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Apple’s Advantage in Smart Watches is Its Integrated Processor and OS
July 05, 2020
Apple designs its own watch chipsets (produced by Taiwan Semi), with the current (S5) based on a dual core 64 bit ARM processor and GPU. It includes 32 GB of flash memory, Bluetooth 5.0, 1GB RAM, 802.11 (b,g,n) WiFi and GPS. Google’s Wear OS competes directly with Apple’s WatchOS, but Google uses Qualcomm’s ‘Wear’ series of SoC chipsets since 2016 to power WearOS devices. Qualcomm just released the Wear 4100/+ chipset, which is the first real update to the processor platform since 2018 or 2016 for the processor. The new chipset is based on a quad core A53 1.7GHz ARM processor, vs. the previous generation’s A7 1.1GHz and is produced on a 12nm process line vs. the previous 28nm process. The GPU can display 64,000 colors, as opposed to 16 colors on the previous version and supports ‘always-on’ mode, but the new chipset also promises an 85% improvement in CPU performance, 85% faster memory, a 2.5x improvement in GPU speed, and greater support for fitness monitoring.
The problem with competitive operating systems in the watch world is there is no consensus, which leaves Apple to rule the roost. Samsung originally used Wear OS but switched to its own Tizen OS. Fossil uses WearOS along with Huawei, but Huawei has its own problems with Google support under US trade restrictions, leaving it open to another proprietary OS. Samsung’s Tizen OS is based on the Linux kernel, which should make it easier and cheaper for others to adopt the OS, but Tizen’s share of the smartwatch OS market is below 3% and the WearOS share is under 8%. With Apple’s WatchOS over 40% of the smart watch market, 50% share is left to ‘others’. Qualcomm is hoping its new release will attract more companies to adopt WearOS.
July 05, 2020
Apple designs its own watch chipsets (produced by Taiwan Semi), with the current (S5) based on a dual core 64 bit ARM processor and GPU. It includes 32 GB of flash memory, Bluetooth 5.0, 1GB RAM, 802.11 (b,g,n) WiFi and GPS. Google’s Wear OS competes directly with Apple’s WatchOS, but Google uses Qualcomm’s ‘Wear’ series of SoC chipsets since 2016 to power WearOS devices. Qualcomm just released the Wear 4100/+ chipset, which is the first real update to the processor platform since 2018 or 2016 for the processor. The new chipset is based on a quad core A53 1.7GHz ARM processor, vs. the previous generation’s A7 1.1GHz and is produced on a 12nm process line vs. the previous 28nm process. The GPU can display 64,000 colors, as opposed to 16 colors on the previous version and supports ‘always-on’ mode, but the new chipset also promises an 85% improvement in CPU performance, 85% faster memory, a 2.5x improvement in GPU speed, and greater support for fitness monitoring.
The problem with competitive operating systems in the watch world is there is no consensus, which leaves Apple to rule the roost. Samsung originally used Wear OS but switched to its own Tizen OS. Fossil uses WearOS along with Huawei, but Huawei has its own problems with Google support under US trade restrictions, leaving it open to another proprietary OS. Samsung’s Tizen OS is based on the Linux kernel, which should make it easier and cheaper for others to adopt the OS, but Tizen’s share of the smartwatch OS market is below 3% and the WearOS share is under 8%. With Apple’s WatchOS over 40% of the smart watch market, 50% share is left to ‘others’. Qualcomm is hoping its new release will attract more companies to adopt WearOS.
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