Wearables: The Comprehensive List of Smartwatch Operating Systems

The Mobile Spoonwww.mobilespoon.net

The Fragmented World of

Wearable Operating SystemsGil Bouhnick, February 2015


• Designed to run on wearables

• Requires pairing with Android 4.3+

• Partially available as open source

• Includes Google Now (closed source)

• High battery consumption is an issue

Android Wear by Google


Android Wear – Technical Details

Smartwatches running android wear will be able to pair with all

android smartphones running Android 4.3 or later OS.

Android Wear supports both rectangle and rounded screens.

There are already thousands of apps supporting Android Wear

notifications but less apps that actually provide advanced

functionality from the watch itself.


Android Wear – Leading ManufacturersOver 720,000 Android Wear devices shipped in 2014 (15% Market share)

Samsung Sony ASUS Motorola LGMoto 360 G WatchZenWatchSmartwatch 3Gear


• Open source operating system

• Paired only with a few Samsung smartphones

• Designed to run on “everything”:

• Smartphones, cars, wearables, cameras, printers

• Capable of running HTML5 apps “natively”

• Low footprint allows long battery life

Tizen for Wearables by Samsung

Samsung Gear S


Tizen for Wearables – Technical Details

Tizen OS is developed by Intel, Vodafone, Orange, Samsung.

Tizen for wearable OS is a light derivative of Tizen OS and is led by

Samsung.

Tizen for Wearables can run standalone apps (without any

connection to a host app on a smartphone), integrated apps and

linked apps.

Apps are written in HTML5 (html, css, and javascript).

There are over 1,000 apps for Tizen for Wearables.


Tizen - DevicesSmartphones, tablets, cars, cameras, washing machines, wearables

Smart TV Washing Machine Camera SmartwatchGear 2


• Pebble OS is a custom version of FreeRTOS – a

real-time OS for embedded devices

• Can be paired with iOS and Android

• Provides integrated notifications as well as

activity tracking

• Low footprint allows long battery life

Pebble OS by Pebble Technology Corp.


Pebble OS – More Details

The first smartwatch to shift 1 Million units.

There are over 6,000 apps and watch faces for Pebble.

Recently, the OS added support for Android Wear notifications

which means Android Wear apps able to push notifications to the

watch will work with Pebbles.


Pebble OS - DevicesSmartwatches only

Pebble SteelPebble Watch


• Originally created by Palm as a mobile

operating system for smartphones

• Now used by LG for smart devices

such as televisions and wearables

• Can be used as a standalone (with SIM) or

be paired with Android devices

WebOS by LG


WebOS - DevicesSmartphones, tablets, washing machines, wearables

Smart TV Tablet SmartwatchLG Watch Urbane LTEHP TouchPad


• Requires pairing with iOS 8.2+

• Based on a subset of Apple iOS

• Estimated release date: April 2015

Watch OS by Apple


• Can be paired with iOS, Android,

Windows, and Windows Phone.

• Focuses on fitness & health

• Does not have an OS

• Runs on Microsoft’s wearable architecture

Band by Microsoft


• Web-based open source

• Designed for low-cost wearables

and “things”

• Planned to be paired with all

smartphones: Android, iOS,

Windows Phone and FireFox OS.

Firefox OS for Wearables by Mozilla


Fitbit’s activity trackers are not

running an operating system

Fitbit Garmin

Garmin smartwatches run an

open platform called Connect IQ

Smartwatch Market



Smartwatch Market Share (2013/14)

Source: Smartwatch Group (http://www.smartwatchgroup.com/top-10-smartwatch-companies-sales-2014/)

2013 2014


Top 10 Smartwatch Companies - 2014

Company Headquarter Name of smartwatch Market share (%) Year-to-year growth

Samsung South Korea Gear line 23 +25%

Lenovo/Motorola China Moto 360 10 new entrant

LG South Korea Lifeband Touch, LG G Watch (R) 7 new entrant

Pebble US Pebble Watch, Pebble Steel 7 +102%

Garmin Switzerland Vivofit, Vivosmart, Vivoactive and others 7 +47%

Sony Japan Smartwatch 2/3, Core, SmartBand Talk 6 +66%

Fitbit US Force, Charge 6 +22%

Withings France Pulse Ox, Activité 4 new entrant

Polar Finland Loop, RC3, V800, M400 2 +400%

Asus Taiwan ZenWatch 2 new entrant

Other 79 companies 26

Source: Smartwatch Group (http://www.smartwatchgroup.com/top-10-smartwatch-companies-sales-2014/)


Top 10 Smartwatch Companies - 2014

Source: Statista (http://www.statista.com/chart/3290/samsung-leads-the-smartwatch-market/)


Smart Bands Market (Fitness & Watches)

Source: Canalys

• 4.6 million smart wearable bands

shipped in 2014

• Only 720,000 based on Android Wear

(15%)

• 1 million Pebble smartwatches


Created by: Gil Bouhnick, February 2015

Blog: www.mobilespoon.net

Twitter: @MobileSpoon

Wearables: The Comprehensive List of Smartwatch Operating Systems

Technology

Transcript of Wearables: The Comprehensive List of Smartwatch Operating Systems