Back at Google I/O, the search engine giant showcased the Android Wear which does look good, but is it compatible with a majority of Android devices out in the market?
I don’t think so. Google mentioned that any device running on Android 4.3 or higher will be compatible with Android Wear, but are they enough? It seems less than 25 percent of the Android devices are compatible with the new smartwatch OS.
According to the latest Google data published on June 4th on the Android Developers blog, Android 4.4 KitKat is running 13.6 percent of the total Android devices out in the wild. As for the Android 4.3, its running on only 10.3 percent devices, making it a total of 23.9 percent.
A majority of Android devices are on outdated software, and this means that they cannot run with Android Wear. It will definitely kick off with time as people will buy new devices, and even manufacturers will make sure their devices are introduced with the latest operating system, but it’s going to take quite a lot of time. Until that happens, most of the users — using old devices — who want to get an Android Wear smartwatch have to live with the fact that they can’t make full use of it until they upgrade their device.
Which version are you running on your Android device, and do you plan on getting a smartwatch powered by Android Wear? Let us know using the comments below.
Source: TechCrunch
