This week, a new Snapdragon Wear processor has entered Qualcomm’s family of wearable SoCs, the Snapdragon Wear 1100. Positioned to compliment the more-powerful Snapdragon Wear 2100 SoC, the Wear 1100 is designed to be an ideal processor for child and elderly smartwatches, as well as fitness trackers and smart headsets. Devices in these categories usually do not need as much power as your standard Android Wear smartwatch, so Qualcomm is essentially filling out its portfolio with a SoC that better serves this range of products.
While the Snapdragon Wear 1100 may not have as much power as the Wear 2100, it still features an iZat integrated location engine, support of applications that utilize geo-fencing for safety monitoring, integrated applications processor for Linux-based applications, Power Save Mode (PSM), as well as next-gen Cat 1 modem with LTE/3G global band support.
According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon Wear 1100 is commercially available and shipping today.
Along with the announcement of the new wearable processor, Qualcomm details a few of the wearables from 3rd-party OEMs that are utilizing Snapdragon Wear in their devices. From InWatch, there are multiple children’s wearable models for the China region, plus another smartwatch designed for kids from Anda Technologies. This watch will be available in the Latin America region. Based on the SurfaceInk design, which can be customized for the kid, elderly, and pet segments in the U.S., WeBandz showed off its own smart tracking modular device.
Each of the aforementioned products represent reference implementations targeting the kid and elderly watch segment and, “enable OEMs to commercialize in an accelerated fashion,” Qualcomm stated. Undoubtedly, Qualcomm will continue to work with additional OEMs to get their wearable processors into more devices.
As for the high-end Android Wear market in the US, we still have yet to see a device that features the Snapdragon Wear 2100. With that said, we are nearing what should be the unveiling of new smartwatches from Huawei, Moto, and LG. That is, if they are not too busy with VR and whatever else is trendy.
I guess it’s time for me to lose 1st moto 360 and get the new one that comes with 2100. I hope it’s soon.
What is the face on that watch? Or just a made up photoshop?
Looks like an iPhone springboard.
I am eagerly awaiting the new crop of Snapdragon Wear 2100 based watches. As much as I love my Moto 360, it is getting a bit long in the tooth.
Long in the tooth ….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCLYGW_tUts
This will be great for all of the the new smart pet collars coming in the second half of this year.
Android Wear smartwatches have definitely taken a downturn. OEM’s have put them on the back burner. Looks like it might go the way of 3D TV’s…
Well it doesn’t help that it’s such a confused platform. Everyone touts “apps” as being crucial to the success of AW, but they’re largely useless. The biggest use case of a smartwatch is notifications, and it seems like Google is focusing on throwing everything and the kitchen sink in, which bloats the system with tons of functions no one will use and clouds the vision they should be pursuing.
Pebble, I feel, are the only ones to understand why people want a wearable. They focus on what’s important first and add other things around that. People blast them for their “outdated” tech (i.e. no touch screen, no speaker, etc.) but they have what’s important, namely battery life and a great notification system. Their watches work best with Android, but hopefully Apple will open up more of their systems in APIs to help iOS become a more open platform for companies like Pebble.