Will.i.am is definitely a household name when it comes to mainstream music, but could you imagine a time where we associate that name with a smart watch instead of the Black Eyed Peas? It appears that he can. The musician, born William Adams, appears to be positioning himself in the wearable electronics market and will unveil his new device at Dreamforce 2014 on Wednesday, October 15th.
Wrist Power: http://t.co/9h25DLR34W to Unveil Wearable Smartband Device During Dreamforce 2014 Keynote on October 15 http://t.co/ktsXCn7wot
— will.i.am (@iamwill) October 4, 2014
Back in April, Will.i.am showed off his prototype smart watch on a British talk show called Alan Carr: Chatty Man, where he briefly talked about what it will be able to do. While most smart watches require a wireless connection to your phone using something like Bluetooth, his is said to be able to send and receive calls all on its own. As he puts it, “...mine doesn’t need a phone. This is the phone.” It will allegedly support Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, will run Android, and will feature a music platform provided by London-based company 7digital. These features are accessed via the small, curved screen on the top of what looks more like a black cuff than a watch. In the video below, he claims that he started the company himself, and even funded the device’s development.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj7IfmUbF0M&w=750&h=422]
Apparently this isn’t the singer-songwriter’s first venture in the world of electronics, either. In January of 2011 he was named Intel’s Director of Creative Innovation and was a founding shareholder of Beats Electronics, which was just bought out by Apple for around $2.6 billion. In 2012, he launched his i.am+ line of iPhone accessories, which were basically expensive cases that (depending on the model) gave you a few detachable lenses and a slide out keyboard. He has even customized cars in the past for a project that he called (you guessed it) i.am.auto.
Whether or not the Will.i.am watch will be able to compete with the range of other smart watches on the market now, or even the unreleased Apple Watch, is yet to be determined since details have not been officially released. We will all just have to tune in on Wednesday for a more in-depth look at what's to come. For now, we are left to speculate where William even got this ambitious idea in the first place. Mat Zo doesn't make a smart watch, does he?