Washington [US], June 29 (ANI): In addition to running Wear OS 3, the upcoming Montblanc Summit 3 will be the first wristwatch on the new unified platform to support iOS.
According to The Verge, the information, which was first reported by Wareable, was confirmed to The Verge by Lauren Miller, a Qualcomm official. The Summit 3 is the first smartwatch to ship with Wear OS 3 pre-installed, albeit it is not the first to run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 4100 Plus platform.
Its support for iOS marks a considerable departure from other Wear OS 3 devices that have been officially verified. For instance, the upcoming Google Pixel Watch and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 range are only available to Android users.
Although they were never particularly well-liked by iPhone owners, older Wear OS 2 and Samsung Tizen-powered smartwatches do function with iOS. Later this year, 4100 Plus chipset-based Wear OS 2 watches can be upgraded to Wear OS 3; however, it’s not yet known if the improved versions of these watches will still work with iOS. The absence of iOS from the Pixel Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 suggested that Wear OS 3 would be a closed ecosystem.
The move by Montblanc to support iPhone users, however, raises the possibility that other Wear OS watch manufacturers, such as Fossil and Mobvoi, will do the same for upcoming devices or even maintain some level of iOS compatibility when updating previous watches.
The Summit 3 will feature a specialised companion app for both iOS and Android that will serve as a “bridge between phone and watch,” according to Miller. That also suggests that if Fossil and Mobvoi want to retain iOS users in the mix, they may also need to create their own apps.
Focusing on high-quality experiences within the Android Ecosystem is our top priority for Wear OS 3. Although the Summit 3 will be compatible with iPhones, iOS users won’t necessarily enjoy the same Wear OS 3 experience as Android users.
“Our priority for Wear OS 3 is to focus on quality experiences within the Android ecosystem,” Google spokesperson Ivy Chen Hunt told The Verge. “The Montblanc Summit 3 will run Wear OS 3 and be compatible with iPhones. However, support for apps and experiences will vary by phone platform.” Hunt went on to explain that Google supports iOS with apps and services like YouTube Music and notifications mirroring and that the company plans to expand support in the future, as reported by The Verge.
Given this, it’s definitely safe to anticipate that Wear OS 3 won’t initially perform as well on iPhones. Until the Montblanc Summit 3 debuts on July 15th, we won’t know just how the iOS experience will vary.
However, the eye-watering price of the watch is USD1,250 or around USD1,300. Although the Summit 3 is the first Wear OS 3 watch that is officially compatible with iOS, you might be better off waiting for more reasonably priced options from Fossil or Mobvoi that could appear later this fall. (ANI)
This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.