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Will.i.am to Launch His Own Smartwatch This July

Will.i.am to Launch His Own Smartwatch This July

He’s had number one albums, streamed music from the surface of Mars and is now entering the smartwatch market alongside the likes of Samsung and Motorola.

Singer and entrepreneur Will.i.am revealed his wrist-worn device during an interview with Alan Carr on Friday night’s Chatty Man show.

He didn’t reveal full specifications, but said it has Bluetooth and will run Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. 

But after poor sales and criticism about wearables, will it be enough to make the tech fashionable? 

During the show, will.i.am told Alan Carr: ‘I don’t carry my phone anymore, this is my phone.

‘A lot of these smartwatches need phones – mine doesn’t need a phone.

‘I started the company myself, I funded it, I used my own money to develop it.

So, it’s a phone. It has all my music in it so I can work out with it, without wires using Bluetooth headphones. It’s got Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.’

The following night, will.i.am used the watch to call Cheryl Cole during the final of talent show The Voice – although the call quality was poor and cut out shortly afterwards.

Samsung, Sony and Motorola have all released smartwatches – but each device has featured a flat screen.

By comparison, Will.i.am’s watch has a curved display.

He didn’t reveal what operating system his device runs on, but the fact it features established apps including Instagram and Twitter, suggests it will run on existing software, likely to be Android. 

It may even run the Tizen system seen recently on Samsung’s Gear watch.

During the show, will.i.am, pictured, told Alan Carr, pictured right: ‘I don’t carry my phone anymore, this is my phone. A lot of these smartwatches need phones – mine doesn’t need a phone. I started the company myself, I funded it, I used my own money to develop it’

Windows Phone, for example, has fewer apps and Apple’s iOS is a proprietary software used only on its own devices.

That is, of course, unless Will.i.am’s also developed a bespoke OS and custom-made versions of these apps. 

The presence of Instagram hints that the device will have a camera.

Will.i.am recently announced plans to release a camera accessory that will ‘dramatically enhance the clarity and definition of iPhone photographs’ called the i.am+.

It is said to be capable of raising the quality of photos from 8MP to 14MP and will.i.am’s watch may either run with an 8MP camera, or work with this accessory.

As the watch doesn’t link with a phone, but stores music, it suggests the watch will have a substantial amount of storage. This which will need to be a minimum of 4GB to be useful.

If the watch has Bluetooth connectivity, it’s likely to also have Wi-Fi capabilities and may even add NFC.

Due to the fact it can make calls, the watch is also likely to have a SIM card and may additionally support 3G, or even 4G.

Prices for current smartwatches range from £109 to £299 and will.i.am’s watch may retail for similar.

Aside from music, Will.i.am has a strong background in science and technology.

In 2011, Intel named will.i.am as director of creative innovation and his role was to help develop the firm’s range of phones, tablets and laptops.

A year later he made history by streaming a song from the surface of Mars in conjunction with Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The song was called Reaching for the Stars.

He also has plans to launch his own car company.

Samsung’s Galaxy Gear launched in September last year and was heavily criticised for its chunky design and poor battery life.

It was also slammed for being too restrictive because it only worked with select Samsung devices.

Some analysts claimed the watch was rushed out to make sure it was one of the first on the market, beating Apple and Google to their still rumoured devices.

In November, Samsung declared it was the bestselling smartwatch ever, quoting sales figures of 800,000 – yet industry sources claimed this number was closer to 50,000 and the higher figure was actually the number of watches that had been shipped.

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