Thursday, September 11, 2014

Ubuntu SmartWatch To Follow Apple Watch Or Not! Uncertainty Remains

Thursday, September 11, 2014: The long-running rumours have become reality now as Apple has finally forayed into the wearable computing market with its Apple Watch launch. But now with its arrival, speculations have started whether Ubuntu will come up with a version for smartwatches or not.

Apple has joined the smartwatch market just at the right time. Since last year sales of wearables, including smartwatches and fitness bands, have soared to new high, worldwide. This year the sales figures are expected to receive higher boost. Though Apple Watch will hit the markets in early 2015 only. The recently concluded IFA 2014 trade fair in Berlin came up with an array of new wearables from Sony, ASUS, Samsung and so on. But it's not yet clear if a wrist-mounted version of Ubuntu will also come up in the near future or not.

Ubuntu OS' versatility has already been proved with smart TVs, tablets and smartphones. The company's homegrown display server, Mir, was also created to power interfaces on screens of all sizes. At the beginning of this year Jono Bacon, Canonical community manager, was asked if there are any plan for an Ubuntu watch. But Bacon said, “adding another form factor to the [ubuntu touch] roadmap would only slow things down.”

But this statement doesn't mean that all your hopes are lost. Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth said that wearable technologies are very much there on their agenda as the company is planning for TVs, tablets and smartphones. Mark said, “Ubuntu is really unique in that it has this beautiful design on the phone, but it’s also designed at the same time to feed all of those other ecosystems, from wearables to the PC.” Though it doesn't mean to be any confirmation, but it's definitely an indication towards being more optimistic.

Wearables' market is still in its initial stage and at this stage Canonical wouldn't prefer pursuing it as it would mean wasting their development, designing and business time. It’s better for Canonical to focus on their existing products, at least for the time being.

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