Mobile phone maker HTC is reportedly eyeing the wearable space. According to Bloomberg, HTC will begin showing off its first smartwatch at Mobile World Congress next week.
Unfortunately the company will apparently only be showing the watch to wireless carriers, not to the press or public. So you might have to wait a while to get your hands (or wrist) on an HTC smartwatch.
In fact, it sounds like HTC will be using the closed-door meetings at Mobile World Congress to determine whether or not to even bring the watch to market — although Bloomberg says the company hopes to bring its first wearable to market by the Christmas season.
The HTC smartwatch is said to be based on Qualcomm’s Toq design. The Toq is a watch with a low-power Mirasol display. While Qualcomm’s display technology isn’t known for great color saturation or wide viewing angles, it does have one thing going for it: you can view a Mirasol display in direct sunlight.
You can already buy a Toq watch from Qualcomm… if you don’t mind spending $350 on a wristwatch.
The Bloomberg report indicates that the Toq-based watch is just the first wearable HTC plans to deliver. A second model could have an AMOLE Display and support for Google Now applications, while a third device is a wristband that works as an activity tracker and media player.
The Toq seems to be one of the best designs for a smart watch. Long battery life and a limited (but quality) feature set. Now if they would only put a quality band on the watch.