As Motorola prepares to unveil its wearable technology on September 4, much of the surprise was revealed prematurely.
Motorola is getting ready for the big unveiling of its Moto 360 smartwatch, which is to take place on December 4 at a Chicago press event, but a mistake at Best Buy has revealed a list of the product’s features, as well as the price for which it will be sold.
The produce page mistakenly went live too early on the mobile site for the electronics retailer.
What Best Buy revealed about the Moto 360 smartwatch is that the Android Wear based device will be sold with a price tag of $249.99. Fortunately for the retailer, this is not actually the first time that $249.99 has been revealed as the likely price for the wearable technology. In May, the official rules for a contest held by Motorola, itself, listed the approximate retail value of the device at exactly that amount.
If this is, indeed, true, then it will mean that the Moto 360 will be only $20 more than the LG G Watch.
That price point will also place the Motorola smartwatch at a level that is just slightly more expensive than the other two Android Wear devices that are currently on the market, the LG G Watch, and the Samsung Gear Live. Those devices come with a price of $229 and $199.99, respectively.
When it comes to the Moto 360, it appears that the additional money might to do with a design that is potentially much more attractive when it comes to its design. For example, the circular display of the device is well designed for wearing as an actual suit and is a better match for wearing along with clothing that would be worn in a professional environment.
There were some additional preliminary specifications that were also mentioned on the Best Buy page. For example, it will have a 320 by 290 resolution on its touchscreen. Moreover, there will be Gorilla Glass 3 protecting its display. The Moto 360 will be water resistant, will have a built in pedometer and will be similar to the Gear Live in that it has an optical heart rate monitor.
The handset maker isn’t about to be left behind in this massive wearable technology trend.
Motorola is now planning to leap right back into the wearable tech market, as it plans to launch its own smartwatches later on in 2014, according to an announcement that was made by Rick Osterloh, the company’s senior vice president.
This particular device is being designed to meet the needs that consumers have already expressed that they have.
According to Osterloh, the smartwatches that Motorola will be launching will have taken into account “consumer issues like style and battery life.” So far, those are both areas where companies have been struggling to keep up with the expectations that consumers have regarding these devices and their willingness to pay rather high price tags in order to obtain them. The announcement was made in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress, during a panel discussion.
These new smartwatches will not be the first time that Motorola has attempted to sell wearable technology.
That said, it is certain that Motorola is hoping that its future attempts with wearables will be far more successful than its previous ones. The MotoACTV was one of the last mobile devices that Motorola had launched that could be worn by the owner. It was an activity tracker that simply never caught on because of its weak battery life and its lack of visual appeal and style. Though the company had previously stepped back from this area, it is clear that it did not fail to closely examine the experience and to attempt to learn from its mistakes.
That said, it won’t be until the actual launch of the devices that the company will actually be able to prove whether or not it has managed to overcome the obstacles that held it back in the first place. Osterloh did not offer any additional details regarding the products themselves, nor anything that the consumer can expect from the release, such as price or the actual date that they will hit the shelves. However, he did point out that the company feels that this will be a very important area for its future.
This does not come as a surprise as wearable technology such as smartwatches is one of the hottest tech segments at the moment. In the middle of the spotlight, right now, are the Galaxy Gear devices from Samsung, as well as Pebble. That said, Apple is expected to come out with an iWatch at some point in the near future – if rumors are to be believed – and it shouldn’t be long before Google releases its own wearable that will have been manufactured by LG.
