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Android Wear Devices won’t be iOS or Mac compatible this year

android-wear-moto-360-100388314-orig

Google invited us to check out their new line of Nexus products running Lollipop earlier today.   The Motorola Nexus 6 is about the size of the iPhone 6 Plus with a slightly bigger screen and thicker/heavier profile. On the other hand, the HTC Nexus 9 is smaller than the iPad Air with a 9-inch display and stereo speakers. Both run Android 5.0 Lollipop which has a new Material Design. The new products will go up against Apple’s iOS devices for global electronics consumers’ holiday shopping money.

However, one set of devices won’t be competing for Apple users’ shopping dollars. An Android Wear project manager told me that there were no current plans to make Android Wear compatible with iOS but that they were continuing to evaluate other platforms because they wanted to get Wear devices into as many hands as they could. When I pressed and said something to the effect of “if ever there was a time to sell these to Apple users, it was the holiday season before the Apple Watch is released”, the product manager said something akin to  “Our Christmas lineup of announcements is set and over”.

On one hand, it doesn’t seem like it would be that hard. After all, Google eventually got Google Glass to work on iOS devices.

Microsoft, on the other hand, just announced its new Fitness Band which will work with Android, iOS and of course Windows Phones.

Macworld today suggested that you take a $99 Pebble for a spin to see if it could act as a smartphone gateway drug until users get their Apple Watch fix next year. 

I will say that if you are contemplating getting an Android Wear device, the only one worth your time is the Moto 360. Most of you will obviously be better off waiting however.

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Comments

  1. aeronperyton - 9 years ago

    I’ll try to contain my disappointment.

  2. Oflife - 9 years ago

    It’s far worse that Apple are not making the Apple Watch work with other platforms, such as Android. That single flaw, which is totally unnecessary due to industry standards (Bluetooth, iCal etc), is why I won’t be buying one, despite believing it to be outstanding from a usability angle. On the other hand, Apple users are far more happy with an Apple ecosystem so probably won’t care about Android Wear devices not working with their iPhones.

    • iTunes, iPods used to be Mac only. They change it once it gets mainstream.

      • lagax - 9 years ago

        That’s a terrible Exemple. And the Apple Watch will never be compatible with Android. It’s that. It was logical, everyone knows it and knew it that an Apple SmartWatch will never be compatible with Android devices. They’re not putting iTunes on Android, too. It’s Just on windows to get more users for the iPod/iPhone. The watch is something completely different.

  3. james0328 - 9 years ago

    As if I want to strap a 2010 chip on my wrist

  4. Silence Dogood - 9 years ago

    Android Wear running Lollipop… Suckers!!!…

  5. Nycko Heimberg - 9 years ago

    It’s not necessary to take users for idiots!
    The watch Peeble, works on iOs and Android….
    It would Be terrible for Apple, to accept watches Android Wear….
    Watch Android Wear received an update recently…
    Functional GPS
    Functional reading Mp3 for example….
    Almost autonomous!
    No need of the iPhone for the sport.
    GPS and MP3 player in the watch.

  6. puri517 - 9 years ago

    SETH WEINTRAUB, why you tell me this information? I want know the news only about Macs, etc.

  7. Laird Popkin - 9 years ago

    There’s no fundamental reason that Android Wear’s basic functionality can’t run anywhere that Google Now runs. The watch apps are more complex – they’re basically tiny Android apps that run on the phone, using the watch as a display, so for the apps to run on iOS would require developers to build equivalent tiny iOS apps to distribute in parallel.

    Apple Watch apps are basically the same idea – tiny iOS apps that run on the phone, using the watch as a display.

    My guess is that typically iOS owners will buy Apple Watch, and Android users will buy Android Wear, and both Apple and Google prefer things that way (tight integration = best functionality) so the demand for cross-platform Android Wear will fade away once Apple Watch ships.

    Pebble provides cross-platform development by allowing Pebble apps to be written in JavaScript, which runs on all phones the same way. Of course, developers who want to do things that JavaScript can’t, such as have a phone GUI, can develop iOS and Android native apps that talk to Pebble’s APIs.

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Avatar for Seth Weintraub Seth Weintraub

Publisher and Editorial Director of the 9to5/Electrek sites.


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