​Google Wearables 2.0: How Android Wear breaks from Glass

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Is Android Wear a revision of Google Glass, or a completely different vision? Either way, it'll have a huge influence on the rest of the wearable product landscape in 2014 and beyond.

Wearable tech has been a big, messy patch of tech wilderness. Then along came Google, announcing Android Wear and a future developer SDK. Google's not the first major company to enter wearables (Samsung, Sony), but this is a big moment nonetheless. It's the first time any software manufacturer has attempted to enter the wearables landscape and attempt to lay down some sort of order.

It's also Google's second wearables endeavor after Glass. The differences between Glass and its launch and what we know about Android Wear so far are quite, quite different.

Android Wear seems -- from the few products we've seen, the glitzy promo videos, and the documentation Google's laid out -- to be an initiative. Not unlike Glass, Google's 2013 wearable game plan, but different. It's 2014, and Google has a different game afoot. Android Wear is a new stake in the ground...and a line in the sand.

Android Wear watches are no prototype

As Google itself has been quick to point out, Google Glass as we currently know it isn't a finished product. It's a "project," a living prototype, and a chance for early explorers to try out new tech at a high entry price. Android Wear is all about real products that'll be ready to go by summer.

This also means that Android Wear represents Google's first actual foray into consumer wearables -- not Glass, which is really more of a high-profile experiment.

Defining smartwatches: simplicity, comfort

We don't really have a firm grasp yet on what smart wearables should be, look like, or emphasize. Google is laying down a sort of reference design for watches not unlike what happened with ultrabooks and netbooks. Will future watch-makers start assuming that the features Google is emphasizing will be the ones smartwatches need? Google is the biggest player with the most potential hardware partners, so the answer might be yes.

Google Glass actually feels comfortable to wear, but Glass is a product that by its nature is meant to stand out, and even stand in the way between you and the world around you. Google claims that Glass gets out of the way, but really, anything you're wearing on your face that has a lens and a screen is hardly discreet.