Google is buying smartwatch tech from Fossil for $40 million

Google is finally getting serious about Wear OS.

On Thursday, Fossil Group, the company that's perhaps the most focused on bringing new Wear OS watches to market, is selling $40 million worth of smartwatch-related intellectual property to Google. The IP is related to a smartwatch technology currently under development by Fossil.

As part of the transaction, a portion of Fossil's R&D team currently overseeing the technology will also join Google. However, Fossil will still retain over 200 R&D members to focus on developing future smartwatch-related technologies and products.

The transaction is expected to wrap up by the end of January.

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This news couldn't come at a better time for Wear OS fans. Despite new smartwatches launching left and right, many of them don't offer notable enough improvements for users to upgrade from their older watches. Many new Wear OS watches are also using old hardware, so it will be interesting to see if Fossil's smartwatch tech will propel the Wear OS ecosystem forward.

There's no word as to what secretive tech Google is buying from Fossil, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was related to battery tech. Battery life is the biggest pain point among smartwatch users, and only a few companies have managed to find viable solutions. Wear OS devices have suffered from poor battery life since their inception, and it makes sense that Google would want to invest however much money it can to fix that problem.

from Android Authority http://bit.ly/2T2l21i
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