Google is renaming its Android Wear software as “Wear OS”.
It claims the new name reflects the technology, vision and the people who wear its watches. “We’re now Wear OS by Google, a wearables operating system for everyone,” says the firm.
Customers will begin seeing the new name and branding on their watch and phone app over the next few weeks. Google also revealed an interesting data point: in 2017, one out of three new Android Wear watch owners used an iPhone.
Android Wear, or Wear OS, appears to have been stagnating lately: Apple and Samsung are the only two games in town that matter and only Apple’s watches seem to be selling well.
Following the initial wave, fewer Wear OS-powered new devices have been hitting the market in the past two years. On top of that, there don’t seem to be any competitive smartwatch chips from Qualcomm on the horizon.
Writing for Ars Technica two months ago, Ron Amadeo noted that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100 system-on-a-chip recently celebrated two years “as the least awful smartwatch” chip vendors can use in an Android OS device.
Worse, it doesn’t seem like Android fans are getting a new smartwatch chip anytime soon.
So, which name sounds better to your ears, watchOS or Wear OS?
Let us know in the comments!