When Android Wear launched back in March, the platform initially saw a number of OEMs – Asus, Samsung, HTC, LG and Motorola – announce they would be providing hardware for the platform. But not all Open Handset Alliance members jumped on boardm, Sony announced soon after that they would continue to concentrate on their own Smartwatch platform rather than going with Android Wear, but that is about to change with the Smartwatch 3 if rumours are to be believed.
The new Sony Smartwatch 3, which Sony teased last week, is expected to be launched this week at IFA with a rather big surprise – it’s rumoured to be running Android Wear. 9to5Google have advised that Sony will release the Android Wear watch, with a 1.68-inch 320×320 display, with an IP58 certification – meaning it’s the most waterproof Android Wear watch yet.
That’s about it for Android Wear from Sony, but there are rumours of an updated Smartband called the Smartband Talk, which will be an updated version of the SmartBand (SWR10) which Sony launched earlier this year. The Smartband Talk will again connect via Bluetooth, but will this time include a curved e-ink display – obviously Sony looking to preserve battery life, which was fairly good on the original Smartband.
There’s going to be a fair bit from Sony this week, with a complete line of Xperia Z3 products including the Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3 Compact and Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact expected to be announced. We’ll let you know what happens at IFA, stay tuned.
As I tried to point out in a post just over a day ago that is still ‘pending’ Sony has not been announced as an Android Wear Partner. It would be unusual for a behind closed doors/unannounced partner to exist. I hope the unusual is the case here but I wouldn’t bet on it.
On a separate note if any disqus comment on Ausdroid with a link included automatically goes to pending maybe you should review and accept useful posts quicker. This has been an ongoing problem at this site.
Hopefully this is true but I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be a rumour, Sony is after all the biggest lover of proprietary standards in tech, how’s beta max going for you Sony?
Their ‘Timescape UI’ on the Sony Xperia phones is one of the closest to stock Android/AOSP, so I could see them going for this and putting the focus on the water/dust resistance aspect of the hardware instead of the software.
Except that completely ignores their entire past history of shooting themselves in the foot by sticking with their proprietary standards and failing to adopt open standards early enough. However, as a Xperia Z1 Compact owner and somebody who really wants Android smartwatches to develop at a rapid pace I hope I’m wrong.
I prefer Bluray over HDDVD. How about you?
Point taken. Although that was not a sole Sony standard. How is SACD going for Sony?
Blu-ray is not a proprietary standard in the same sense of sole Sony standards like betamax and SACD.