It looks like 2014 will be the year of the smartwatch. And judging by the hype, Google will be the next company to churn it out.



While it might seem like they're just playing catch up with the likes of Samsung and Sony, Google's smartwatch might actually be the one worth spending all your hard-earned cash on.

Google's smartwatch will be designed by WIMM, a company they absorbed not too long after the release of the WIMM One. This was a smallish, Android-powered, app-runnin' cube with a 1-inch by 1-inch screen that could be snapped in and out of the included wristband.

While the device never really took off,  the One's most fantastic feature was its transflective bi-modal screen. The display's high-powered mode was just as bright and colorful as the one on your phone; there's also a greyscale mode which is better for outdoors.

The low enough battery requirements means you don't have to worry about leaving it always-on. Therefore, unlike Galaxy Gear's Super AMOLED screen, and the Pebble's minimalist black-and-white LCD, this smartwatch manages to achieve a middle ground that no one has gotten quite right yet.

While current smartwatches can boast previews of texts and emails, these features are considered more of a luxury for smartphone owners. Since Google is in the business of coming up with new innovations (e.g. Google Glass), this also gives them the perfect position to come up with something that nobody else has thought of yet.

For now, we can only speculate what Google's smartwatch is going to be like, but here's hoping that their idea of what smartwatches are supposed to be will actually make sense.
 
[Wall Street Journal]