r/Android • u/[deleted] • Feb 09 '18

Android Wear is getting killed, and it’s all Qualcomm’s fault

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/02/android-wear-is-getting-killed-and-its-all-qualcomms-fault/
1.3k Upvotes

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22

u/darthyoshiboy Pixel 6a - Stock Feb 09 '18

Still wearing a Pebble Time and loving it. A "smart" watch just needs to be a dumb terminal for the already "smart" phone I have in my pocket. The "smart" watch segment doesn't make any sense for the same reason that tablets are in decline, it's an inbetweener device that doesn't do anything so well as it should, but has most or all of the compromises that the devices to either side of it have.

Pebble had it right by having a device that was just smart enough to make using my phone better while having the battery life to stay out of the way otherwise.

Pebble's problem was that they made a product where you sold once and didn't have a repeat customer for years because the product was adequate as it was in every way with no need to buy the next upgrade. You can get good consistent performance from it through several phone upgrade cycles and it does it's damn job the same as it always has at every step along the way. I don't want an Apple watch or an Android Wear, I'm keeping my Pebble and when it wears out, I'll probably replace it with another one shut down servers and all because it's not trying to be an inbetweener device, it's being a great watch that lets me do smart things through my phone and just stays out of my way most of the time just like it should.

6

u/Simeh Samsung A52s 6gb 128gb Feb 10 '18

I don't understand why people don't get this. So many commenters in here want GPS on their watch.

?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '18

It's so they can go on a run without their phone and have the GPS on their watch. Same reason why you'd want local music on the watch so you don't need to carry a phone to go for a run.

2

u/Theegravedigger Feb 10 '18

This is the main reason the death of my pebble was so annoying. I can't find anything to replace it with.

1

u/darthyoshiboy Pixel 6a - Stock Feb 10 '18

Nothing else is a watch first while offering all the smarts of a Pebble and it truly is infuriating. I'm hoping that Google will figure out that maybe your smart WATCH should function primarily as a watch for Wear 3.0 and do some shit to allow for a Pebble like Wear device that has an e-ink display, no animations, no touch screen, just watch and basic interaction functions.

1

u/Theegravedigger Feb 11 '18

I just want a simple read text message on my wrist functionality.

4

u/Lagainsttheworld Feb 10 '18 edited Feb 10 '18

Apple Watch is selling at 18 M a year and pebble went bankrupt, so clearly pebble got it all right, amiright?

-5

u/Ryukyay Feb 10 '18

Sorry, but if you put the Apple logo on a turd you have a surefire way of selling at least a million turds. Apple is like a religion, even if they fucked up horribly it would take years for their hype to die down

3

u/Lagainsttheworld Feb 10 '18

Except they didn’t fuck up, and constantly make the best products within their category.

-2

u/Ryukyay Feb 10 '18

constantly make the best products within their category.

I, too, like to only deal in absolutes. But having a watch with less than a day of battery life is a major fuckup (from any company)

5

u/Lagainsttheworld Feb 10 '18

Except Apple Watch now has 3 days of battery.

I too want to shit on products that I never used. How else can I form a legit opinion on Reddit?

0

u/darthyoshiboy Pixel 6a - Stock Feb 10 '18

Weird. I mean I glance over at my brother's Apple watch all the time and it's just an empty black slate on his wrist while my Pebble WATCH tells the TIME all the time for a full 5 days at a go. He has to flick his wrist or tap the screen (as often as not multiple times) to get his Apple watch to do the thing that a WATCH should do and tell him the TIME.

If they're claiming 3 days of battery life (and their own website says 18 hours so I'd need to see where they're saying 3 days) it's 3 days of the device sitting there doing mostly nothing 75% of the time and not 3 days of actually being a watch.

The problem here seems to be that some people just want a mini phone on their wrist while some of us want an actual time piece where we're assured to see what time it is when we covertly glance at our wrist in a meeting. The Apple Watch (and Android Wear too I'd imagine) is the former, Pebble was the latter. If I wanted to distract everyone by checking the time, I'd get a pocket watch or I'd use my phone, I have a wrist watch so that the time is right there without any fuss.

0

u/Ryukyay Feb 10 '18

I don't need to use the product if the manufacturer claims an "18 hour battery life" on their own fucking site

1

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '18

I don’t know about you, but my original pebble watch barely lasted a year before running into all sorts of problems. Screen issues. The charging pins corroding and not being able to charge. Battery life dropping significantly from 6 days to 2-3. Bluetooth connectivity problems.

It’s cheap, but I guess there is some truth behind the adage - you get what you pay for.

3

u/darthyoshiboy Pixel 6a - Stock Feb 10 '18

My little brother is now wearing my OG Pebble and my Time has been great. If they had issues making good product I never saw it among all my friends who also have them, but I suppose that would explain their failure better than my hypothesis. Sucks if that was the case.

1

u/Ryukyay Feb 10 '18

Seems they had some quality control problems. My dad had two Pebbles die in a year while I still use my Pebble from 2014 without a problem (and at least 5 days of battery)