“Google wanted to release Pixel watches in 2016”

Google had planned to release the LG Watch Style and Watch Sport as Google Pixel watches. This is stated by Business Insider in an article that looks back on the cancellation of the project in 2016. The two smartwatches came out under the LG brand in 2017.

Google and LG were ready to announce the watches during the Made By Google event where the search giant showed off its Pixel phones, Business Insider writes in an article that can also be read via Outline. Rick Osterloh, who led the Pixel division at Google since the summer of 2016, canceled the release because he felt the smartwatches didn’t work well with the Pixel phones and would bring the Pixel brand down.

Because the development of the hardware and software had already reached that point, Google announced Android Wear 2.0 a few months later, along with LG’s announcement of the watches. It never came out before that both clocks should have come out under Google’s own name.

The article also states that the developer community for Wear OS, the current name of Android Wear, has virtually stalled. Developers were active on Google+, but after that social network stopped, there was no alternative.

Other manufacturers such as Huawei, Samsung and Motorola did not see enough demand for watches with Android Wear and released far fewer or no models anymore. Wear OS now has a market share of 6 percent, compared to 15 percent of Samsung Tizen and 37 percent of Apple’s watchOS.