LG nixed the rollout of its Urbane 2nd Edition LTE smartwatch due to a hardware glitch. “Late in the quality assurance process for the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE, our engineers were made aware of a hardware issue which affects the day-to-day functionality of the device,” a company representative emailed us Friday. The company decided to stop production due to the “complicated nature of the issue,” LG said. Whether the device will be available in the future will be decided later, LG said.
For Fossil, the traditional watch category “remains sluggish, as tech-enabled devices offer consumers additional choices,” CEO Kosta Kartsotis said on an earnings call Thursday. “Technology is emerging as the latest trend in fashion with a growing interest in wearable technology, inspiring new entrants into the watch space, as well as explosive growth in activity trackers,” he said. That is why Fossil decided to buy activity-tracker supplier Misfit for $260 million cash, he said. The acquisition “will allow us to combine our key competitive advantages in design, sourcing, distribution and powerful brands with a business that is already a recognized player in technology-infused accessories and possesses a world-class software and hardware engineering team that stays ahead of emerging technology trends,” he said. The acquisition leaves Fossil “uniquely positioned to lead the convergence of style and technology to become the fashion gateway to the high-growth wearable technology and connected device markets,” he said. “This acquisition accelerates our ability to compete in the connected accessory space as we expand our addressable market while leveraging all the design and scale with which we serve the existing watch market.” The activity-tracker space “is one of the fastest-growing segments in accessories, given strong consumer interest in learning more about health, wellness and improving the quality of life,” he said. “We believe some of the headwinds we have been experiencing result from a lack of technology in our core business, and this acquisition will allow us to quickly start turning those headwinds into tailwinds.” Integrating technology into watches “is the next innovation in the evolution of the category, and we believe we can once again do what we did to the functional watch category, grow and gain share by elegantly and seamlessly blending design and brands with function,” Chief Financial Officer Dennis Secor said on the call. Fossil thinks the Misfit acquisition “can be the catalyst to reverse our most recent trends, to quickly restore growth and has the potential to drive strong growth beyond what we might have imagined just a couple of years ago,” Secor said.
Intellectual Capital Consulting filed a complaint at the International Trade Commission alleging violations of Section 337 rules by imports of “vehicular smartwatch systems” marketed by a lengthy list of automakers and electronics manufacturers. ICC alleges the companies are making smartwatch-operated vehicle security systems that copy patented designs used in its “Blackhawk Remote Engine Starter,” which also locks and unlocks cars remotely from the watch, and includes a geofencing feature for parents that sends an alert if the car is driven outside a predefined area, the Oct. 23 complaint published Thursday said. ICC is requesting a limited exclusion order and cease and desist order banning importation and sale of infringing smartwatch systems by Hyundai, General Motors, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, Volvo, Porsche, Apple, Directed Electronics, Samsung, LG, Sony, Lenovo, Motorola, Station Digital Media and Rego Apps. The ITC is accepting comments until Nov. 6 on public interest issues raised by the complaint.
Apple released several security updates to address critical vulnerabilities in multiple Apple products, a U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team alert said Wednesday. Updates are available for, among others, iTunes 12.3.1 for Windows 7 and later, Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport, Apple Watch Hermes, iPhones 4s and later, iPod touch 5th generation and later, and iPad 2 and later, the alert said. Exploitation of the vulnerabilities may allow a remote attacker to take control of an affected system, it said.
Swiss watchmaker Swatch used a Shanghai news conference Tuesday to debut the Swatch Bellamy, a new "pay-by-the-wrist" smartwatch. Swatch will team with payment services provider China UnionPay and the Bank of Communications to introduce contactless payment to China via the Swatch Bellamy, Swatch said in a Tuesday announcement. The Swatch Bellamy, available in four colors, has a built-in near-field communications (NFC) chip hidden under the dial, it said. Like a prepaid bank card, a Swatch Bellamy watch allows customers to pay for items using merchants' contactless NFC-based point-of-sale terminals, it said. The new payment option with the Swatch Bellamy will be rolled out by the partners across China starting in January, it said. The Swatch Bellamy will soon be launched in Switzerland and the U.S. with local banking and “secure-transaction” partners, it said. Swatch representatives didn’t comment further on the U.S. introduction.
Apps developers have been in “no rush” to support Apple Watch, Strategy Analytics said Wednesday in a report. Even app developers in health and fitness, a category that Apple has promoted heavily, “are reticent to extend support for Apple Watch across their entire portfolio of apps,” said the research firm. When Apple Watch launched in April, “there was significant enthusiasm and competitive pressure to support the platform without any insight into how support would impact key performance indicators,” it said. As such, at launch, nine of the top 10 airlines had an Apple Watch app, it said. “However, the data does not support the notion that Apple Watch is a platform that today offers an opportunity to grow revenue, increase audience size or achieve organic growth,” it said. “This is not necessarily a long-term indictment of wearables or Apple Watch, but instead a note of caution to companies debating the need for short-term support.” The prospects “remain bright” that Apple will ship more than 15 million Apple Watches this year,” it said. But “companies need to evaluate their goals for releasing an Apple Watch app,” because there's “little competitive pressure to rush in,” it said.
Samsung announced the Gear S2 smartwatch Tuesday in two versions geared to classic and minimalist tastes. The 0.4-inch-thick watch has a 1.2-inch round screen with 360 x 360 resolution and has a 1-GHz dual-core processor running the Tizen operating system. Users who choose 3G connectivity have access to e-SIM with voice capability, allowing them to perform quick functions without being closely tethered to the phone, said Samsung. The S2 has Bluetooth and near-field communications connectivity and built-in sensors including accelerometer, gyroscope, heart rate, ambient light and barometer. Internal memory is 4 GB with 512 MB RAM, it said. The battery, with wireless charging, has a typical life of two days, said the company.
Android Wear watches can now be used with iPhones, Google said in a company blog post Monday. The new release allows consumers with an Android watch to pair it with an iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, 6, or 6 Plus running iOS 8.2 software or higher, Google said. The new iOS compatibility is available for the LG Watch Urbane, but all future Android Wear watches will support iOS, it said.
Movado's introduction of its first smartwatch Q4 in time for the holiday selling season (see 1505280024) will include a marketing effort “to make sure the consumers know that we now have this with the Movado brand,” CEO Efraim Grinberg said on a Thursday earnings call. The messaging behind the launch is that the smartwatch “will be within not only the designer aesthetics of the brand but also within the price points that our consumers expect for the Movado brand,” Grinberg said in Q&A. But the company won’t give specifics about the product until well into fall, he said. “We really have not given out any information yet about the product that we'll launch,” and won’t do so until “we prepare for deliveries,” he said. “But it's product that we're very excited about and hits the sweet spot of the Movado brand, both from the design and price point.” Movado hasn’t finalized distribution plans, he said.
LG’s G Watch R becomes Wi-Fi capable with the most recent Android Wear update, allowing users to receive notifications and other information without a Bluetooth connection, said LG Friday. Over the next several days, LG’s G Watch, G Watch R and Watch Urbane will receive the Firmware Over-the-Air update, said the company. All three smartwatches will support interactive watch faces available from Google Play. With the interactive faces, users can tap on specific areas of the display to see additional information, said the company. The latest update also will allow LG Android Wear devices to support app-specific functions such as displaying a four-day weather forecast or performing translations in multiple foreign languages on the watch itself without having to use a connected phone, said the company.