In an unlikely turn of events, Lenovo have announced that they plan to release the Moto 360 II in Shanghai China!
Anyone following the wearable movement will know that the current generation Moto 360 wearable runs on Google’s Android Wear, and anyone with some knowledge of China will know that Google’s services don’t run well in the country. With this in mind it is interesting to see that Lenovo plan to release the Moto 360 II in China on September 8th.
This could mean that the new Moto 360 might feature Baidu intergration for search making it more useful in China. Without this, the wearable is only good for showing notifications from local apps (QQ, Weibo, Wechat) and for monitoring health.
Gizchina News of the week
Leaked details of the watch claim the Moto 360 II will come in two versions. A smaller Moto 360S with 1.37-inch display, 270Ah battery and slim strap, and a large Moto 360L with 1.55-inch display, 375mAh battery.
Compared to the original Moto 360 we should see better battery life and performance from the Moto 360 II, plus a complete round display without the small black bezel found on the original. In addition to the small and large watches this September, a Moto 360 II sport is rumoured to launch in November.
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I do like the look of this device. Any ideas on price and release? I will be in Shanghai in a little over a week.
It will most likely still have a flat ture design like it predecessor – more interested in thr huawei watch
“plus a complete round display without the small black bezel found on the original”
GSMArena and many other sites say the opposite, that the Moto 360 2 will keep the flat tire, look at the leaked images here:
http://www.gsmarena.com/new_leaked_moto_360_2nd_gen_renders_hint_at_a_possible_sport_version-blog-13767.php
It’s just not that Google services are blocked, but even the Android Wear software (which allows your phone to pair with a Android wear watch) available through the Play Store isn’t available to be installed on devices in China.
If Baidu debuts their half-assed Google-Android-Wear-wanna-be copy which I’m predicting they’ll call “Baidu Wear”, it’s going to a) suck and b) not understand English and c) Be useless when travelling outside of China. Baidu’s web platform is also very sloppy coded and eats more CPU cycles than it should, if they come out with a wearable platform the battery life probably won’t be nearly as good as Android Wear.