MotoACTV - Motorola's first attempt at a wearable
Motorola has confirmed that it is working on a smartwatch, and will launch it to the public later this year.
The American company, which is set to be purchased by Chinese PC giant Lenovo, revealed its intentions in the wearables market at a panel discussion at this year’s Mobile World Congress.
Though no specifics were forthcoming, senior vice president Rick Osterloh revealed that the Motorola smartwatch would solve some lingering issues with the format. As repeated on the company’s Twitter feed, Osterloh said:
"We are working on a watch that will be available this year. We aim to address consumer issues like style & battery life."
Back in December, a patent application from Motorola came to light revealing that the company was looking at producing a smartwatch with a flexible wrap-around display. That patent was filed way back in June 2012, so the company is evidently well along with its preparations by now.
Motorola's history in the wearables market involves the MotoACTV fitness tracker (pictured), which wasn't the most elegant or smart of watches.
Motorola’s confirmation follows the announcement of Samsung’s second high-profile smartwatch announcement, the Samsung Gear 2. Powered by Tizen rather than Google’s Android OS, it’s looking like a significant improvement over the disappointing Samsung Galaxy Gear .
We’re yet to see a wholly convincing smartwatch device hit the market, with scrappy underdog the Pebble arguably presenting the purest vision to date. Could Motorola’s recent past of producing innovative sensor-led smartphones give us the first smartwatch champion?
Or will we have to wait for Apple to arrive with its iWatch and show us how it should be done?
HTC has also recently confirmed that it will launch a smartwatch before Christmas.
Read More: 5 reasons why smartwatches are still a dumb idea