LG confirms 2009 launch for 3G wristphone
Time to dump that Rolex?
Watches that let you make voice and video calls sound like something from a James Bond movie. Or an LG catalogue. The Korean electronics giant has a wristwatch phone in the works and yesterday confirmed it is launching the high-tech timepiece at some unspecified time this year.
LG's GD910 phone/video watch
Woo Paik, LG's chief technology officer, made the launch announcement as he demonstrated the GD910 wristwatch phone at CES this week. The wrist-set will provide two hours of talk time from a single charge, but it’s unclear if this refers to voice or video use.
An integrated camera on the watch lets the wearer make video calls over a 3G connection. The device is less than 1in thick and weighs just 84g. The 1.4in screen is touch sensitive , which means that three physical buttons are built into the watch.
"Can i make a call on your...erm...watch?"
Audio playback is also possible, but we hope LG puts in a decent amount of on-board storage, or at least equip it with a Micro SD card slot.
Other features include MP3 playback, Bluetooth, text-to-speech commands and a speaker phone.
No prices yet. ®
COMMENTS
Dump My Rolex????
No chance I dump my 20 year old GMT Master, Its the only watch to have survived the brutal demands of being a sound recordist, ( Not dumping my 'sub' or my vintage oyster or my..........Oh Sorry)
Mines the one with the Daytona in the pock........Oh it's your coat, sorry!
DoCoMo had a wristphone "Wristomo" in 2003
DoCoMo used to sell a wristphone called "Wristomo" back in 2003. However, it was a PHS phone, not 3G. As far as I remember DoCoMo also had a 3G wristphone at the Nagano Olympics but never offered it for general sale.
We have pictures of Wristomo on our blog entry from a trade show in Tokyo back in 2003:
http://eurotechnology.com/blog/2003/07/wireless-japan-2003-exhibition-tokyo.html
There never was another Wristomo phone, so I guess there wasn't much more than a niche demand. The problem I guess is that you really have to take the wristphone off your wrist to phone or send messages, or do mobile internet stuff like booking airline tickets, defeating the purpose to some extent. If the demand would have been huge and continuing - we would still have lots of Wristomos in Japan now.
Gerhard
http://www.eurotechnology.com
James Bond?
Dick Tracey had them before James Bond. It's a start, just think in another year or two they will be thinner, and smaller. Just the opposite of me...
I'm not sure people need a camera phone on their wrist....
After all, think of all the places your hands go during a day!
A call during a bathroom break could traumatize someone on the other end....
@OrsonX
I think it will be a speaker phone, now you will be able to hear someone shouting "where are you" and well as the reply "I am on the train"!
