Out of the three prominent Android
Wear hardware manufacturers, only LG launched a new smartwatch since the turn of the year, the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE.
Not exact matches
Incorporating
hardware from Qualcomm (qcom) and Google's (googl) Android
Wear 2.0 software, the new Diesel - branded watch looks like a fashion forward rival to smartwatches from Apple, Samsung, and other tech
manufacturers.
The universality of the Android
Wear platform across
manufacturers and the G Watch R's strong basic
hardware make it a good bet to remain a relevant device for some time to come.
Android
Wear has a bit of an identity crisis, and I hope that the launch of Android
Wear 2.0 helps spur
manufacturers to lock in and put out some compelling
hardware that can meet a variety of needs.
Hardware manufacturers such as Sony started adding NFC support on their latest Android
Wear - based smartwatches, however, the platform does not have any NFC connectivity support to date and there is no word on its availability in the near future as well.
It's just currently unclear whether this second group of
manufacturers will be making watches, or merely supporting Android
Wear hardware from other companies.
With the release of Google's Android
Wear,
manufacturers just had to worry about making the
hardware for the OS.
Along with announcing its own smartwatches, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities to see Google mention other
manufacturers coming out with their own Android
Wear 2.0
hardware.
Google is taking
hardware seriously lately, as it's now getting into wearables.It's been long - rumoured that Google is developing its own smartwatches, mostly because several Android
Wear manufacturers have decided not to move forward with new wrist -
worn... Read more
Wear got its first unveiling in March 2014, with support from major
hardware manufacturers like Motorola, Samsung, LG, and Asus.
This is likely a reflection on the fact that Google does not allow
manufacturers to customize Android
Wear when they put it on to their
hardware in any way, leaving the likes of Motorola, LG and Huawei to compete on nothing but design and price alone.
The biggest news there may be about the growing body of evidence surrounding Motorola's plans for a new Moto 360, but we've also heard about new
hardware from other
manufacturers, including the first Android
Wear model from Fossil, and a possible high - res option from LG.
The ZenWatch 3 runs the same software as every other Android
Wear watch on the market, something Google designed to keep continuity between watches, giving
manufacturers the ability to stand out with their
hardware and custom features rather than worrying about custom software upgrades and the like.