Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has realized the value of hardware in the last couple of years. The company, disappointed with the offerings of OEMS using its Android software, began releasing phones in 2010 and hasn’t looked back. The next digital device sue for Google standardization could be the smart watch according to rumors.
If Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) were to release a smart watch early rather than allow its partners to do so first, it could have an interesting effect on the market. Samsung has confirmed its own smart watch release, and it is rumored that almost all mobile handset makers, including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) are likely to release their own.
Google Inc hardware growing
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) makes little to no money off of its hardware offerings. Instead the company is satisfied with spreading an Android experience the way they want it. The strategy is most useful in markets where OEMs have not quite worked out how to deliver a decent Android experience. The popularity of the Nexus 7 is a testament to that.
A smart watch release would, however, jump the gun. There are no big smart watch offerings on the market. There’s no culture of smart watch design that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) needs to correct like it did in the tablet world. The Mountain View company has however, bought a smart watch start up outright, and is working with them on projects.
Google Inc acquisition fever
Where so many rumors about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) come from patents it files, the fuel for Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) rumors is usually provided by the company’s acquisitions. Google is constantly acquiring small companies with big ideas. That doesn’t mean that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is actually set on using those ideas.
In the last week it was revealed that Google had purchased WIMM, a smart watch maker. The confirmation of that acquisition led to the immediate spread of rumors about a Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) smart watch. Google has, as everyone already knows, its own plans in the wearable computer space.
Google Glass is expected to come to the public some time next year, and it may have provided the impetus for the company’s purchase of WIMM. It is unlikely Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) will get involved in the smart watch industry, not this early. The company has many other reasons to want smart watch engineers around, however.
