Lenovo CEO Reportedly Posts Image of Next Gen Moto 360 Smartwatch 60
MojoKid (1002251) writes "When the Android Wear platform was unveiled last year, the star of the show was undoubtedly the Motorola Moto 360. With its stainless steel body and round display, the smartwatch looked futuristic while retaining styling that was somewhat familiar to traditional time pieces. However, it's been a year since the original Moto 360 was unveiled and there have been a number of round-faced Android Wear devices that have either hit the market or will in the coming months. Motorola, of course, is still pushing ahead with a second generation Moto 360 and it appears their new parent company — Lenovo — may have just leaked the design of the upcoming smartwatch. Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing posted an image to Weibo, which shows a number of smartwatches in various states of assembly. The image is interesting, because it provides us with two interesting bits of information. First, the new Moto 360 appears to adopt a traditional, exposed-lug design, which should make it easier for users to swap out the band that comes with the Moto 360 for a wider variety of third-party bands. Also, what you can glean from the photo is that, it appears that the "flat tire" display found on the original Moto 360 will carry over to its successor. The Moto 360 currently houses its ambient light sensor and display driver in the crescent-shaped cutout at the bottom of the display."
Is the smartwatch fad stillborn? (Score:3, Interesting)
When tablets first came out, it was obvious that they were a fad, but at least some people did seem to have some genuine interest in them. Some of the people I worked with at the time were really gung-ho about tablets, thinking they were revolutionary and otherwise making a big fuss about them. But I'm seeing none of this when it comes to smartwatches. It's like nobody really cares about them, except the people hawking them. Average people have feel no excitement toward smartwatches. Average people have no desire for smartwatches. Even technophiles don't really give that much of a damn about them. It's like smartwatches are a fad that has died while still in the womb, in effect. It's looking like this smartwatch fad won't even get to the stage that tablets got to, where people were at least somewhat excited about them, before realizing that they're just fad devices without much practical use.
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Yes I ordered one (I was drunk) and I'm something of an MS fan, but even for me and for this product my enthusiasm level is 'meh'
Re:Is the smartwatch fad stillborn? (Score:5, Funny)
Well think about it, now you won't have to reach all the way into your pocket to grab your phone if you want to know what time it is. Genius, isn't it?
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The fanboy is strong with this one. (Score:2)
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Really? Apple has never made any lackluster products ever?
Let's say their success ratio (#products successful vs flops) is way above the rest since 2000.
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and they haven't had a genuine new product since iphone MEGA. or ipad. whatever.
nobody normal cares about the watch, that's the problem
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I thought the same about the iPad. I saw no need for myself and as I struggled to find needs for others, I couldn't. I was literally thinking "What the hell are they thinking".
It worked.
Since then I don't make no predictions anymore. And I try to warn occasional bystanders that make broad claims.
We'll see.
Re:Is the smartwatch fad stillborn? (Score:4, Interesting)
I would love to care about it, but technologywise most of the smartwatches have sidetracked by using smartphone operating systems and hardware which gets them unacceptable battery life, and all they get in return is phone-apps you wouldn't run on your watch anyway. Smart watches should have focused on notifications and remote control of the smartphone, both with much simpler operating systems, and e-ink displays. Pebble is doing it right, but doesn't have the weight to make mainstream. Android watches are getting there, and slowly figuring ít out, but are still overkill for the form-factor.
Wrong Direction (Score:2)
most of the smartwatches have sidetracked by using smartphone operating systems and hardware which gets them unacceptable battery life
That's not at all the case. In fact I can't think of a single smart watch shipping in any volume that uses a smartphone operating system - not Android Wear, not the Apple Watch, not Pebble... also very few are using smartphone hardware - most have very tiny screens and a very small form factor.
That small form factor is the reason for the poor battery life. There is simply
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When tablets first came out, it was obvious that they were a fad
Umm... what? What decade are you writing from, again? Perhaps you've missed the 2010's so far, so I'll fill you in.
Tablet sales are increasingly 25% year over year, and have been since the iPad shipped, and will surpass all traditional PC sales combined this year. That is, more tablets will be sold than laptops, desktops, ultrabooks, and ultra-mobile PCs put together. Furthermore, traditional PC sales are stagnant, while tablet sales are seeing explosive growth. They'll surpass PCs this year and it's f
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If tablets were a fad, we would have seen sales peak early on and tell off after that once people realize they were a fad or moved on to something new. Instead what we have seen is sales continuously increasing year after year. It's clear that tablets will not sell as crazy as smart phones do, because it's clear that people are using them more as laptop replacement then sell phone supplements. So it looks like they're going to follow upgrade paths somewhere to laptops being multi year, rather than cellphone
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There might be people that haven't got one yet.
It's also possible (though not as certain as you think) that the site visitor stats are skewed - perhaps things on those sites aren't suitable for tablets - anything involving heavy data entry, for example.
On what grounds can you say they're not a typical use case?
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Any idea why tablets outsell laptops? I think it's because tablets have millions of apps for a dollar or for free. However, if you were to use tablets for 2-3 hours a day, won't you get arm/hand strain from carrying the tablet for hours at a time. There is no such strain with laptops as you typically place them on a table and don't have to carry them. Tablet type devices are useful for occasional use (like
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Tablets, a fad? Dude, this actually IS the post PC era. Tablets are going gangbusters. [extremetech.com]
Tablets far from disposable (Score:2)
Tablets, on the other hand, are disposable devices. You're lucky to get two years out of them. They break easily, and the software is hard (if not impossible) to update.
That's pretty much as wrong as you could get it.
Tablets being all solid state, and not even a hinged component are generally HARDER to break.
Updating an iPad is way easier than updating a PC.
Perhaps the original iPad was not as useful after a while but from the iPad2 onward, they have been pretty long lasting - my wife generally uses her iPa
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My wife still uses her first-gen iPad. The OS and software updates have passed her by, but she still uses what she has. My iPad 3 is still going strong as well, running iOS 8.
Re:Is the smartwatch fad stillborn? (Score:5, Insightful)
Some tech writers have made this point already, and I probably won't get it out as clearly as they have, but the problem with smartwatches and our perception of them is that we're thinking about them in the here and now, and not in the future. Microsoft (well, Ballmer) famously laughed at the iPhone as too expensive and useless before it took off and crushed the Microsoft Mobile business into dust. He was thinking of the here and now, and not the future.
This is where Apple's so-called fanboys can be used to bootstrap a tech shift that would've taken much longer otherwise. When enough people start wearing these watches, they'll start to have more applications. Apple Pay will work with the watches out of the gate, so the people that (legitimately) complain that the phone is just as convenient as pulling out a wallet will now have to re-examine the position. The phone is on your wrist and is unlocked by being there and tethered to the phone. (Presumably, one day you won't need the phone at all, but we're not there yet.) And if you can trust your payments to your phone/watch, you can probably trust your car, computer, office door, etc., to that combo as well.
Without Apple, there's more of a chicken-and-egg problem. Nobody wants a watch because the services don't exist, and nobody wants to make a service because there aren't enough watches out there. Get a few million Apple faithful to buy a watch, and suddenly people that are a lot smarter and more creative than me will be making services that can interact with it.
I don't know if this market has legs—I can easily believe that those are things people will shy away from as too insecure or too cumbersome or too ugly. Having to charge one more device every single day doesn't really appeal to ME much, I admit. But if I try to think about the smartwatch market and how it might work in the future, when a bunch of these concerns are addressed, I can see there being somewhere for it to go.
(As to your comment about tablets, my iPad 3 is my most used computing device. I happen to be sitting at my computer right now, but this is the first time I've made a comment on /. from my home PC in months. I bought it originally to give me less of a reason to buy a new phone, but the unexpected side-effect is that I don't really care about home desktop computers anymore either. I'll upgrade in a year or two, when it stops getting OS updates.)
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Interesting.
I think there's a difference though. W
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I think they're nice looking watches, but I'm not enthralled by them, certainly. I'm more actively looking at the Withings Activite Pop and Garmin VivoActive because I'd like to have swim tracking, and I'm willing to put up with an ugly (or at least not-pretty) device to get it.
But I'm almost 40 and I'm having trouble figuring out what's actually cool any more. ;)
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Honestly, I think it depends on a lot of factors.
For the record, I own two smartwatches; the original Pebble and a Moto 360. The Pebble has mostly been relegated to a drawer because I just don't use it any more... probably go on eBay pretty soon. My Moto 360 gets used daily because it's really handy for my work. I work in the tech field; I'm a consultant for a large company who travels all over two states talking to customers about their technology needs.
For my part, my Moto 360 nearly always gets questions
Another missing element - pockets (Score:2)
So going by that metric, they also had no pockets. Are we to be soon without pockets? Will utility belt only carrying really catch on?
I don't think so.
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It does nothing of the sort. See the second word? It tells a story. It's entertainment.
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Your first and last sentences utterly ludicrously claim that tablets are a "fad". Actual facts show that they've been selling in bucket loads every year, although the market is approaching saturation point with them (i.e. those who want a tablet have got one now and they're "good enough" to use for years, unlike the early tablets).
Personally, I find tablets give a much better user experience than mobile phones, simply because of the larger screen dimensions. This makes video viewing and game playing more pl
smart sliderule (Score:2)
I find Motorola's products kind of 'meh' (Score:1)
I wonder whether it's just me. Anyone else too? No wonder they aren't doing particularly well in the market. Or are they?
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I think that the 360 watch is probably the best looking (aesthetically) watch out there so far (granting that the Apple watch is not yet officially "out there"). I just think that tepid market reaction is part of the larger overall muted reaction to smart watches. Anyone else have thoughts?
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The bottom part of the display is not actually a screen and makes the circle around the display look like a flat tire at the bottom.
This shows it pretty well:
http://img.talkandroid.com/upl... [talkandroid.com]
(still the best looking of the smartwatches, imo)
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That's to improve your customer experience by providing you with information that you might want in order to make informed purchasing decisions.
Round screens suck (Score:1)
clickbait monger (Score:3)
So my kitchen clock will see it and say "Hmm, I've seen that before"?
Free Software (Score:2)
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All while having to inanely repeat "Ok Google" to wake up the device. I wish their marketing department would be dragged out and shot so we could get a customizable activation phrase like the Moto X has.