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It looks like LG, Motorola and Huawei are jumping off the Android Wear train for this year

Android Wear is over two years old at this point, but the platform has yet to resonate significantly with consumers. And what’s next for it does not seem to be particularly enticing either, at least judging from the reactions of major OEMs like LG, Motorola and Huawei

According to various spokespersons in contact with CNET, in fact, none of them seem particularly interested in picking up the slack and doubling down on their previous efforts, mainly blaming the generally scarce maturity of the market as a reason for not putting the effort into Google’s platform for wearables.

Whereas Apple just announced its Series 2 Apple Watch and Samsung is ready to ship its own Tizen-powered Gear S3 timepiece, only a few OEMs are coming up with Android Wear options, such as Asus and its ZenWatch 3 and Nixon’s sport-oriented Mission. There seems, basically, no “flagship” smartwatch on the horizon, one to truly go up against the competition and flex Wear 2.0’s muscle.

As for LG — which released its Urbane Watch 2nd Edition LTE earlier this year — it looks like they are not committed to a follow up, and would rather “see what sticks”, as per the firm’s Ken Hong. But worse is Motorola and Huawei’s situation, with both over a year from replenishing stores’ shelves with a new watch.

“One of the things we see in the future is connected [cellular] watches, and our opinion is that while it’s technically feasible, the trade-offs on the product itself means we’re not quite ready yet,” a spokeswoman for Motorola told CNET. Huawei, on the other hand, is hiding behind a shady wait for “components to shrink and for the processor to gain efficiency” before launching a successor to their watch.

However, for Android Wear enthusiasts, not all hope seems to be lost. Google’s recent efforts in the hardware space under the newly formed division led by ex-Motorola COO Rick Osterloh are about to fall into place come the company’s October 4 event, where among a slew of other devices we could see the two rumored Google-made watches.

While not specifically mentioned in the rumors surrounding the event, the so-codenamed Angelfish and Swordfish are indeed real products, and it looks like Google is still looking forward to launching them by the end of the year — likely to both balance the lack of third part offering and indeed reinforce its status as a legit new player in the hardware space, not just smartphone-wise.

We will cover the event extensively, so be sure to mark your calendar and tune in when the time comes. But in the meantime, tell us what you think: do you like the Android Wear platform, and are you excited to see Google‘s own take on it? Fire up your keyboard in the comment section below.

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Avatar for Edoardo Maggio Edoardo Maggio

Italian. Tech geek, video games, photography and music lover, comics-based movies enthusiast, and a sucker for good design. Amateur photographer (VSCO, 500px), writer and reporter for 9to5Google.


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