Tuesday, September 2, 2014

ZTE hard at work on basic-looking smartwatch, New York intro possible

A fairly surprising name that could join the Android Wear arena soon is ZTE, with the Chinese possibly exploring a dirt-cheap sequel for the little known BlueWatch, unveiled back at CES 2014 and forgotten once the Las Vegas show wrapped up.



When Google first dropped the Android Wear bombshell, with much fanfare and little warning, the search giant took the time to lay out some short-term future plans for the smartwatch platform.

Though only LG and Motorola came forward with product announcements, the list of Google partners also included Asus, HTC and Samsung, plus component suppliers Broadcom, Intel, MediaTek, Imagination Technologies and Qualcomm.

No traces of China-based up-and-comers such as Huawei, ZTE or Oppo, and so we figured they needed to wait a little longer to get an invitation for the privileged program. Only Tenaa, the local equivalent for America’s FCC, just exposed an imminent ZTE intelligent timepiece.

No way to tell just yet if the gizmo runs Android Wear, or some kind of proprietary, watered down operating system, but through the powers of deduction, we think we’ve discovered the when and where of the mysterious smartwatch’s public debut.



Mere hours before the Tenaa certification came to light, ZTE put together a short, cryptic Vine video to build hype around its “next hot thing”, due for an introduction on the 16th in New York City. Does the timing strike you as a coincidence? Then you’re awfully naïve.

Besides, since when does ZTE hold glamorous NYC press events to unveil new products? Bing bing bing, since they got serious about their wearable prospects.

The only detail that doesn’t tie in with the rest of the speculation is the actual design of BlueWatch’s follow-up. According to a fairly straightforward internal Tenaa photo, the wristwatch looks decidedly, well, rudimentary and fugly, with a chintzy plastic vibe all over it, tiny square display, neat little home button but an overall disgustingly cheap feel. Well, maybe it’ll be appropriately low priced.

Or maybe, just maybe the pic is part of a conspiracy orchestrated by ZTE to throw us off the scent of the real, advanced, premium Android Wear device. It sounds like a stretch, but darn it, let us dream.

Sources: Gizchina , Vine



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