The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google’s smart watch is “in late-stage development”, and the company is in talks with suppliers to begin mass production of the device soon.
According to the paper’s sources, the device will — surprise! — run Android and be deeply integrated with Google Now. That’s an obvious and useful route to take. Frequent users of Now will know that it’s actually pretty impressive, pulling together rich seams of news, travel, weather and the like from your Google account — kinda perfect to have on your wrist.
Apparently, Google has also been pouring a lot of research into reducing power consumption too, so it won’t require frequent charging. That’s something that Samsung’s Gear has come under massive fire for, so it would be neat if Google manages to solve the problem.
Elsewhere, the paper says that the watch will “be able to communicate with other devices such as a smartphone.” Which, on one level, durr, but reading between the lines, that likely means it will tether with your phone for data.
The Journal explains that the device “could be ready for mass production within months“, although it’s not clear what that might mean in terms of availability. Let’s wait and see! [WSJ]