Foxconn Smartwatch

Hon Hai Precision Industry (the main manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone and iPad) better known by its international trading name: Foxconn, have just showcased a smartwatch that can be connected wirelessly to an iPhone.  This new innovative product, which the company hopes will be part of its future revenue growth, has been given no release date as yet, or any other marketing information is currently known.

The wearable technology can be used to check phone calls, Facebook posts and measure the user’s vital signs such as heartbeat and respiration.  Foxconn executives said while showing the watch at a shareholders meeting last week. Foxconn chairman Terry Gou said his company’s wireless communications and medical research groups also plan to add new features in the future such as fingerprint identification to the gadget to help record personal information and health data.  If the measuring results are not within optimal range, the device will automatically give suggestions to the user about how to improve them, the executives said.  “With such a device, you can keep your phone in your pocket and simply check all kinds of messages on your watch,” Gou told shareholders.

The Foxconn smartwatch has come at a time when the internet is rife with many speculations and predictions that Apple will launch a similar device, the iWatch, later this year as its next breakthrough product to intensify its battle with Google in the emerging wearable technology sector.  Further credence to these rumours have been solidified by Apple applying for the trademark “iWatch”

In April last year, Google announced a trial project for its Glass device (a cross between a mobile computer and a pair of spectacles that can record video and access emails and messages, as well as surf the internet)  The device is equipped with a camera capable recording 720p video and 5-megapixel images as well as  12GB memory and Wi-Fi connectivity.  Since then Google Glass has been well received by developers and those fortunate enough to get their hands on the device.

The wearable technology race is on! Who will win? Google? Apple? Foxconn?

[Image via vibiznews]

SOURCE: http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?cid=1102&MainCatID=&id=20130627000079