It looks like Qualcomm is finally ready to launch its next-generation wearable platform for WearOS smartwatches. The company has sent out invites for a launch event on September 10, with tagline “It’s Time” accompanied by the image of a watch.
Qualcomm had already previously confirmed that it was working on a wearable chipset with a more power efficient design.
Qualcomm’s last chip for wearables was the Wear2100 which had launched back in 2016. Since then, Qualcomm has not made any improvements to this chip or announced a newer version of it which has led to WearOS smartwatches suffering from poor battery life and performance issues.
Hmmm. Just got a save-the-date from Qualcomm. Wonder what's happening September 10? pic.twitter.com/HVeJrVSo2k
— Michael Fisher (@Captain2Phones) August 7, 2018
This new wearable chip from Qualcomm has been designed from the “ground up for a no-compromises” smartwatch experience. There will also be dedicated chips for specific tasks so as to save battery life and offer an enhanced fitness tracking experience.
Qualcomm is expected to unveil multiple variants of the chip to suit a wide variety of wearables, with certain variants coming GPS and LTE functionality baked in.
Our Take
We might see Qualcomm also unveil some WearOS smartwatches at the event. If not, Google is at least expected to unveil its Pixel smartwatch in early October alongside its Pixel 3 series of smartphones. We should also see other OEMs unveil new WearOS smartwatches based on this new platform from Qualcomm in between.
