Major Android Wear Partners Not Launching New Smartwatches This Year

If you are waiting on a new Android Wear-powered smartwatch from some of the biggest partners that have teamed up with Google for Android Wear devices, you will need to keep waiting until next year. Some of the company’s biggest partners have now confirmed that they have no plans of launching new smartwatches this year. So it’s likely going to be quite a while before some of them come out with new wearable devices powered by Android Wear.

Huawei, LG, and Lenovo – three of the biggest Android Wear OEM partners – have all confirmed to CNET that they will not be launching any new AW-powered smartphone in what’s left of 2016.

LG is the only company among the three that has launched a smartwatch in 2016. Many would have expected to see new smartwatches from Lenovo and Huawei at IFA but fans kept waiting for a new Huawei Watch and a third-generation Moto 360 (Lenovo owns Motorola now).

Rumor has it that Google is going to launch Android Wear 2.0 in the fall this year and if that’s true, the company might scramble to find a manufacturer willing to work with it to have a smartwatch ready when the latest iteration of Android Wear arrives. There has even been speculation that Google might resort to building its own smartwatch under the Nexus brand.

Whether or not it ends up doing that remains to be seen.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: Android Wear, nexus, Smartwatches, Wearable Tech