“As Apple Inc. prepares to release its much-heralded smartwatch, rival gadget makers are racing to upgrade their own devices to ward off market-share losses,” Olga Kharif reports for Bloomberg.
“With Apple expected to commandeer sales among its iOS-using crowd, the competition for Android users is heating up,” Kharif reports. “Withings Inc., maker of the Activité watches that work with iOS phones, is releasing new software this week that will make the devices compatible with Android phones. Rival Pebble debuted a new watch last week, while Motorola is pouring money into its Moto 360, a watch based on Google Inc.’s Android Wear operating system.”
MacDailyNews Take: It figures that Lenovo (Motorola) is pouring money into a stupidwatch that’s the wrong shape. Lists works on square displays, not round.
“‘We intend to continue to spend heavily in this space,’ Rick Osterloh, president of Motorola Mobility, said in an interview,” Kharif reports. “While the smartwatch market is relatively tiny — at $130 million last year in developed countries, according to Analysys Mason — Apple could catapult the business as it did in the mobile and music industries with its ubiquitous iPhone and iPod. Sales of smartwatches this year may surge 28-fold to $3.6 billion, said Enrique Velasco-Castillo, an analyst in London at Analysys Mason. Apple will rapidly gain dominance, he said.”
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