Whether newly appointed president Rick Osterloh’s team can navigate the shifting targets that now lie before it is anyone’s guess: it’s no secret that companies not named Apple or Samsung have a hell of a time squeezing money from the brutal and fickle smartphone market. That dynamic alone precipitates enough stress, but Motorola is also in the midst of being traded from a comfortable home with Google to Chinese giant Lenovo, the biggest maker of PCs on the planet. And through all of this, it needs to keep delivering world-beating smartphones at a backbreaking pace without skipping a beat.
The Moto 360 will be crucial. It looks amazing, and Android Wear looks like the smartwatch concept done right. If it all clicks, Motorola (and hence, Google) will have a hit on their hands.
Voice control + simple gestures + more advanced google now I think really has the potential to make a smart watch work.
Only thing that would stop me from buying one (aside from iPhone compatibility) is the battery life. Without a week’s battery life it would be more hassle than it’s worth. Smart watch would be a nice convenience, but not if I need to charge it every day or two.
Even if the charger is the wireless kind and can be put on your bedside table?
i agree that wireless charging bedside is good, however sometimes when traveling for long weekends undoing the charger etc could be a pain. 3 days would have the minimum, a working week would be great.
I get a solid work week out of the Pebble, which is slightly longer than the three to four days I was getting from my Sony Smartwatch. We’re getting there.
Problem is, I don’t want Google Now, I don’t even want Google. I use Google for search, that is it.
And I watch YouTube.
Edited 2014-04-28 20:44 UTC
I don’t use Google Now either, but I definitely see the potential in a system that gives you information before you ask for it. It’s not quite good enough yet, but it will be soon.
Sure, I can see the advantage.
Problem is, I see a more disadvantage about others knowing more about me than maybe even I knowing about myself.
It’s a bad choice between privacy and better service.
I guess it’s an other service I will need to run my own for. But there are a lot of people that don’t have that luxury.
I think it is stupid that the screen is off. Nobody wants a watch where you have to press a button to see the time. Why would anybody pay more for a larger watch that is inferior to a normal watch?
So please use e-ink or that qualcomm mirage screen.
I think they have to use some kind of gesture to turn the watch display on, rather than use a different screen type.
Flick the wrist, display on. Flick it again, screen off. Simple, elegant, what most watch owners are used to doing for their dumb watches.
Battery life *is* important, but so is display quality. E-ink refresh rate makes it less attractive. I’m not well versed in the Qualcomm Mirasol screen tech, but I’d guess that it probably has other drawbacks.
I strongly disagree. Samsung watch has one day battery life and beautiful display (that goes off).
Guess what? No one bought it!
And I will never buy a watch that is not always on and with a week of battery juice.
And I am not alone.
So I am very sorry for Motorola, if they do not look at competition and they do not understand so basic needs.
No, you don’t disagree. I didn’t say that one day’s battery was acceptable, but there had to be a trade off between screeen quality and battery life.
The Galaxy Gear is not a good device. Part of that is the battery life. I suspect there are other reasons why it hasn’t sold, aesthetics, lack of compatibility with non Samsung phones, etc.
The last three years that firmly show Moto can’t execute on anything… they weren’t critical (even though we (The Verge) drooled all over their PR time and time again). This unreleased prototype watch… that they actively kept trying to show me and was off 95% of the time… Now that’s critical!
Edited 2014-04-28 20:00 UTC
…that they actively kept trying to NOT show me…
Did you get a sense that there were vast empty reaches in Moto space where numbers of engineers used to be?
I’m somewhat familiar with how moto has operated in the past. I have to say, I can’t for the life of me understand why they had so many people working for them when Google bought them. They almost literally hired anyone with a pulse. When they did let people go, it was just as often those with significant accomplishments under their belt. It made no sense.
From the video: “motorola 360 has the potential to be the most transformational product in the most transformational product category since the smart phone, and that’s not an exaggeration”
lollllllllll this verge guy takes the thomism to the nth
IT’S JUST A PHONE ON YOUR WRIST INSTEAD OF IN YOUR POCKET. STOP!!!!!!!!!!!
But it’s not a phone, it’s even less than that.
It’s transforming the transformational transformations though and that’s what counts
If you still need a cellphone in your pocket for the functionality, then this is just a expensive wristwatch with lousy battery time compared to the analogue equivalent.
Well, it’s an extended display, which in many situations is appropriate. The target audience is people who are constantly pulling their phone out to check the time, the weather, notifications, etc. This puts a “glance” style display in a convenient place and keeps your phone in your pocket until you actually need to communicate.
I agree though, that until the battery life and aesthetics improve, it’s going to be a niche thing. I love my Pebble, but there is definitely room for improvement.
You have the X-Box 360
now this
not too far away is Office-365
Just do a search for ‘360 Branding’ and you will see a lot of marketing companies. If my experience with a lot of companies in this sector, they speak a lot of hot-air and nothing else. How long before ‘360’ becomes a fopah in branding terms?
Fopah? Thank you, I needed that. If intentional AWESOME. But if not, perhaps you ment “Faux pas”?
That lab coat though…
So basically the guy haven’t used the watch, haven’t seen the watch and all he has is that Moto says it’s awesome. Yet, it’s the most amazing, sorry I mean transformational, product EVER.
Yeah, ok. Hype 1, Journalism -10.