Google invited us to check out their new line of Nexus products running Lollipop earlier today. The Motorola Nexus 6 is about the size of the iPhone 6 Plus with a slightly bigger screen and thicker/heavier profile. On the other hand, the HTC Nexus 9 is smaller than the iPad Air with a 9-inch display and stereo speakers. Both run Android 5.0 Lollipop which has a new Material Design. The new products will go up against Apple’s iOS devices for global electronics consumers’ holiday shopping money.
However, one set of devices won’t be competing for Apple users’ shopping dollars. An Android Wear project manager told me that there were no current plans to make Android Wear compatible with iOS but that they were continuing to evaluate other platforms because they wanted to get Wear devices into as many hands as they could. When I pressed and said something to the effect of “if ever there was a time to sell these to Apple users, it was the holiday season before the Apple Watch is released”, the product manager said something akin to “Our Christmas lineup of announcements is set and over”.
On one hand, it doesn’t seem like it would be that hard. After all, Google eventually got Google Glass to work on iOS devices.
Microsoft, on the other hand, just announced its new Fitness Band which will work with Android, iOS and of course Windows Phones.
Macworld today suggested that you take a $99 Pebble for a spin to see if it could act as a smartphone gateway drug until users get their Apple Watch fix next year.
I will say that if you are contemplating getting an Android Wear device, the only one worth your time is the Moto 360. Most of you will obviously be better off waiting however.
