HTC plans to release a wearable later this year, good chance it could be a smartwatch
HTC Watch concept
Seems like everyone wants a piece of the budding wearables market. Look no further than last month’s CES where we saw just about every manufacturer under the sun showing off the latest tech trend in some form or another. But sitting amongst all the Fitbits and Pebbles, we might soon find an HTC smartwatch on store shelves.
This latest bit of news comes from a Bloomberg interview with HTC’s Cher Wang. In the interview, Wang casually mentions HTC may have addressed common “consumer-centric problems facing the segment today, namely, LCD lighting and battery life. Although the word smartwatch wasn’t specifically uttered, HTC did mention they would were planning on releasing some kind of wearable before the end of the year. This echos a similar statement made by HTC CEO Peter Chou back in October, in which he called wearables a “critical segment” for his company.
Despite a lackluster 2013, HTC remains optimistic about 2014. Wang mentioned HTC’s renewed focus on marketing, admitting that in the past, the company never placed too much importance when it came to advertising their products to consumers (despite signing a $12 million contract with Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr.). Let’s hope they put his talents to better use this year.
[via The Verge | Concept images by Hasan Kaymak]