This week, LG Electronics tweeted a picture of the new G Watch with the tagline of ‘coming soon’, giving us another look at one of the first smartwatches that will run on Google’s new Android Wear smartwatch operating device. Motorola also recently announced its Moto 360, another smartwatch which will employ Android Wear as its operating system.
As these watches will be the first to interact with Android, it would make sense for Google to bring out new devices to go along with these, and we may expect these announcements to come at June’s Google I/O conference. Last year saw no hardware being announced at the annual developers conference, but 2012 saw the Nexus 7 being unveiled, so there is a chance.
As the I/O conference is based around developers, it can safely be assumed that it’s there we will hear more about Android Wear, and with the gears of PR already in full steam for LG G Watch and Moto 360, June seems to be the ripe time for an announcement of both the smartwatches and a brand new Nexus smartphone to go along with them.
So what specifications can we expect from the Nexus 6? 4GB of RAM has been rumoured, but it would be surprising to see this on a traditionally more budget Nexus device. A 5.5in display is speculated, with a 64-bit chip and a 16MP rear camera. To compete with the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the HTC One M8, the Nexus 6 will likely be IP67 dust and waterproof. With the introduction of Android Wear, we can expect lots of health focused functions, possibly including a heart rate monitor.
The I/O developers conference may even see the announcement of Google Gem, Google’s very own smartwatch. It could launch the same time as the Nexus 6, much like the Galaxy S5 and its Gear watch counterparts.
Google announced Android Wear last week, releasing videos to showcase what the software looks like. Senior VP of Android, Chrome and Apps, Sundar Pichai, used a blogpost to reveal that the smartwatch OS would be operated via verbal commands from the user.
He wrote: "Most of us are rarely without our smartphones in hand. These powerful supercomputers keep us connected to the world and the people we love. But we’re only at the beginning; we’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible with mobile technology.
"That’s why we’re so excited about wearables – they understand the context of the world around you, and you can interact with them simply and efficiently, with just a glance or a spoken word." Fitness appears to play a major role in the functionality of the operating system, presumable to keep up the pace with Apple and Samsung’s latest offerings, namely iOS fitness apps and Samsung’s Gear watches.
Further remarks made by Sundar Pichae hint at an August or September release for Google’s next flagship mobile device, the Nexus 6. Following an announcement at the I/O conference, an August or Spetember release would make sense. He said to a French blog at Mobile World Congress: "I can assure you it will not be released in the first half of the year." According to reports for Gizmodo Germany, LG will yet again be the partner for the Nexus 6, following its involvement with the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5. The German report suggested that the Nexus 6 will be a variant of the upcoming LG G3, which will most likely feature a 5.5-inch display with a 64-bit processor and 16MP camera.
