Android Wear – Wearing thin Pt II

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TAG Heuer smartwatch unlikely to meet its own high standards.

• The Android Wear story took another turn on Thursday (19^th March 2015) with the launch of a partnership between TAG Heuer, Intel and Google to create a smartwatch.
• This will take Android Wear significantly up market but the success of this product remains very uncertain.
• From TAG Heuer’s point of view, it sees the huge hype surrounding the Apple Watch and feels that it has to get in on the act or be left behind and watch its market erode.
• I think that we are nowhere close to this becoming a reality but it’s thought process is understandable.
• I suspect that TAG Heuer will contribute the design and the brand, Intel the silicon and Google the software and services.
• I strongly suspect that Intel and Google will be putting up the majority of the development costs of the product which is expected to be launched before the end of the year.
• For TAG Heuer, this is not the first time it has experimented with electronics as it introduced a mobile phone called Meridiist in 2008.
• This product sank without trace but that did not stop TAG Heuer adding solar power and announcing the Meridiist infinite device last year.
• TAG Heuer has no real presence in the mobile phone market and as a result experiments that fail are unlikely to do it much harm.
• However, a smart watch based on Android Wear with the guts from Intel is the worst combination for the device to have terrible performance and battery life.
• Furthermore, continuous heart rate monitoring is now table stakes in the smartwatch business and I doubt very much that Intel has come up with a sensor that actually works.
• Those that have solved this problem have tended to have designed the entire sensor themselves which is what I believe Apple has also done.
• Failure to have decent battery life, flawless functionality and heart rate monitoring is likely to see this product ship almost no volume especially as it will be priced at a substantial premium to other devices including the entry level Apple Watch.
• TAG Heuer has a strong brand but it is a brand built on chronographs and a sporting heritage which basically means that the device must perform superbly or damage the TAG Heuer brand.
• This is something that TAG Heuer cannot afford regardless of its (unfounded) fears of being left behind by a revolution in the wrist watch industry.
• I think that the shortcomings of Android Wear (see here) will mean that the device will fail to live up to the standards demanded by the TAG Heuer brand and that the device will not launch this year.
• By partnering with TAG Heuer, Google is going in the right direction as wrist watches are driven by fashion and luxury, meaning that it is the existing watch manufacturers who have the greatest opportunity to succeed should they get the product right.
• This is represents a PR boost for Android Wear but it does nothing to fix the inherent problems of Android Wear and hence I see no reason to change my cautious stance on the software platform.
• I will not be surprised to see this project follow Meridiist and disappear without trace once it is established that the product will not meet TAG Heuer’s exacting standards.
• Android Wear remains ill-suited for wearables and I think that this continues to leave the door open for Microsoft should it get its act together.
• Microsoft is still my number one choice for the ecosystem.