A bold step in the world of wearable products: Google Inc (GOOGL) Launches 2 New Smartwatches

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By mmejia on July 10, 2014 Technology & Software

There is a tough war going on between Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in order to seize “wearable market” since both the companies were to launch their smartwatches in the year 2014. Josh Lipton discussed this competition on his show, “Squawk Alley”. According to Lipton, a big move made by Apple was to hire Tag Heuer, vice president of LVHM, prior to the release of its smartwatches (iWatches).

As for Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), the company made its move by launching two of its smartwatches via Google Play store: Samsung Gear Live and LG G-Watch. Samsung Gear Live can be categorized as android Wear. What’s interesting about this smartwatch is the fact that the watch can be given voice commands: all a person needs to say is ‘OK Google’ to activate its voice command system. This watch makes phone calls and sends messages through voice commands, and its reported price is $199. The second smartwatch that Google introduced in the market is LG G-Watch. This is also an Android Wear and its price is reported to be $229.

Google smartwatches have Qualcomm, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) processors installed in them. ARM’s mobile marketing director, James Bruce, is of the opinion that where the market for wearable products looks promising, a lot depends on customers’ perceiving as well; the customers must feel good while wearing these products or else the shortage of demand will make the wearable products market crash.

These smartwatches are connected to a Smartphone via Bluetooth; the Smartphone must have Google Android 4.3 or above in order for these watches to function. Where both these smartwatches have a lot of similarities, they have some distinguishing features as well. For instance, Samsung Gear Live has more sensors and its display is better whereas LG has a long battery lifetime.

The CEO of Daily Mail North American, Jon Steinberg, also discussed smartwatches on Lipton’s show. Jon Steinberg was of the opinion that the new Samsung smartwatch is different from previous Samsung watches in a way that these new watches have features similar to that of ‘Google Now’ Smartphone features that run on Google’s OS. According to Jon Steinberg, these Samsung watches should have been named as ‘Google Now’.

Lipton, in his show, also discussed the future sales of these wearable products. According to International Data Corporation reports, an American market analyst and research firm, approximately 19 million watches will be shipped in the year 2014 alone. This number is way more than the number that was shipped in 2013: 6 million. IDC’s estimates show that by the end of 2018, the shipments will increase to 112 million.

As for Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock prices, on the last trading day, the shares of the company started at a price of $577.66 and closed at a reduced price of $571.75, after hitting the highest figures of $579.53. The company’s total market capitalization reached 395.59 billion whereas its earnings per share were reported to be 33.23. The beta of the company was reported to be 1.87.