Welcome to the Future: Wearables Part 2 - Android Wear

Our ability to tell time has come a long way

I too have been using one of these new wearable computers. RD went through his thoughts on the Microsoft Band seeing as he is a Windows Phone user. I, being primarily an Android user, went with a Samsung Gear Live which runs the Android Wear platform. I have been using it since July of 2014. After a little over a year, I can say that I will be sticking with it.

When I first saw Android Wear announced, I was curious. I did not think that I would end up using one of the first generation watches. I did not immediately plan to buy one as soon as one was available. Unlike RD, I was not going to the store hoping they had one in stock. I could have cared less if they were out of stock. How I came to purchase one was that I had traded in my old MacBook Air for some Amazon credit. After adding my Chromebook to the cart, I had about the same amount left over as the cost of the Gear Live. Amazon happened to have it in stock, so I thought I’d give it a try.

Before I go any further, I think that it might be notable to explain that, to this day, I am not convinced of the utility that a smartwatch provides to the average consumer. I once kept my phone in my left pocket. My watch goes on my left hand. It is not effectively more convenient for me to look at my wrist and get vibrations on my wrist as opposed to the same in my pocket. If I still used a pocketable smartphone, I would not have even tried an Android Wear watch.

At the time that I decided that my use case was such that I might benefit from Android Wear, I had a seven inch tablet, the Nexus 7, as my carry around communication device. At one point I had both an iPhone and a full sized iPad and had become frustrated by the complexity and needlessness of two touch screen devices and realized that I could do everything just fine with one smallish Android tablet. The only issue with this was that I often missed notifications. The tablet stayed in my bag or on a table somewhere in the house. I saw this watch as the solution to that issue.

Android Wear works great for getting me the notifications that I had been missing and freeing me from feeling that I need to be close enough to my tablet to hear the audible notifications. But Android Wear has other benefits too. I can read and reply to messages without having the device in my hand. The car connects to my tablet via bluetooth when I start it up and I can play music without digging it out of my bag. I like being able to set timers when I am cooking without touching a screen with my food saturated hands. Having my alarm on my wrist means that it targets no one but me to wake up at the early hours that otherwise bother family members who prefer to keep sleeping. These are all nice extras beyond my original purpose for the device. The fitness tracking features are nice too, but might be better with GPS baked into the watch since I do not want to take my tablet for a run with me.

In summary, Android Wear is a nice accessory for me. I still do not know how useful it is in general and question how far the niche customer base for wearables can drive market demand enough to keep them in production. I think that most people have long since left a watch out of their accessory arsenal and prefer to keep it that way. If wearables are to thrive, I believe a little more creativity and innovation, or at least evolution, will be required. We shall see what the future brings in this space.

Kirk Aug

Kirk is the first colonist in our Idea Farm. Let him know what technology, philosophy, and people will create the new society. Follow Kirk on twitter @kirkaug.