Google’s latest job listing has set the internet abuzz with predictions the tech giant is finally going to deliver its much-anticipated Pixel Watch.
The tech titan has a pattern of “perfecting” its OS before developing its own products, for instance developing Android OS for years before the Pixel smartphone surfaced.
Wear OS, Google’s wearable OS, is currently in use by numerous smartwatch producers, but it isn’t as powerful as its rival Apple Watch OS, and many other smartwatch producers are coming out with their own OS as opposed to using Google’s tech.
Now it appears that Google is focusing on bringing its own offering to the wearable market.
The tech giant has advertised for a Vice President of Hardware Engineering for Wearables and a Wearables Design Manager, Consumer Hardware.
“As the VP of Hardware Engineering for Wearables, you’ll work collaboratively with the Senior Leadership team for Google Hardware and will be responsible for the design, development, and shipment of all Google’s Wearable products, ” the VP job listing states.
“You will lead and enable the effectiveness of a large engineering organization primarily based in Mountain View to develop multiple next-generation wearable products simultaneously.”
The Pixel Watch has long been rumoured, but Google shutdown rumours after IFA 2018, confirming it would not be coming anytime soon.
“To think of a one-size-fits-all watch, I don’t think we’re there yet,” Miles Barr, Google’s director of engineering for Wear OS, said. “Our focus is on our partners for now.”
However, these new job listings are just the latest in a string of reports that Google is working on its own smartwatch.
Google recently spent US$40 million on Fossil’s wearable tech, which Fossil’s executive vice president referred to as “new product innovation that’s not yet hit the market.”
New fish codenames, “medaka” and “salmon”, have also been spotted in Android’s open-source code, which is notable as Google often uses fish names for its own hardware.
The codenames were for “chin devices”, “chin” refers to smartwatches that feature a flat circle cutout design, and the engineers involved reportedly have worked on WearOS in the past.
Google has not confirmed any reports, but it seems like a good bet that they are focusing more time and energy into the wearables space to improve the Wear OS ecosystem.
