Paul Morris on February 14, 2021, 12:59 am

Facebook Is Reportedly Working On A Smart Watch To Take On Apple Watch

According to a new report from The Information, Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook is working on a smartwatch to go head-to-head with the Apple Watch. The report suggests that Facebook watch would place focus on messaging and health functionality.

Creating a wearable that focuses on functionality pertaining to messaging doesn’t come as a great surprise for a company like Facebook.

Zuckerberg’s business empire not only includes Facebook but also Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, all of which have a strong messaging focus. The watch will reportedly allow all of those services to be used directly from the wrist and will include a cellular connection that won’t require a smartphone to be connected.

As with pretty much all other smartwatches and wearables on the market, Facebook’s watch would have a strong focus on health and fitness and would include direct connections with fitness-related companies, presumably allowing wearers to benefit from two-way sync. Rather than spinning off its own OS, the Facebook watch would run a version of Google’s Android WearOS and would presumably offer compatibility with existing software for that platform.

Many consumers will be sceptical about another smartwatch hitting the market. Especially one offered by Facebook. For a lot of people, it will come down to the cost of the hardware and Facebook is said to be planning on selling the watch for close to its production cost. Currently, there is no information on what that production cost will be.

Any product of this nature that Facebook decides to release would need to go head-to-head with Apple Watch. Apple’s smartwatch is the dominant player in the wearable market with more than 100 million in operation around the world.

If the initial report is to believed, then Facebook is way beyond the “possibility” stage and is actually in advanced stages as far as the Facebook watch is concerned. In fact, The Information actually suggests that Zuckerberg’s company is already designing and planning the second iteration of the hardware. Let’s see if such a product actually makes it to market.