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Android may be the world’s most popular operating system and command the highest share of the smartphone market, but it does not guarantee continued success. In addition to many once-and-miss flops like the Essential, Red, and (so far) new Palm phones, the once-acclaimed HTC has released its latest flagship in 2018. . And last year, another feature phone survivor, Kyocera, which focused on rugged smartphones, withdrew from the market. And it was recently introduced by Bullitt Group, which made rugged smartphones under the Motorola and Caterpillar brands.
digging into the fossil record
However, the situation is even more difficult for devices other than smartphones. The recent news that Fossil Group is withdrawing from its Wear OS market is a big loss for Android-based smartwatches. The company has been researching high-tech watches since the late 1990s when it licensed Palm OS for the WristPDA. And in the mid-2000s he released several products under his Abacus brand called MSN Direct, using his FM-based SPOT (Smart Personal Objects Technology) from Microsoft. Receive wireless updates all day long about news, stocks and other information. . Since signing the deal to offer Wear OS watches, the company’s hundreds of retail stores have provided a way for consumers to see Wear OS watches first-hand. In addition to products bearing the Fossil and Skagen brands, the company also produced watches for a variety of fashion and sportswear brands, including Diesel, Puma, Michael Kors, Tory Burch, Kate Spade, and Armani Exchange.
Fossil’s withdrawal announcement didn’t say anything about hybrid smartwatches that don’t use Wear OS, so it may not be abandoning smartwatches completely. That would keep it in an area that its main competitor, the Swatch Group, has steadfastly avoided since the category’s creation. However, when it comes to Wear OS withdrawal, the leading theory behind Fossil’s call for withdrawal goes back to Google’s partnership with Samsung on Wear OS 3 in 2021. This was to induce major Android device manufacturers to discontinue Tizen as their smartwatch OS.
Can Android find a way to succeed beyond smartphones?
Wear OS’s struggles are consistent with other Android efforts to expand beyond smartphones. In the most closely related device space, tablets, Lenovo and Samsung are the only PC companies with a portfolio of Google-enabled Android tablets, while other companies that entered the market years ago have moved on to Chromebooks. However, other brands such as TCL, Xiaomi, and OnePlus are still grappling with the issue. There was at least some good news for Google TV. The company gained support for his TCL from Roku after years of use primarily with Sony TVs and his Nvidia Shield TV devices.
Not all of Android’s losses are Apple’s wins, but Android’s rocky path beyond smartphones stands in contrast to Apple’s hits with the iPad and Apple Watch, which dominate the category. While smartwatches are growing in popularity, the Apple Watch’s market dominance over Wear OS is reminiscent of when the iPod topped the portable music category. By the time the last iPod not based on iOS hit the market, competitors like Creative, RCA, iRiver, and Microsoft had all left. (However, Western Digital still sells some variations of the basic Sandisk Sansa Clip music player, and Sony has an enhanced Walkman. A little more upscale at $3,699. )
With the departure of Fossil Group, the future of Wear OS rests primarily on the shoulders of three companies: Google, Samsung, and Qualcomm. It’s the same trio that came together a year ago to share that they were collaborating on next-generation XR devices after the announcement of Apple Vision Pro. Now that Apple devices are here, Android will soon face its next and long-term most important test: what it can offer beyond smartphones.
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