Retail displays for Android Wear devices are just bad and don’t allow for people to actually use the operating system.

In Best Buys, Motorola has a display for the Moto 360. There are two devices resting on their charging dock with a rather thick security cable that prevents one from fully putting the device one. They are running a demo loop that does not allow people to play around the UI. From what I can tell, it is the exact same demo loop that was used at the Google I/O where Wear was first shown off.

People should be able to access the basic features of Android Wear:

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  being able to talk to Wear and thus getting people use to the primary means for interacting with their watch (performing web searches, playing music, setting reminders, etc.) [This has the added benefit of highlighting how accurate Google’s voice recognition is]

  
  


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  changing the watch face to highlight the countless watch faces there are. For the OS that prided itself on customizability, a demo loop is quite restricting.

  
  

You can keep the demo loop around as a means to invite and attract people but once people actually pick up the device it should kick into the actual UI.

Most of the features I mentioned (especially anything voice) requires a phone and at places like Best Buy the demo loop is partially excusable, but at carrier stores where devices are often placed new the brand’s flagship device there is no excuse for the device to be running in a demo loop.

Makes me wish Google did the rumored Android Silver approach for Wear where Google has strict control over a retail display.