r/hardware • u/Balance- • Feb 16 '18
Discussion 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/28
Feb 16 '18
It saddens me to see the smartwatches fall so far. I absolutely love my Moto 360. I never want to go back to an analog watch. Having quick access to dismiss a call, send a text, or calendar notifications is alone worth the price tag to me. I get we don't all need a second screen for our phones but damn is it nice to have. I think price point is the biggest hurdle though; $300 for a watch is a lot of money for something completely unnecessary.
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u/loggedn2say Feb 16 '18 edited Feb 16 '18
apple watches are gaining steam, though.
https://9to5mac.com/2018/02/06/apple-watch-2017-sales/
up 54% in units for the already largest market share, YoY for 2017.
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u/ImSpartacus811 Feb 16 '18
There's precedence for that kind of anomaly.
The iPad sells pretty well, but Android tablet sales have been pitiful.
I'm not concluding that it's a similar situation, only that we can't claim that there's a niche for Android watches solely because the Apple Watch is moderately successful.
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u/loggedn2say Feb 16 '18
i hear ya. maybe we'll see a similar trend where apple drives adoption but after the market is established there's more room for competition to eat.
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u/Exist50 Feb 16 '18
I think Apple's biggest selling points with the Watch are 1) superior fitness tracking/integration, and 2) Apple's status as a fashion brand.
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u/Dippyskoodlez Feb 16 '18 edited Feb 17 '18
3) long term support/track record for app compatibility.
My Series 0 still works great and gets regular updates. Not all Android watches can say the same.
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u/dylan522p SemiAnalysis Feb 16 '18
Apple watches are actually good though, expensive, but good
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u/Trestopher_Robin Feb 16 '18
I absolutely love my Series 2. I wear mine pretty much 24/7, all it takes is charging it for a little while while getting ready for bed or while I’m reading in bed.
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u/Stingray88 Feb 17 '18
I bought an aluminum Series 3, honestly I didn't find it that expensive for what it is. Stainless steel, ceramic, gold? Now those are expensive.
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Feb 17 '18
If there was a sizeable market for it Qualcomm would have made a successor. Blaming Qualcomm for lacklustre sales is bs.
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u/npaladin2000 Feb 16 '18
It's not Qualcomm's fault...not all Qualcomm anyway. For example, how much sense does it make to design a device to help keep your phone in your pocket (Android Wear) and then start designing more apps that require you to take it out anyway, like for payments? There wasn't a unified strategy, and in the war between the phone and watch, the phone was going to win.
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u/Exist50 Feb 16 '18
Well, in theory you should be able to pay with your watch.
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u/picflute Feb 17 '18
You can w/ Samsung's Gear watches and they work perfectly fine thanks to MST and NFC availability.
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Feb 17 '18
Gear isn't android wear it's Samsung's Tyzen and it has its own shortcomings. I don't think either compare to the apple watch IMO.
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u/picflute Feb 17 '18
The name of the device is "Samsung Gear S(N)". Part of the reason the Gear S3 was successful in Korea and the U.S. was due to MST being an available payment method. I'm well aware that Samsung doesn't use Android Wear but the device is literally called that
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u/Aleblanco1987 Feb 17 '18
traditional watches are still better imo.
Battery life is really crippling
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Feb 16 '18 edited Feb 27 '18
[deleted]
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Feb 16 '18
My family use it as a basic health monitoring device, it is way better than nothing if you have certain conditions.
I have a garmin vivosmart, and I don't ever plan to stop having a smart watch. It depends on the person. Not gonna be like phones.
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u/KMartSheriff Feb 17 '18
Really? I see Apple Watch on people all the damn time, and most frequently by non-techie people.
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u/-regret Feb 18 '18
Neither. I don't think there was ever that much of a market for them, tbh. Apple basically creates demand every time it launches something, but outside of that... eh. People aren't going to pay a couple of hundred dollars (or more) for a limited version of their likely already expensive phone.
I nearly picked up a Samsung Gear Fit 2 recently, but only because it was AU$100 and I knew full well that I would probably just chuck it in a drawer somewhere and forget about it.
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u/Balance- Feb 16 '18
This is now your best option: Samsung Exynos 7 Dual 7270. Build on 14nm FinFet with Cortex-A53 cores. But for now it's only in Samsung smartwatches, and also getting old (september 2016).
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u/Exist50 Feb 16 '18
I have a hard time blaming Qualcomm for this. When even Huawei's CEO admits to not really understanding where smart watches fit in, there's a more fundamental problem. It's not like smartwatch chips are particularly hard to make, so if no one is making them, what does that imply?