Android Wear vs China
The Huawei Watch, a gorgeous round smartwatch outed at MWC back in February, is delayed until September or October.
As reported by Want China Times, He Gang, head of Huawei’s smartphone division, said the smartwatch is scheduled for a September release at the earliest and that the Watch is being optimised for the Chinese market.
Read this: Everything we need to know about the Huawei Watch
Why? Well, we should have known there would be trouble. The Huawei Watch is a high end, compact Android Wear watch and Huawei is a Chinese smartphone company which will understandably want to sell its first smartwatch there. But Google services, including Android Wear, can’t be used in China. Yep, there’s the rub.
Wearables on sale in China already include Xiaomi’s bargain Mi Band fitness tracker and the Apple Watch. But, for instance, when now Lenovo-owned Motorola took its wares, including the Moto X and Moto Hint earbud, to China it didn’t take the Moto 360 along with it.
Android smartphones are also on sale in China but as the mobile OS is more open, it relies less on Google’s services and allows manufacturers such as Huawei to add their own skins. Not so on Android Wear – no skins and good luck using an Android Wear smartwatch without using Google search, Google Now or Google Voice. The version of the Huawei Watch that goes on sale in China then could be a very different device.
The point remains that Huawei could just release the Watch outside China, running Android Wear – China wasn’t included in the first batch of countries to get availability as announced at MWC.
If it waits until September or October, it might be too late. A Moto 360 2 is due any day and more worryingly Samsung has been making preparations for its first round smartwatch, the Gear A.
