With the LG’s Watch Urbane 2nd Edition heading to market, we were somewhat confident that LTE support was headed to the Android Wear platform. We can now shift from confident to outright confirmed, with Google announcing on the Android Blog that LTE support is officially coming to Android Wear.
Future devices will now be able to incorporate Bluetooth, WiFi and LTE connectivity to ensure that your beloved Android Wear device is always connected. If you are the type to leave your phone behind, either intentionally or unintentionally this additional option could be welcome. At present only the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition is confirmed as having LTE capability included.
What will be interesting to see is how carriers – both at home and abroad – will price companion sims for such devices. It is all well and good to have optional LTE sim support in your watch, however, if the simple privilege of having an additional sim cost too much consumer adoption may not be there. We’ve taken a quick look at what the 3 major carriers offer in Australia.
Optus offer Sim only plans that start from $10 per month and include 1 GB of additional data and pooling of data across your plans.
Telstra offer a Data sharing sim starting at $5 per month with 0 GB -yes 0 GB not a typo – of additional data and pooling across your account.
Vodafone offer Sim only plans that start from $10 per month and include 1 GB of additional data and pooling of data across your plans.
With many users now having multiple LTE capable devices it may be time for carriers to rethink their shared Sim strategy.
Data access issues aside the continued feature growth of the Android Wear platform is certainly welcome, and with recent teardowns of current gen Android Wear hardware finding speakers included it shouldn’t be long until we can live the Dick Tracey future and take calls from our Android Wear watches, why I’d want too is a different story.
Are you excited for LTE support in Android Wear? Let us know why in the comments below.
Why? Battery life is woeful as it is. Add cellular to the mix and it won’t be worth talking about. Going down the wrong path, me thinks.
Won’t anyone think of the battery life? *sobs* A smart watch with Bluetooth, LTE, GPS and an always on display should last… ohhh, I don’t know, 20 minutes or so?
On Optus you can just pay $5 outright for a data sharing sim that shares the data allocated to your current phone plan. That’s how I’ve got my N7 setup since I barely use it, but it’s handy to have while travelling.
I was going to say the same thing. I have 5 devices, including my phone, on the same Optus BYO plan, all sharing the data. The Urbane 2 appears to have voice call capability too, something not supported on the $5 data sims from Optus though.