Yahoo Finance Google Launches Android Wear for iOS
If you’re not one of the 3.6 million folks that bought an Apple AAPL Watch in the last quarter, Google GOOGL has a value proposition for you.
In an official blog published yesterday, the company announced that it was launching Android Wear for iOS, an app that will pair upcoming Android watches with your iPhone (version 5 and higher running on iOS 8.2 or higher) to satisfactorily carry out basic smartwatch functions.
That includes notifications you get on the iPhone, Google Now cards and voice search, as well as the use of certain Google apps like Weather, Translate, Calendar, Google Fit, etc.
Google also offers selection in watch faces to break the monotony. Its always-on screen face allows you to get to your notifications without so much as a flick of the wrist and easily swipe away the ones you want to ignore.
Apple of course places restrictions on competing apps and Android Wear is no different in this regard. So while it’s allowing Google Now to get information from the web, it doesn’t allow it to dig into things like personal music selections. Again, replying to email from Gmail accounts appears smooth, but Apple doesn’t allow you to check or reply to other email, for which you’d have to go back to your iPhone. Third-party apps for Android Wear will also not work.
In this way, as Apple maintains control of the Android Wear experience for iOS users, it is able to ensure that its own Watch can continue to be positioned as a premium product.
Still, Google figures it can pull away a few buyers because of the number of Android manufacturers that are making watches in varying shapes and sizes that can also be matched with bands of your choice to suit your own style and personality.
What’s more, Android watches will also likely be priced more competitively; the number of players alone will ensure that they are. Apple Watch currently sells for $349 and several Android watches retail at less than half that price.
At the moment, LG Urbane is the only watch supporting iOS, but future watches with Android 1.3 and higher will also support iOS.
The announcement may not be a huge surprise particularly since Huawei let the cat out of the bag recently, its nevertheless good news for people looking to try out new evolving technology in a stylish and not-too-expensive way.
Apple has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and Google Rank #2 (Buy). Other stocks with positive ranks are Lending Club LC, Pandora P and MeetMe MEET. Lending Club and Pandora share the same rank as Google while MeetMe has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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