I'm an (unhappy) Apple Watch owner, but this is one thing which has gotten me to back the new Pebble on kickstarter -- Alexa is the most useful audio platform I've encountered so far.
TL;DR: you need a smartphone to run Alexa.
Why couldn't they do this exact same thing with Alexa? And from what I read you need to provide your own SIM to get Alexa working, why would that be the case if you were required to use a phone?
Or Pebble Core :). Which seems to be intended to let you leave your smartphone at home when you go outside.
But I can't wait to use it as a companion. Google Now generally sucks, and the only way I found to make it usable is to hack it with Tasker. I don't mind carrying Core all the time, along with the smartphone.
(I just need to figure out how to keep it alive for the whole day with the 3G always on.)
That said, I'm more interested in figuring out how to get offline speech recognition running on Core with something like PocketSphinx and only relying on the 3g connection when needed.
All this has got me thinking about what the smallest Android boards/devices out there are and how I could get a Raspberry Pi Zero connected to a cellular network. Need to do more research on this.
Not sure what you mean by "external battery" - both Android and iPhone have external batteries available.
The average person has no interest any of that t
The average person has 0 interest any of that.
THIS. Core's basically a smartphone the size of a an iPod shuffle where the interface will not need a screen, and where you're expected to interact with it via voice or the 2 minimal programmable buttons (which will probably be context aware and provide even more functionality depending on what app you're using). This is why I find the whole device fascinating! The iPhone removed the keyboard, the core is removing the screen!
I also hate android for many reasons and am unlikely to move away from iPhone except to something entirely new/better than either, which doesn't particularly appear to be in the pipeline. In the next couple years I want to get rid of all uncontrolled radios on my person, though, so I'll probably be switching to a de-radioed iPhone or iPad or iPod Touch or something.
Edit - Sorry, I thought Siri is not on apple watch
However, unlike Pebble Core, it requires your phone to be nearby for Internet connectivity.
My theory on Pebble Core is it's a way for Pebble to get experience building products with cellular radios. In another generation or two I wouldn't be surprised if Pebble watches could connect directly to the internet.