LG's Wireless Trend to Watch

Dick Tracy and James Bond have nothing on LG. At the Consumer Electronics Show, it wowed attendees with the world's first touch-screen watch phone, the LG-GD910.

LG was reluctant to let anyone test-drive its wristwatch wonder, but Dr. Wu Paik, chief technology officer, did prove its viability by taking a call and showing off its music player. He noted it is the smallest fully featured phone coming to market. The company borrowed materials from high-end watch manufacturers and came up with a curved, tempered-glass face encased in metal, measuring only 13.9 mm in thickness and featuring a 1.43-inch touch screen.

On the cellular side, the phone features 7.2 Mb/s 3G HSDPA compatibility for high-speed data transmission and video phone calls via built-in camera. Videoconferencing calls can be made either held up to the user's face or with a Bluetooth headset. The watch phone can send text messages, use text-to-speech to read incoming texts, employ voice recognition to place calls and look up contacts, and play MP3s through a built-in speaker. The phone features LG's DSE noise cancellation to filter out background noise.

Because the GD910 supports 3G, a U.S. launch could be forthcoming. But LG hasn't announced if it will make a version for the states, and it hasn't confirmed if a U.S. launch is on the road map. Kevin Burden, director of mobile devices for ABI Research, said the first step is to test it in Western Europe, a more mobile-centric area, then take it from there.

“They'll probably try to go to Western Europe, see how well it does, create a buzz and viral demand for the technology, and then bring it to other regions,” he said.

LG isn't the first to attempt this. Fossil partnered with Sony Ericsson back in 2006 for its failed Fossil PDA watch phone, featuring the Palm operating system as a companion to Palm's PDA handset. The device didn't appeal to consumers, who associated its low price with low performance, Burden said. LG didn't release pricing for the GD910, but he doesn't expect them to have the same problem.

“I'm assuming that it could be in the high $500s,” Burden said. “I think the challenge they will have is for people to look at it as their primary mobile phone. It could be somewhat of a companion to a mobile phone for a lot of people — the phone you use in certain usage models, but you will still have to have your other mobile phone.”

Still, the watch phone might be better off in the companion gadget sector, at least for now, said Dave Chamberlain, principal wireless analyst for In-Stat. His concern is that LG is cramming too much into too small a device. He would be inclined to include a robust voice interface, capability for writing and reading text messages, a simple way to add names to the contact list and leave everything else off.

“It will probably end up, in this form, as a curiosity people will try to use as their primary phone then throw into a drawer with the dozens of other first-generation devices they purchased and discarded,” Chamberlain said. “However, I think the longer-term possibilities are great.”