By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 23rd, 2024
Google is reportedly working on a Pixel Watch as a direct competition to the Apple Watch and shall be hosting the Web OS 3.
The latest exclusive report from Business Insider shows that Google LLC (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is working on a smartwatch. Internally codenamed as Rohan, the watch is currently under works by Google Pixel’s hardware group. The recent development comes after Google acquired FitBit earlier this year in 2021. However, this project is reportedly different from FitBit. For a long, the company has been rumored to be working on a smartwatch under the Pixel branding. Google’s now-rumored Pixel Watch will reportedly come next year in 2022.
However, it isn’t clear for now Google will be actually naming it. But Google has made a number of smart devices under its Pixel brand. This includes Pixel smartphones, wireless earbuds Pixel Buds, and Pixelbooks laptops.
Google Pixel Watch to Compete With Apple Watch
As per the report from BI, Google’s upcoming Pixel Watch shall be a high-end smartwatch. As per the report, Google is likely to pitch it directly against the Apple Watch. Thus, the Google Pixel Watch could be probably pricier than a regular FitBit.
The Google Pixel Watch should have basic fitness tracking features like a heart rate monitor and step counting. It might as well have a FitBit integration into Wear OS.
Currently, Google is working on the reinvention of its smartwatch platform with the Wear OS 3. Unlike the previous versions of Wear OS, Google is working along with Samsung for the Wear OS 3. So far Google has launched the Wear OS 3 on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4. The Wear OS 3 merges Samsung’s native Tizen platform with Google’s own. Thus, there’s high speculation that the Pixel Watch will also run the Wear OS 3.
This is not the first time that Google is working on the idea of the smartwatch. Back in 2017, the LG Watch Sport and LG Watch Style were to be reportedly marketed under the Pixel brand. But one of the Google employees said that Google hardware boss Rick Osterloh axed this idea. The devices didn’t impress the Google top brass and didn’t look like “what belonged in the Pixel family”.
Google’s yet another attempt at the Pixel Watch shows that the tech giant is quite focused on tech wearables. however, the stakes are high since it’s directly competing with the Apple Watch.