HTC confirms smartwatch was delayed, says other OEMs have yet to get it ‘right’
Word of HTC’s plans to launch a smartwatch in 2014 have been circulating around the net for awhile now, ever since HTC CEO Peter Chou made public his interest in the wearables market back in 2013. Since then, the general consensus was that HTC was looking to release an Android Wear powered smartwatch sometime around August of this year, only to later learn the project had been scrapped, then back on again but with a new launch date: 2015 (around the same time as the Apple Watch).
We’ve oft wondered ourselves how legit these rumors may have been and if you needed any further confirmation look no further than HTC’s US President Jason Mackenzie who was quoted in an interview with Re/code as saying:
“We had originally planned to have a wearable launch in this time frame. It ended up just not being ready.”
So what went wrong? Why did HTC decide to postpone a smartwatch of their own? Well, HTC Creative Labs lead Drew Bamford helped shed some light on the topic saying:
“When we come to market with our product we want to make sure the product has a strong point of view and there is a really compelling reason to strap it on your wrist. We honestly don’t think anyone has gotten it right.”
Sometimes pulling back and seeing how the market responds to new tech is the safest move and when it comes to HTC, they really can’t afford to make any more mistakes. Focusing on their bread and butter (smartphones) before looking to new ventures makes perfect sense to us, especially given the current crop of smartwatches/wearables have all left us wanting in some regard. We look forward to seeing what HTC and their talented group of designers can come up with.