HTC Shuts Down Rumors Of An Android Wear Smartwatch

Some leaked pictures have been circulating online this week of what appears to be a prototype smartwatch developed jointly by HTC and Under Armour. The images made it evident that this smartwatch was running Android Wear which led many to believe that it was currently in the pipeline and could be announced later this year. HTC has now categorically denied that it’s working on a new smartwatch, at least at this point in time.

This was first confirmed by HTC’s President of Smartphones and Connected Devices Chialin Chang to Tbreak, when asked if the smartwatch was the real deal, the high-level HTC executive replied: “we’re not going to have an Android watch.”

The executive’s quote has been making the rounds online today so the folks over at AndroidPolice reached out to the company for clarity. They also received a confirmation that the quote is correct and that the company is not going to be releasing an Android Wear-powered smartwatch in the near future.

The scribe also mentions that the pictures we’ve been seeing these past few days are actually of a very old prototype and that it’s not a product that the company is working on right now. It’s quite likely that a former HTC employee who worked on this project is just circulating the images for laughs, or perhaps someone found a prototype somewhere and thought it was the real deal. Anything’s possible.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: Android Wear, HTC, wearable devices