Ever wonder why the Apple Watch seems alone up there and not a competition poses a serious threat? As expected, there was a time Google tried to disrupt it's rival's rule by developing a killer wearable. That product made it to the final cut yet never saw the light of the day.
It might have been called the Pixel or Google Watch, but company executives were not sold to the idea when the product was submitted for final approval. Google's head of hardware, Rick Osterloh, thumbed down the proposed wearable despite the fact that everything about it has been finalized.
The watch had an operating system called Wear OS, and the press shots have been created. Earlier, LG, which is a perennial Google partner for hardware releases, had been contracted to assemble the working prototypes. The Korean company answered to the call, but for Osterloh, it was largely a letdown.
So he pulled the plug on the project. According to The Verge, Osterloh and his team felt what would have been Google's answer to the Apple Watch will not give justice to Google's hardware brand.
Supposedly, the team "didn't want a peripheral product to bring down the name of the Google hardware brand," per the same report.
Also, there were many other issues, and chief among them was the synching feature in relation to the Google Pixel phones. When tested, the evaluating team deemed the function as not too great, and understandably so as the same feature is one of the key strengths attributed to the Apple Watch.
Then what likely served as the final nail in the coffin, Osterloh thought the smartwatch's overall design was inferior. Google can't just place its bet on what LG had produced, so the original plan of introducing the wearable with the first Pixel models was shelved.
That's how the Pixel Watch never materialized although Google went on to allow other wearable makers to use Wear OS yet even the software faltered. In a report, BGR said Wear OS had the bad luck of getting compared with the watchOS.
The verdict was: "The operating system failed to deliver an experience akin to what was available on the Apple Watch," per BGR.
As for LG, the Korean device maker tried to salvage its creation by repurposing the submitted wearables and releasing them in two builds - the LG Watch Style and the LG Watch Sport. Sadly, LG's efforts joined the list of the firm's disappointing releases. Somehow, Google and that of Osterloh's hunch were proven correct.
Google made the right call with the smartwatch a few years back, and the company is standing pat on the decision. According to 9to5Google, fans should not expect a wearable to accompany the 2019 Pixel phone models.
