Smartwatches are having a rough time. No matter what your chosen platform, sales are mostly down, hardware is mostly bulky, software is mostly slow, and battery life is mostly poor. The industry in general seems to be pivoting towards a slew of similar Android Wear watches where the main difference is in what fashion brand logo they bear.
But yet, there are still dreamers like the folks behind the Dagadam Watch, which is looking for backing on Kickstarter. Now, there’s nothing wrong with the Dagadam’s hardware on its own — it’s a nice enough looking (if a bit thick) touchscreen smartwatch that uses an interesting touch bezel control scheme and has a claimed three days of battery life. But the idea of launching an independent third-party smartwatch based on a proprietary software platform in today’s market just seems incredibly foolhardy.
There are two, maybe three viable full smartwatch platforms right now
As it stands, there are two, maybe three viable smartwatch platforms right now:
- Apple Watch, because Apple also makes iPhones and refuses to allow anyone else to have similar levels of integration into iOS. That means that unlike third parties like Pebble, Apple can integrate iMessage and allow Apple Watch apps to be bundled together with the iPhone apps you already have installed.
- Android Wear, which has a similar advantage, allowing developers to easily tie their existing Android apps into Google’s smartwatch platform. That gives Android Wear great third-party support, with the added backing of Google’s massive software chops.
- And Samsung’s Galaxy Gear line, which is probably the closest comparison to something like the Dagadam. Recent Gear watches also run their own proprietary platform with more limited developer support than Android Wear or the Apple Watch; but unlike the Dagadam, where the success or failure of the company is riding on a single product, Samsung is a multi-billion dollar corporation that has the resources to keep the Gear line going for years, even if it sells poorly.
That’s it. The next closest we’ve ever had to a viable third party contender was Pebble, which despite having literally everything going for it — first to market, great design, outstanding battery life, positive reviews, dedicated customers, and hundreds of millions of dollars in funding — still couldn’t beat the established players. It was recently sold on the cheap to Fitbit and won’t be making or supporting its hardware anymore.