Google is still looking to improve its standing in the smartwatch industry with Android Wear . Today, it was revealed that a smartwatch startup, founded in part by former Google employees, will now be working on Android Wear directly. That startup, Cronologics, announced that its team has been acquired by Google. The company formed in 2014 and had been developing its own smartwatch OS, alongside its own device, the CoWatch.
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The CoWatch launched just a few months ago in September, and its biggest feature is that it supported Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant. It allowed users to use voice commands to do things like order a pizza or get the latest weather reports. Now that Cronologics is officially part of Google, the fate of the CoWatch is unknown, although we cannot imagine it will be available for sale for much longer.
In a statement on the company’s site, Cronologics said that the team still plans to “continue pushing the frontier of wearable technology and smartwatches with Android Wear 2.0 and beyond.” Originally set for launch by the end of 2016, Google now plans to officially make Android Wear 2.0 available sometime in early 2017.
As usual with these kind of small acquisitions, the specific financial details of Google purchasing Cronologics were not disclosed. Does this new move signal that Google is getting more serious about improving Android Wear and its smartwatch technology in general?
