Will they, won’t they? HTC was named as a hardware partner when Google first launched the platform all the way back in March, alongside Asus, LG, Motorola and Samsung but while the others have at least announced their smartwatch, HTC has so far remained quiet on their plans. That has now changed with Jason Mackenzie and Drew Bamford from HTC America talking to Re/Code about their plans.
HTC is definitely working on a wearable, that much is now clear, despite rumours to the contrary.Mr Mackenzie, the head of HTC America, said
We had originally planned to have a wearable launch in this time frame, It ended up just not being ready.
The HTC wearable is apparently coming, with plans to be made public at some stage next year. It seems that the delay is due to a lack of feature set, which Drew Bamford, head of HTC Creative Labs team outlining both the reason for the delay and their plans for creating a watch with more functions.
We’ve seen a lot of general purpose wearables come to market. There’s not a strong reason to wear one every day. When we come to market with our product we want to make sure the product has a strong point of view and there is a really compelling reason to strap it on your wrist.We think the strategy we were working on will get us there, but we want to take our time and get it right. We honestly don’t think anyone has gotten it right.
So, if you’re in the market for an Android Wear device but nothing appeals as yet, HTC may have something that adds a little more feature wise, and given HTC’s design chops, looks a little better. We’ll find out more early next year.
Maybe Next Year will be when I will play with Gear. A second or third round of hardware, a few updates to the software.
Maybe Next Year will be when I will play with Gear. A second or third round of hardware, a few updates to the software.