Sony may have launched a smartwatch back in 2007, however it hasn’t been until recently that the category has gotten any real attention. Things seem to have began with the Pebble Kickstarter, but that has been followed by others including the AGENT and GEAK Watch smartwatches.
Earlier in the month Sony launched the “Open SmartWatch” initiative and as of today it looks like they may have a new watch coming. The details are minimal at the moment, however the Sony Xperia Twitter account has recently begun talking about smartwatches. Earlier this morning they posted a message that read as follows;
“Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock”
Also included in that brief statement were hashtags mentioning the Mobile Asia Expo and itstime. That tick-tock message included little more than a picture of the Sony SmartWatch. Interestingly enough, that is not the only smartwatch post coming from the Sony Xperia account. As you can see in the image below, Sony also cited how “one in three smartphone users want smart wrist wear.”
And then there was the bragging. Sony talked about how their smartwatch is the “only wearable device with 200 firstgen apps.” That first-generation mention seems to imply that Sony may have a second-generation in the works. Based on what we are seeing, that second-generation Sony smartwatch may be announced next week during the Mobile Asia Expo.
Otherwise, touching back on the Sony Open SmartWatch initiative. This launched on June 13th and basically opened things up so developers could build (and later share) custom firmware options for the Sony SmartWatch. We have yet to see anything solid come as a result, but it is refreshing to see Sony open things up in a manner similar to what they do with AOSP and smartphones.
I really hope they get this right. I have been holding out for a smart watch that is actually worth buying for a while. I played with the original Sony watch and saw it had potential.