It has been a rather quiet year for Android Wear smartwatches this year, with companies like Lenovo, Huawei and LG confirming that they won’t be releasing smartwatches for 2016. Apart from ASUS, the last time these manufacturers released a smartwatch was back in 2015. The Huawei watch has received quite a number of positive reviews from consumers, mostly surrounding its design language. However, a report tells us that Huawei might be hopping over to Samsung’s Tizen OS for a new smartwatch.
According to a report by The Korea Herald, Huawei has apparently been in collaboration with Samsung for its new smartwatches. A Samsung official has claimed that Google hasn’t been the most cooperative, hence the decision to scout for an alternative OS apart from Android. Samsung has launched its latest Gear S3 Tizen smartwatch not too long ago at IFA 2016, and it stood out among the rest of the fitness wearables and Android Wear smartwatches which were mostly by designer brands.
The crawling pace of a development for Android Wear 2.0 might also be one of the reasons why Huawei has been rumored to be jumping ship over to Samsung’s own wearable OS. Android Wear 2.0 has had its Developer Preview rolled out for quite some time now, with Google showing no sign of making the software official to Android Wear users. Having said that, Tizen OS happens to be an open source platform, meaning that Huawei need not work with Samsung officially if the company wants Tizen OS operating its upcoming smartwatches since both companies happen to be rivals when it comes to Android handsets.
The above rumors could also be the reasons as to why Huawei won’t be launching any Android Wear product this year. It looks like the company has been busy working behind the scenes with the possiblity of opting out from Google’s Android Wear ecosystem. What do you think?
Source: The Korea Herald
