LG has announced that its canceling its Watch Urbane 2nd Edition, the world’s first Android Wear-based smartwatch to offer cellular connectivity, owing to an unspecified hardware problem.
Android Police heard from the company today, which noted that it’s canceling its rollout. There’s no word yet as to whether the wearable will be available later.
We understand that you are currently reviewing our latest smartwatch; however, late in the quality assurance process for the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE, our engineers were made aware of a hardware issue which affects the day-to-day functionality of the device. After further investigation, the decision was made to cancel the rollout of the Urbane 2nd Edition LTE due to the complicated nature of the issue.
Whether the device will be available in the future will be decided at a later time. For now, our top priority is to ensure that only products that meet our very specific quality standards are available for purchase.
The device, which LG showed off in October, went on sale in the US and South Korea this month. In addition to being the first Android Wear watch with LTE support, the company claimed that its 348ppi display was also sharper than any other smartwatch on the market.
The wearable became available through AT&T for $199 last week, but it’s since been pulled from the carrier’s store. 9to5Google notes that AT&T has notified its retail stores and customers that owners of the latest Watch Urbane are eligible for a refund due to the “quality issue.”
That’s sure to deal a blow to Android Wear: in its ability to support cellular networks, Google’s OS for wearables had a trump card over Apple’s WatchOS. Of course, other Android Wear device makers can now take a crack at it, but they should learn from LG’s mistake and triple-check their phone-on-a-watch offerings.
➤ LG Cancels The Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE Indefinitely Because Of Unspecified, Complex “Hardware Issue” [Android Police]
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