Google has announced the first smartwatches powered by its Android Wear operating system are now available for pre-order.

The LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live – both featuring rectangular screens – mark an attempt to standardise the way Android wearable devices function.

Google said that Motorola’s circular Moto 360 would not be released until “later this summer”.

“The problem with smartwatches so far has been that the sector hasn’t quite decided what it wants to be – is it a phone on your wrist or an accessory device,” Steffen Sorrell, from the Juniper Research consultancy, told the BBC.

LG said the G Watch costs $229/£159 and would initially be made available to 12 countries including
the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan. It is due to
ship on 4 July.

Samsung said the Gear Live would cost $199/£169 and ship on 7 July.

Both will require the owner to have a phone running Android 4.3 or above.