Sony Not Using Android Wear for Its Own SmartWatches

As recent rumors have suggested, Sony is not going to be one of the Android Wear’s OEM partners, at least not in the future. The head of US mobile operations Ravi Nookala confirmed in a recent interview that they would continue in using the Android-based OS that it is currently powering its SmartWatch and SmartWatch 2, instead of switching to Android Wear, Google’s new platform for smart wearable devices.

As you already know, Android Wear has already been revealed to power the wearable smartwatches of two major Android OEMs, Motorola, and LG. In the same time, others, which include Samsung as well, are also listed as future partners.

Initially, Sony was considered to be a part of that list too, but now, along with Nookala’s statement, we know the reason why the manufacturer has bailed out. The mobile operations head suggested the fact that the company invested too much in its own platform and they want to continue on the same path instead of trying something new.

This also means the fact that Sony does not want to ruin the developers’ work and effort on the SmartWatch SDK. In the same time, as confirmed by many users and developers, it appears that Sony’s Android SmartWatch OS may bring more autonomy than the actual Android Wear, autonomy mostly related to notifications from Smartphone applications and less about the running standalone software.

At this point, it appears that Sony has sold tons of its own SmartWatches, more precisely fewer than two million units for all of 2013, which put them into a different category, which includes the Pebble, which was sold around 400,000 units in the first year of availability.

This also means that the customers should not feel abandoned, since Sony is doing their best in order to provide a smooth experience for its Smartphone users. In the same time, the company has invested high amounts of money for their own developments, which might represent an important factor in respect to this issue.

However, the fact that Sony is not planning to use Android Wear for its line of SmartWatches for the moment does not mean that the company will never use this technology. Perhaps, in the future, Sony will decide that Android Wear is a smart choice for their own wearable line of devices.