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Older Android Wear Watches Will Miss Out On the v2.0 Update (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Google hasn't officially made any announcements about what watch hardware will receive the Android Wear 2.0 update when it's released later this year, but it looks like at least a few of the first-generation watches will be missing out. LG says it has no plans to update the original LG G Watch, and now Motorola says it plans to drop support for the original Moto 360. Given Samsung's disinterest in continuing on with new Android Wear hardware, the future doesn't look rosy for the Samsung Gear Live, either. This news comes just two years after Android Wear and many of these watches were originally introduced.
It's starting to seem like these things are falling into the same trap of normal computer hardware, but for different reasons.
It used to be that people could hem and haw about updating their computers since they would be obsolete practically before you were done setting them up. Hardware advanced, newer and shinier things came along. However, at least you would get OS updates, security updates, it would run all the things except maybe not quite as flashy after a while.
This is ... something different. I don't buy an overpriced watch with the expectation of buying a new one two years later because, umm ... because hackers can take control of it, apparently. That is just ridiculous.
The logical conclusion would be to wait, and wait, and essentially wait until the heat death of the universe because the stuff you buy is planned to die long before it is supposed to PHYSICALLY die.
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This is why smart phone and smart watch sales are tanking. People are tired of perfectly good hardware being obsoleted just because manufacturers are too lazy to support them.
Never been patched!!!!
I've got a Moto 360 (1st gen), a Samsung Gear S2, and a Samsung Gear Fit. All were bought as refurbs at a significant discount.
The only watch I paid full MSRP for was my wife's Apple watch.
Apple's reputation of long-term support of its hardware was the only reason I felt comfortable paying full price. The A.D.D. that exists in the Google/Samsung world means that I will only buy these devices as refurbs - and I won't spend more than $100. I refuse to pay full price for a device that will be obsolete in less than two years.
If these manufacturers want higher margins, they will need to commit to long-term support for these devices.
#fragmentation
LG G R on my wrist right now, where it has been since last summer. I only take it off for charging once a week.
Thanks lg. BR, ex-customer.
I don't need any software updates. Mine works fine as is. Don't need some new battery draining feature. I still get a compliment on it once every couple of months. Mostly used for telling time, then see who email or text is from, pull out phone if it's not junk.
Back in your day, people didn't need to do that much maintenance on their transportation because a horse and wagon doesn't need much, just a well-fed horse and maybe a little axle grease on the wagon wheels. Horse-drawn wagons also couldn't do most of the stuff a modern car or truck can, like drive at 75+mph safely, accelerate and brake quickly, work all day long on easily-available gasoline instead of needing to stop every so often for your horse to much grass and rest, blow cold or warm air on you as you travel, play music for you, etc.
Obviously, a watch that does nothing but tell you the time isn't going to have the maintenance needs that a networked microcomputer in a watch case has. As soon as you have a general-purpose computer running software and connected to a network, it needs to be regularly updated to avoid network-based attacks, and also possibly to stay compatible with other devices it communicates to.
Then it sounds like you probably wouldn't be a target for this product.
That said, I was someone that thought I'd never want to use a phone to browser the web or do anything but text and call. I was wrong. I was correct on how much I love my smart watch. Marshmallow made my 360 run like a champ. I wish it was getting upgraded because new faces and apps will be targeted for the update, but still, I am satisfied with my purchase and new this day would come (but I bought it after the second generation watch had already been out so I knew going in it was going to be eventually obsolete.)
Hopefully, the original moto 360's will drop in price again :)