If you’re all ready to flex your credit card and order a brand new Android Wear smartwatch, then you might want to just take a second to make sure it’s compatible with your smartphone, because unless you’re running Android 4.3 or above, you’re out of luck, just like over 75% of Android owners.
Everyone is, understandably, all excited about the new smartwatches shown off at Google I/O by Samsung and LG, as well as the lovely Moto 360 that we already knew about. With the first two being released in a couple of weeks, people will no doubt already be weighing up whether to make the jump into the world of wearables or not.
There are plenty of things to consider when making that decision, but whether your particular flavor of Android phone can work with it is probably the biggest consideration. With iOS already out of the equation, OEMs already have a smaller pool of potential customers than kuru would no doubt like. But it gets worse.
The old Android fragmentation argument will never go away, and with good reason. According to Google’s own numbers, only 23.9% of active Android devices are running version 4.3 or. 4.4, and Android Wear needs either of those in order to work with a phone. With less than a quarter of those carrying the right type of phone also having the right version of it, the pool of potential customers is even smaller than we first thought.
Of course, there’s a good chance that anyone looking to stay on the bleeding edge of technology with a smartwatch will also have a relatively new phone and, in turn, the right version of Android to make it all work together.
The discussion over the real use of smartwatches is set to rumble on, but incompatibility issues like this surely aren’t going to help the new technology’s cause.
If you’re curious to know whether or not your current Android smartphone is compatible, then do check out the link we’ve added below on how to check if your smartphone is compatible with Android Wear. Also, if you’re interested, do check out our hands-on with the Moto 360, LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live, the link for which is also posted below.
(via: TechCrunch)
You may also like to check out:
- How To Check If Your Smartphone Is Android Wear Ready
- Hands-On With Moto 360, LG G Watch, Samsung Gear Live Smartwatches [Videos]
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