New tech gadgets gizmos hi tech How Google pulled the plug on a Pixel smartwatch and let Apple take the market (GOOG, GOOGL, AAPL)

• In October 2016, at the company’s inaugural “Made by Google” product launch occasion, Google was expected to launch its first-ever proprietary smartwatch
• Those plans changed, however, simply months prior to the occasion at the hands of Google’s new hardware VP, Rick Osterloh, who didn’t think the watches fit well with the Pixel ” family of products.”
• As Google moves past the five-year point because getting in the smartwatch market with its Android Wear software application, Google discovers itself in the uncommon position of being a bit player.
• Read Company Insider Prime’s in-depth report of Google’s smartwatch saga.

When Google’s new hardware employer strolled on phase for the company’s very first “Made by Google” product launch in October 2016, he rapidly charmed the audience with smartphones, digital speakers, and more.

Rick Osterloh’s promise that Google was now severe about hardware, in spite of some previous mistakes, was backed by the impressive variety of gizmos. But one little noticed detail about Osterloh’s appearance– his bare wrists– hinted at a weak spot in Google’s hardware technique that continues to haunt the company today.

A Google-branded smartwatch, meant to develop the business as a leader in the nascent wearables market and equal the recently released Apple Watch, had in fact been developed in the lead up to the event. The watch was supposed to be among the devices unveiled that day, but was cut from the lineup when Osterloh took the reins of the hardware group, according to one former staff member who worked straight on the project.

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The eleventh-hour choice not to launch the item set Google on an irregular course in the smartwatch market that has consisted of a significant name change and left partners, app designers, and clients scratching their heads. Regardless of being one of the first companies to acknowledge the potential for smartwatch innovation, Google has been relegated to the status of a bit gamer.

And as the company prepares to unveil its latest line-up of Made by Google devices for the 2019 vacation season, Google’s smartwatch technique seems stalled.

Read Company Insider Prime’s complete story on how Google misjudged the smartwatch market, and what its possibilities for a comeback look like.

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