Following Google’s announcement of the new Pixel Watch at the recent Made By Google event; Ardit Ballhysa, Technology Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:
“Despite the investments Google has poured into developing the Pixel Watch, such as purchasing Fitbit for $2.1 billion, refining Wear OS over the years, and actually designing and developing the watch itself, Google has baffled the mind by giving the beautifully sleek and stylish Pixel Watch thick bezels. Bezels that most rival smartwatches were rocking in the previous decade and have worked hard to shrink.
“One could speculate that Google did this to save some money on manufacturing costs as a smaller display means reduced spending on screens. If this is indeed the reason, Google has made a strategic error. The Pixel Watch is a device that has been years in the making and one that Google is using to lure consumers into its ecosystem of products. Now is not the time to cut corners, but rather the time to go all-in, as for the first time in its history Google has devices in multiple categories to rival Apple and Samsung.
“The Pixel Watch’s Wear OS interface will boost the smartwatch’s design by providing users with minimalistic and stylish watch faces. Along with the exterior design of the Pixel Watch, its user interface too, differentiates it from Samsung and Apple’s smartwatches. The latter two offer many watch faces to their users, but none as minimalistic and stylish as the ones offered by the Pixel Watch.
“However, Samsung’s Galaxy watches offer a large variety of watch faces that cater to a diverse group of users. It remains to be seen if the Pixel Watch will offer the same.”
