standalone functionality as well: GPS exercise tracking, a virtual caddie and scorekeeper on the golf course, a step tracker and an MP3 player with its built-in music player and 8 or 16 GB of flash storage.

What does that have to do with Google? A lot, since Google owns Motorola. Yes, it runs Motorola as a completely separate division, but it would nonsensical for Google not to take a good hard look at the MotoACTV for the basis of a new smartwatch. To be honest, most of what Google needs is already present and accounted for in the MotoACTV, even though the device is two years old.

It already runs on Android ? something the WSJ reported a new Google smart watch would do as well ? and has nearly every type of connectivity option available: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. Sure, the components need an upgrade from 2011 standards, but the basis of a great smart watch is already there.

There?s more, however, that Google has in its arsenal of tools to make a great watch, even if it isn?t based solely on the MotoACTV: Google Now and Google Glass.

Google Now provides personal, contextual information on phones and tablets today based on your email, calendar and web searches. Look up an address on the web and Google Now will?provide directions and an estimated time of arrival based on traffic without having to be asked. If you have to travel for an appointment on your calendar, Google Now notifies you when it?s time to leave. Nearby events, stock prices, sports scores for your favorite teams are part of Google Now as well. And collectively, these are exactly the bite-sized type of bits that are perfectly suited for a small screen on the wrist.

The card-based look of Google Now could easily work on a small screen. We already know that because Google took a similar approach with the Google Glass user interface. It?s simple to navigate through Glass with a finger swipe on the glasses and the screen don?t inundate with information. Again, that?s perfect for a wristwatch. And the look of Google Glass, which Google designed, isn?t too bad for the type of product that it is.

Bear in mind that Google isn?t the only ?big player? reportedly working on new wearable devices. Rumors of Apple building a smartwatch have been making the rounds for some time. And that makes sense: Apple often jumps into product markets with big opportunities, but only when it?s sure it can deliver the best experience. And both companies could benefit from developers creating new apps for wearables.

While I have no knowledge of Google?s detailed plans for a smart watch, I can see that the company has all of the ingredients of a potentially successful recipe. With just a small bit of hardware tweaking to the existing MotoACTV in a more fashionable design, combined with the basics of Google Now and the ability to run small but useful standalone Android apps, I?d stand in line for a Google smart watch. Would you?

Source: http://gigaom.com/2013/06/28/forget-an-android-gaming-console-google-can-make-a-killer-smartwatch/

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