Published in Mobiles

Android Wear watches available in 13 countries

by on09 July 2014

Samsung or LG

Smartwatches are one hot item this summer. Google raised a lot of interest and with the introduction of the Google Wear platform, the smart watch got Google Now-like functionality. We can’t say it’s a good or bad thing, since Google Now has a fair share of fans and critics, but you should know that it is coming to wearables.

Google Now works on your wrist for about 36 hours before you need to put your smartwatch in a dock or on a wireless charger and top it up. Users no longer have to pull out their phone from their pocket or purse every time there’s a notification. The smartwatch is there for that.

Thirteen big markets covered


Google went a bit broader this time as we realized that the watches are already available in thirteen countries. Both the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live are available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom, United States.

This comes as quite a surprise. For example the Nexus tablets or phones usually shipped in the North American market, followed by the rest of the world a few weeks or even months later. Localisation was usually to blame but it turns out that Android Wear was ready with multiple languages at once. Certification is another issue – smartwatches don’t sport 3G or 4G connectivity and they don’t rely on carriers.

Google is also addressing some of the biggest markets around, all big English speaking countries, Australia, Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom and United States and some of the other big markets. Last time we checked Germany was one of the biggest markets around and they get to buy Android Wear watches from Google at launch and so does France, along with Italy and Spain. With these countries Google covers the biggest economies in Europe, but not the whole union considering that there are 27 EU countries and 50 countries on the continent altogether. Most of them speak different languages.

No China or Russia on the list


India is getting LG’s G Watch and Samsung’s Gear Live at launch and so are Japan and South Korea. The only huge county missing is China, but Google doesn’t offer any of its devices directly in China or Russia. It looks like that Google is finally becoming a bit more international, at least where there is money to be made.

Then again Google Now is translated to these languages and this is the core of Android Wear, and therefore the list doesn’t come as a huge surprise.

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