Qualcomm’s Feeling the Heat Over Wear OS Chips

There are a whole lot of the reason why Google’s Wear OS smartwatch platform has stagnated through the years, however a significant component was that almost all of its smartwatches had been working on outdated processors from Qualcomm. But now that Google and Samsung have partnered to construct a brand new platform—and Samsung’s new watches are rumored to function a beefy new processor—it looks like Qualcomm’s lastly feeling strain, saying it’ll “roll out new Snapdragon Wear platforms” within the subsequent 12 months.

The information comes through a press release saying the Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Program. Citing an elevated curiosity within the area, Qualcomm says it’s “significantly growing [its] investments in leading-edge ground-up silicon” and its accelerator program is supposed to assist wearable makers brainstorm ship a very good expertise, for much less cash and with sooner manufacturing occasions. More than 60 firms have purportedly signed on, together with Arm, Fossil, Mobvoi, Oppo, Verizon, and Vodafone.

Up till now, it’s been unclear what Qualcomm was planning on doing after Google and Samsung’s enormous announcement that they had been partnering on a brand new unified wearable platform. The new Wear OS is anticipated to reach subsequent month on two Samsung smartwatches, however as of but, there’s no clear timeline as to when present Wear OS watches may get an improve—in the event that they get one in any respect. (Google not too long ago up to date the present Wear OS’s Play Store, hinting it plans to assist the platform for some time but.) Meanwhile, Qualcomm’s messaging has been… muddled, to say the least.

One query is what Qualcomm means when it says it’s rolling out new platforms. If they’re referring to a brand new SoC, hoo boy. That doesn’t bode solely properly for its present Snapdragon Wear 4100/4100+ platform, which has so far been utilized in solely two smartwatches regardless of launching greater than a 12 months in the past. The Fossil Gen 6 will possible run on the 4100, because the group confirmed the watch would run on the brand new Wear OS, and yet one more flagship watch on the 3100 could be past ridiculous. Three smartwatches in a 12 months, earlier than pushing out a brand new SoC? That’s not fairly admitting failure, nevertheless it’s not far off.

It additionally paints a not-so-great image of Wear OS’s attain. Qualcomm says that over the previous 5 years, it’s shipped greater than 40 million items throughout 250 wearable merchandise. By comparability, Apple shipped 33.9 million Apple Watches in 2020 alone, a 19% enhance from the 12 months earlier than. It’s well-known that the Apple Watch is probably the most profitable smartwatch by gross sales, however this can be a stark illustration of how the hole with Android smartwatches has solely been widening.

There are positives to take from this. Even if the 4100 platform is in the end a flop, it’s a very good signal that Qualcomm is doing something in any respect. They dragged their toes, ready two years to replace the 2100 to the 3100—and even then they had been utilizing extremely outdated tech. The 4100 was a major leap from the 3100, however even that’s working on tech that was first launched greater than 5 years in the past. We’ll must see what comes subsequent, as Qualcomm hasn’t impressed on this area for a very long time and Samsung has already thrown down the gauntlet with a rumored 5nm Exynos chip. However, it’s a minimum of an encouraging signal that everybody is conscious that this new Wear OS is a important alternative that shouldn’t be wasted.