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Android Wear
Probably the OS with the fastest progress, Android Wear was recently reported to account for just 15% of smartwatch sales in 2014 (total of 700,000 devices). That’s not much, mainly because the platform was only introduced in the middle of the year and still suffers from serious limitations and battery life challenges.
Android Wear OS is designed to be paired with Android smartphones (version 4.3 and on), but there are already rumors that an iOS app will be available soon. Android Wear is available mostly as an open source, but just like with Android – Google is protecting its’ IP by adding a closed layer of services such as Google Now on top of the basic layers.
Android Wear supports both rectangle and rounded screens. There are already thousands of apps supporting Android Wear notifications but less apps that actually provide advanced functionality from the watch itself.
Leading Devices by; Samsung, Sony, Motorola (Lenovo), LG, ASUS, Huawei. Most of the development is done by Google.
Tizen for Wearables
Tizen OS is developed by Intel, Vodafone, Orange, Samsung. The lightweight version of this operating system is called: Tizen for Wearable and is led by Samsung, who happens to also develop Android Wear smartwatches.
Tizen for Wearables is an open source OS and can run standalone apps (without any connection to a host app on a smartphone) which is quite unique for wearable operating systems, it can also runintegrated apps and linked apps.
Apps are written in HTML5 (html, css, and javascript) and there are already over 1,000 apps available in the Tizen store. The problem with current versions of Tizen for Wearables is that it can only be paired with a relatively small number of Samsung smartphones. On the other hand, Tizen’s low footprint is great for wearables and ensures long battery life.
Read also: Skeptical about wearables? Here are 5 ways wearables will change your life for good
Pebble OS
Developed by Pebble Technology Corp, Pebble OS is a custom version of FreeRTOS – a real-time OS for embedded devices. Pebble OS can be paired with iOS and Android smartphones and provides integrated notifications as well as activity tracking. Pebble’s low footprint allows very long battery life.
Pebble’s first smartwatch model was the first smartwatch in the world to shift 1 Million units. There are over 6,000 apps and watch faces and the popularity of this platform is considered to be surprisingly high.
Recently, the OS added support for Android Wear notifications which means Android Wear apps with integrated push notification capabilities will also work with Pebble smartwatches.
WebOS
If you are not familiar with webOS – here’s a story you simply must read.
The platform that was originally created by Palm, was targeted to run on phones, switched hands several times, and found itself inside wearables by LG, who’s also using it on other smart devices such as smart TVs and washing machines. Needless to say that like Samsung, LG is also creating Android Wear-based smartwatches.
Did I mention wearables fragmentation already?
WebOS is fully based on web technologies and has some powerful features, such as being able to run completely stand alone (which means the smartwatch can operate as a phone using SIM card).
LG recently released the LG Watch Urbane LTE which is the first watch running WebOS.
Read also: The amazing story of webOS
Watch OS
While writing these lines the Apple Watch is not yet released, but it’s fair to say it’s going to be a big hit.
The Apple Watch is running Watch OS, which is a subset of iOS, designed to run on smartwatches. Watch OS devices can only be paired with iOS devices (iPhones mainly) and cannot run apps in a stand alone mode.
Similarly to Android Wear – Watch OS will run the app on the smartphone and a small extension of it will reside on the watch. It seems like the first release will have one significant drawback: poor battery life (18 hours normal use), but knowing Apple – this will probably not stop millions of people from buying the watch.
Read also: Apple Watch is going to be amazing, but only if you sleep 8 hours a day…
Band
Developed by Microsoft, the Microsoft Band is mostly a fitness tracker and doesn’t run an operating system.
However, the Band does have a built-in software which is kind of OS agnostic, and can run apps using theMicrosoft’s Wearable Architecture paired with iOS, Android, Windows and Windows Phone.
The Band uniqueness is with the set of 10 sensors, supported by the Band software and as of early February 2015 – available for developers via an SDK.
Firefox OS for Wearables
Firefox OS is a Linux kernel-based open source operating system designed to provide a complete community-based alternative for mobile devices. Firefox OS for wearables is a subset of Firefox OS and is designed to run on low-cost wearables and “things” (smart devices). The OS has not been released yet.
Firefox OS for Wearables is planned to be paired with all mobile platforms: Android, iOS, Windows Phone and FireFox OS. Similar to Tizen, and WebOS, Firefox apps are developed using pure web-based technologies such as HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.
Fitbit& Garmin
Its funny that two of the biggest players in the wearable market; Fitbit& Garmin, appears at the end of the list. The reason is that both Fitbit and Garmin smartwatches and smartbands do not run operating systems.
Both Fitbit and Garmin smartwatches (and activity trackers) can be paired with iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, and latest models by the two companies support notifications just like other smartwatches. Fitbit is considered to be one of the pioneers in fitness bands.
Smartwatch Market Landscape
It’s hard to find a report that shows the market shares of each of the wearable operating systems. The current reports talk about specific models and devices. It’s known that Android Wear is responsible for 15% of 2014 smartwatch sales (700,000 units) which is not a lot. Pebble sold 1 million Pebble smartwatches but Samsung was the leader overall with a long list of different models.
Here are the top 10 smartwatch companies for 2014: