There is some bad news for the owners of a Moto 360 smartwatch. Motorola has confirmed that the gadget will not receive the Android Wear 2.0 update when it arrives in the fall.
According to Ubergizmo, given the fact that this smartwatch model was released in September 2014, almost two years ago, the news is not really surprising. Past the two-year mark Android devices are usually not supported for major updates.
When Motorola came out with the original Moto 360 in 2014, the wearable device was very well received. Motorola sold countless units, making it one of the most popular Android Wear-powered smartwatches in 2014.
Since then, a couple of years have passed and better smartwatches have arrived on the market. The first generation Moto 360 now has outdated hardware and the second-generation device came on the market. In these circumstances, it is easily to understand why the company doesn't find the original Moto 360 deserving of the Android Wear 2.0 update.
According to Engadget, Motorola's announcement is following a similar warning by LG for its G Watch. It is still uncertain what will happen to other older Android Wear devices, such as the first Asus ZenWatch or Samsung's Gear Live.
Motorola announced, however, that it's going to continue supporting the original Moto 360 with bug fixes and security patches, even though it won't release the major update for its first Android Wear smartwatch. With Google's tighter control over Android Wear updates, we can just expect major OS updates for wearables would end after two years, same as for Nexus devices.
This might feel arbitrary for consumers, especially when they realize that many newer devices have comparable hardware. However, this is a reminder that smartwatches would not last as long as their mechanical counterparts.
A new smartwatch can offer some extra features such as third-party watch face widgets or on-screen keyboard. For those who own an original Moto 360 and would want more out of an Android Wear smartwatch, the best option is right now to pick up a more recent device.
