Adam Kos Smart watches and fitness trackers only became very popular with the arrival of the Apple Watch, even though it wasn't the first device of its kind. Now there are still big players like Samsung with its Galaxy Watch, or relatively recently Google with its Pixel Watch, both betting on the Wear OS system. The rest of the competing smartphone manufacturers are mainly betting on Tizen. We must not forget the world of Garmin either.
Smartwatches aren't smartphones, but we want them to be. When I say we want smartwatches to be smartphones, I don't necessarily mean "phones." I'm mainly talking about apps. For many years, for example, the Samsung Galaxy Watch was hailed as one of the best smartwatches around, even before the switch to Wear OS. While their hardware was good and the internal Tizen operating system was snappy and offered support for third-party apps, their selection was, shall we say, rather poor.
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Jiří Filip Access to the device and operating system
But why are apps in smart watches considered a necessity? It is logically related to their focus on smartphones. When your smartwatch is paired with your phone, it's generally considered an extension of your phone. Therefore, they should support many applications that your phone can also support. While each brand has its own approach to the device and operating system, the lack of support for third-party apps is something they all have in common – with the exception of the Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch.
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RTOS (Real Time Operating System) based devices are able to perform similar tasks to watchOS or Wear OS watches, but very differently. These devices that run an app or take a heart rate measurement do so based on a predetermined time limit to perform the task. This means that anything running on one of these wearables is faster and more efficient because it was determined earlier. Because the watch doesn't have to work as hard to complete your request or run many background processes, you also get better battery life, which is the Achilles heel of both the Apple Watch and the Galaxy Watch.
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Apple rules, Google can't keep up
So there are benefits here, but because they run on proprietary operating systems, it's harder to develop apps for them. It is also often not worthwhile for developers. But take, for example, such a "smart" watch from Garmin. They allow you to install applications, but in the end you don't want to use them anyway. Apple's WatchOS is the most widespread system in smart watches worldwide, taking 2022% of the market in 57, with Google's Wear OS in second place with 18%.
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Broad app support is great as another selling point, but as we can see with Garmin itself, a few well-developed and clearly focused native apps are actually more useful (+ the ability to change practically only watch faces). So it is not necessary for other wearable devices from other brands to have app support to compete in the market. It is about the power of the brand that if someone buys a Xiaomi phone, they are directly offered to buy the manufacturer's watch as well. The same goes for Huawei and others. As part of the native applications used, this ecosystem will have nothing to complain about.
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There are two camps of users. There are those who may install a few applications on their watch at the beginning, but with the passage of time they are not interested in any new ones and are simply satisfied with the ones they have, and which they may even use. Then there is the other side that likes to search and likes to try. But this will be satisfied only in the case of solutions from Apple and Samsung (or Google, Wear OS also offers Fossil watches and a few others).
Everyone is comfortable with something different, and it is certainly not the case that an iPhone owner must legally own an Apple Watch if he wants to have some smart solution on his wrist. Logically, it will not be a Galaxy Watch that you only pair with Android phones, but in the case of neutral brands such as Garmin, a very large door opens here, even if "without" applications, so with the maximum possible use.
