Is there a market for luxury Android Wear? →

In response to reports of TAG Heuer looking into selling smartwatches, Matt Richman writes:

TAG Heuer’s smartwatch won’t sell. There’s no market for it.

Apple Watch requires pairing with an iPhone, and TAG’s smartwatch will need to pair with a smartphone to even have a chance of being as feature-rich as Apple Watch.

Apple isn’t going to re-engineer iOS for TAG’s benefit, so TAG’s smartwatch won’t pair with an iPhone the way Apple Watch does.

In order to have even stand a chance of being as feature-rich as Apple Watch, then, TAG’s smartwatch will have to pair with an Android phone. However, TAG wearers aren’t Android users. Rich people buy TAG watches, but rich people don’t buy Android phones.

I didn't even think about that. But another thought: how luxurious will Android Wear ever get?

If Android Wear makers don't go for luxury, they probably won't be very fashionable, which means we'll just be seeing more of what we already see right now — uber geeky watches that are too big and/or too masculine for the common female shopper.

If Android Wear goes for luxury, then, as Matt has pointed out, Android Wear makers would be trying to sell luxury smartwatches to a customer base that doesn't really appreciate luxury products.