A report published by TechCrunch, quoting inside sources, says Asus is readying its first smartwatch for release, and that when it does arrive, the price could be significantly lower than the competition. The good news is, Asus’ watch won’t run a proprietary operating system, but Google’s new Android Wear platform, making the low price even more intriguing.
If the story proves to be correct, we could pay between $100 and $150 for the watch, which is at least $50 cheaper than Samsung’s Gear Live and LG’s G Watch. The possible spec isn’t known, but an AMOLED screen is expected to feature, and potentially be smaller in size than the 1.65-inch screens seen on the Samsung and LG models.
We’ve heard about an Asus smartwatch before. The company has come out and said it’s working on a wearable, and confirmed it would be a watch, saying it would be “feature packed.” TechCrunch speculates this could involve a gesture control system. However, the low price may mean anything too high-tech is built into a more expensive model.
Asus was apparently invited to launch its watch during the Google I/O keynote, but declined so as not to rush the product into production. Instead, a September launch is possible, which may see Asus go up against the Moto 360. Motorola’s Android Wear watch is easily the most anticipated wearable outside of Apple’s iWatch, and Asus may need more than a low price point to gain attention.
Asus has been talking about its wearable plans for almost a year, and doesn’t appear to be in much of a hurry to put something on sale, so there is a chance it may push things back again. We should find out more over the coming months.
Author: Andy Boxall
Source: DigitalTrends