Hi James,

I do agree that the big 4 is making voice a key method of interaction. I own an Apple watch and it is the first smart watch to have a speaker and microphone.

I have evaluated it and I think there is some hardware features that Apple and Android Wear has to do to really activate Voice.

1. Good Speakers — Android Wear has no speakers now. They really have to put one in. For Apple Watch, the speaker is only usable if you hold the Watch to your ear.
2. Apps support — WhatsApp is still not on Apple Watch. Zello and Voxer works strangely where the recording is still on the phone vs the watch.
3. One-Handed Operation: Watches are still designed to ne need 2 hands to work. I foresee and hope that one day, you can just raise your hand and start speaking into it. Walkie Talkis have something called VOX mode which does this. This makes possible a one handed operation instead of needing two hands. This probably requires the low power processor that software developers have to wait for hardware developers to put in.