iPhone Users Can Now Use Android Wear Smartwatches

In a big move by Google and Apple, the Apple App Store now has an Android Wear app that lets you use an Android Wear smartwatch with your iPhone (supports iPhone 5 and up).

According to the Google Official Blog,

Android Wear for iOS is rolling out today. Just pair your iPhone (iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, 6, or 6 Plus running iOS 8.2+) with an Android Wear watch to bring simple and helpful information right to your wrist:

Before today, the smartwatch war has been between:

• The Apple Watch which only works with iPhones
• vs a slew of Android Wear smartwatches which only worked with Android phones
• vs a few Samsung smartwatches which only work with newer Samsung Android phones
• vs any remaining competition from Sony Smartwatch or Pebble.

Given the lay of the land, the battle was fairly amicable since you basically had to choose the option that worked with your phone.  That meant you either have Apple Watch or Android Wear as your option without much other competition.

But now, iPhone users have the choice between either smartwatch platform while Android users only have the Android Wear Option.

So why did Apple approve this app submission of the Android Wear app to the App Store?  This obviously give Google a huge advantage in the smartwatch market because now Android Wear is available to the fast majority of the population.  Now, iPhone users, who previously thought the Apple Watch was too expensive or not what they wanted, have another option which is more affordable and offers similar features.

I can’t see how the Apple Watch can succeed after this.

What are your thoughts?  I would love to chat with you in the comments.