Now that Samsung, Motorola, LG and Apple have all made their wearable plans clear, only one major mobile vendor remains: HTC. There have been reports floating around since last winter claiming that HTC would be unveiling a smartwatch of its own before the end of the year, but as recently as last month, sources began to come forward saying that the plans had been scrapped.
RUMORS CONFIRMED: HTC may have just saved itself from making a huge mistake
It just so happens that the rumors were true — HTC isn’t launching a wearable device this year after all. With a launch event scheduled for Wednesday of this week, HTC wanted to be able to introduce a smartwatch into the budding market, but the company has decided to hold off until next year to discuss its wearable strategy instead.
“We had originally planned to have a wearable launch in this time frame,” HTC’s Jason Mackenzie told Re/code. “It ended up just not being ready.”
Drew Bamford, the head of the team behind HTC’s future wearables, wants to make sure his company’s device is actually worth wearing, unlike many of the wearables that have been released in recent months.
“We’ve seen a lot of general purpose wearables come to market,” said Bamford. “There’s not a strong reason to wear one every day. 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.”
