The Alexa powered CoWatch from Cronologics is barely hot off the press and Google has just purchased the company. Cronologics was founded by ex-Google employees to offer an alternative to Android Wear and it looks like they’ll be helping Android Wear now. It’s interesting that Google picked the company up just as it released a smartwatch powered by Alexa. The company is still selling the CoWatch on Amazon for a reasonable price but with Alexa competing with Google Home, they may end up pulling the watch.
Google didn’t reveal why it bought the company, and Cronologics just said (via a statement on its site) that “we see strong alignment with Android Wear’s mission and look forward to working with our new colleagues at Google.”
The CoWatch could live on in the future with Google Assistant powering it instead of Alexa. Though some might actually find that to be a shame, since Alexa is pretty reliable and more competition in the smartwatch space would be beneficial to consumers. The motivation behind the purchase and the price tag are both a mystery so we can only speculate at this point. Smartwatches and wearables haven’t exactly been selling like hotcakes and even Apple is holding back its sales figures.
Regular consumers still haven’t been given that one reason they absolutely need a smartwatch in their lives and maybe Cronologics has something Google thinks may help break that barrier. With Moto putting their (arguably best selling Android Wear watch) Moto 360 on hold, it will be interesting to see where Android Wear goes in the future.
What do you think of Google’s purchase of Cronologics? Were you aware of the CoWatch in the first place? What do you think of smartwatches in general? Let us know your thoughts and comments below or on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
[button link=”https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/13/google-bought-the-firm-behind-that-amazon-alexa-smartwatch/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Engadget[/button]Last Updated on January 23, 2017.
