Motorola Says Goodbye to Smartwatches
One major manufacturer of Android Wear smartwatches is giving up the fight, for now. Motorola told The Verge that the company won’t be releasing a smartwatch with Android 2.0, which is schedule to arrive sometime next year.
Lacking broad appeal
The Motorola 360 was one of the most popular Android Wear devices after its release.
A company official said Motorola isn’t completely closing the door to the market in the long term. But for now, don’t expect to see any new devices. Here’s more from the report:
Shakil Barkat, head of global product development at Moto, said the company doesn’t “see enough pull in the market to put [a new smartwatch] out at this time,” though it may revisit the market in the future should technologies for the wrist improve. “Wearables do not have broad enough appeal for us to continue to build on it year after year,” Barkat said, and indicated that smartwatches and other wearable devices will not be in Moto’s annual device roadmap.
The company produced two generations of the Motorola 360 smartwatch with Android Wear.
And Motrola’s announcement isn’t the only possible consolidation going on in the industry. Earlier today, a report noted that Fitbit is in talks to purchase smartwatch pioneer Pebble and shut the company down.
While the Apple Watch isn’t the “hit” that some technology analysts believed was needed, Apple’s billions of dollars in the bank should help keep the company out in front of rivals in the market.
