Sony won't use Android Wear, will stick with Smartwatch
The head of Sony Mobile's US arm also tells CNET that sales of its Xperia Z1s has exceeded expectations at T-Mobile. — Sony's SmartWatch 2. — Sarah Tew/CNET — ATLANTA—Sony will continue to strike its own path when it comes to its wearable products.
Context & Ripple Effects
Sony’s wearable strategy began with the launch of its first Android-powered SmartWatch and expanded in the U.S. with the SmartWatch 2 launch alongside Xperia phones. The March decision preserves that separate product path rather than adopting Android Wear.
That choice matters because the SmartWatch 2’s design had drawn praise while its software was criticized as frustrating and clumsy. Sony is retaining control over the layer identified as its clearest product weakness.
First-order effects
- Sony Mobile will keep developing SmartWatch software and product features independently instead of aligning its wearables with Android Wear.
- SmartWatch buyers remain tied to Sony’s own wearable experience, making improvements to the software central to Sony’s product proposition.
Second-order effects
- Android Wear loses Sony as an immediate device partner, while Sony assumes the full burden of matching the wearable software experience offered by a shared platform.
- Sony’s smartwatch team must direct its own development resources toward fixing the software shortcomings identified in coverage of SmartWatch 2 rather than relying on Android Wear.
Third-order effects
- The decision is an early test of whether a phone maker can differentiate wearables through end-to-end ownership when software quality, rather than hardware design, is the limiting factor.
- If more device makers choose proprietary wearable stacks, the market may divide between platform-led watches and manufacturer-controlled products rather than converge on one Android-based experience.
The trend: Wearables are becoming a contest between shared software platforms and manufacturers that want to retain ownership of the device experience.