HTC has a lot in store for this year. They are expected to release the new HTC One (M9), they have hinted at an exciting new gaming device and even began sponsoring some awesome e-sport teams. They also launched the new HTC RE camera and possibly will release a new wearable. You read that correctly, HTC’s first wearable. According to leak website Upleaks, the new wearable will be called Petra and is HTC’s first move into the wearable market. This adds fuel to the rumors of a wearable device that came about from a company video last year.
The wearable will reportedly feature the ST Micro STM32L151 chipset which is an ultra-low-power device which uses a Cortex-M3 core and clocks at between 32 kHz to 32 MHz. It will support Bluetooth and GPS with an expected battery life three plus days. It also meets IP57 standards for water and dust proofing as well as MIL-STD-810G, Method 516.6 test for shock protection. It will also sport a 1.8″ 32*160 PMOLED flexible display. And weigh around 23g. It will also include a footpad to more accurately count your steps.
It is interesting to point out that this wearable will not be Android Wear, but rather an RTOS (I am assuming that to mean the standard acronym for “Real Time Operating System”) developed by HTC. It will also have support for Android phone 4.4 KitKat as well as iOS 7 or later. This is important as it iterates HTC’s commitment to work outside of it’s normal spaces. So the fact they are working outside of Android Wear does not come as a shock. It will be interesting to see if they eventually add Windows Phone support as well given the HTC’s recent iteration of the One (M8) in Windows OS flavor.
All of this comes with support for the usual notifications, music control, camera control, weather, schedule and analysis of your sleep and fitness. It will come in Teal/Lime and Black/Blue Grey colors and is expected to launch in the first quarter of this year. Perhaps we will see it at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on March 2-5. It will also eventually ship worldwide, but according to Upleaks it will ship in the United States first, then move worldwide.
I hope these rumors are true (there has been no official word from HTC concerning a wearable). It will be interesting to see what HTC has in planned for this device. If Upleaks information is correct, we will not have to wait very long. But will HTC have what it takes to make a push into the wearable space, which is very competitive and crowded? Given their commitment to various projects set to be released this year, they may just pull it off and have success. HTC wants this to be a huge year and given their recent projects it is shaping up to be just that; a huge year for HTC.