Is consumer interest in smartwatches on the decline?
Is consumer interest in smartwatches on the decline?
It looks like all the hype over smartwatches might be slowly dwindling.
So far, no company seems to be able to figure out what to do next to advance the smart wearable watch world.
Over two years ago, Android Wear was introduced, and the Moto 360 created a lot of buzz with its cool design and round LCD face. Last year, Motorola produced the second generation Moto 360, but moving forward to this year, Motorola didn’t release any newer version, and has stated they have no plans to release a new Moto 360.
See Also: Will hybrid smartwatches prove a more tempting solution to customers?
Shakil Barkat, Motorola’s head of global product development, explains, “We believe the wrist still has value,” but he doesn’t plan to produce a new Moto 360. He goes on to state that Motorola is not closed down completely when it comes to building smartwatches, but it has not seen enough interest in them to warrant further investment. Having been one of the biggest fans of Android Wear, backing out of the smartwatch industry says a lot.
Google’s Android Wear platform has also been stumbling lately, having postponed the Wear 2.0 software update for several months. It was originally supposed to be introduced in the fall of this year, but it has been pushed forward so that Google can fix some issues it noticed after bad feedback from its beta testers.
Even Apple is at a loss
Along with all this, Apple, with its large following of loyal customers, has also been struggling with smartwatches. Sales have declined with the newest generation of Apple Watches, which took a long time to be produced in the first place, yet are almost identical to the first version.
Google might be working on in-house watches to introduce alongside Wear 2.0 that might offer something new and different. Perhaps this will rekindle interest and convince people that smartwatches are worthwhile. We will have to wait and see.
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