Android smartwatch makers better come up with an answer to the Apple Watch, and soon

Right now the Apple Watch seems like the only game in town when it comes to smartwatches. And Android watch makers need to do something drastic to get back in the game.

As expected, the Watch captured the imaginations of the Apple faithful, and many of them ordered one of the devices the first chance they got. Apple reportedly sold more Watches in the first day of pre-orders (reportedly 1 million on April 10) than Android Wear watchmakers sold during the full year of 2014. Today, when consumers think of a smartwatch, they picture an Apple Watch.

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Android Wear-powered smartwatch makers need an answer to the first generation of the Watch. The Android Wear platform has arguably taken no game changing leaps forward since its launch in 2014. Android Wear is designed to position the smartwatch as a sort of remote control and notifications device for the phone.

Meanwhile, Apple is aggressively pushing the Watch toward being an autonomous device. Apple is currently readying the launch of its watchOS 2 this fall. It will enable apps to run on the device, and will let the Watch connect directly to the web via a Wi-fi network.

(Yes, Android Wear already supports these things, but the new features in the Apple Watch will mean more. It will make Watch apps far more interesting and capable than they are now, making the Watch a more autonomous device and further add to the device’s momentum.)

We have heard rumors of a new Samsung smartwatch called the Gear A, but we’ve now learned that the new device will not launch during an August 13 launch event, as some had hoped. The new Gear A is rumored to be a round watch, with a unique rotating bezel for controlling apps and zooming in and out of content. Sounds cool, right? But Samsung chose its own Tizen OS for the Gear A, not Android Wear.

The other major Android Wear watch maker, Motorola, hasn’t released a smartwatch since the launch of its well-regarded 360 device, which launched in the fall of 2014. Prices of the Moto 360 are way down, suggesting a new model may be on the way. The basic model can be found for $150 or less, the all-metal version for as low as $199 — down a third from the $299 launch price.

So the dynamic in the smartwatch business is very different from that of the smartphone business. The Android platform and Android phones are routinely the first to introduce popular new features and form factors, and Apple — the “fast follower” — scoops up the most popular ones and deftly bakes them into its phones.

In smartwatches, Apple seems to be the one pushing the envelope with new features like Force Touch and Watch-based Apple Pay. That’s OK, but the Android Wear smartwatch makers have to follow more quickly, and they arguably have to push the bar higher by introducing some features the Apple Watch doesn’t have.

The Android watch maker crowd isn’t likely to beat Apple on pure design, style, or brand cache. So they have to win on pure functionality, and maybe on price.

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Whatever they do, they better do it fast before all the excitement about Android Wear is completely gone. I expect to see a new wave of smartwatches from the likes of Motorola (a 360 2, most likely), Samsung, and LG.