Jersey-based carrier Verizon has shut down the production and future sales of its first smartwatch Wear24, just three months after its launch. The smartwatch was announced in February along with the LG Watch Sport and the LG Watch Style and Verizon started selling the device in May for $350. The Wear24 was manufactured exclusively for Verizon by Taiwanese company Quanta, but after initial reviews and harsh critique it struggled to find the early adopters. Verizon has almost completely wiped Wear24 from its website, leaving only the support page, with no signs of the device relaunching in the future.
The Wear24 was running Android Wear 2.0 and promised a lot of amazing features like and NFC chip for easy payments, a built-in speaker and support for making phone calls over LTE networks, and all of that packed in a slim casing. This of course wasn’t without a couple of delays before it hit retail shelves and Verizon’s online website for the above-mentioned price. Almost immediately the Wear24 and Verizon faced rather harsh reviews from both consumers and tech websites, noting the poor quality of the speaker, bland design and quirks in the software that required installation of Verizon’s proprietary text messaging app. The NFC chip also lacked support for Android Pay which also prompted negative reactions from users, and this was in addition to the negativity from users over the lack of heart rate monitor and ambient light sensor. It also may not have helped that Verizon attempted to monetize its users by turning parts of text messages into advertiser-friendly links. Compared to similarly-priced smartwatches available on the market, the Wear24 couldn’t keep up and was offering less value for money.
Right before the smartwatch was taken down from Verizon’s website, its user ratings stood at 2.4 out 5 stars. The company hasn’t revealed any sales numbers and the whole takedown happened without any announcement. Considered by industry professionals to be just an upsell for the carrier (an additional device to sell along the phones to new customers), the Wear24 gathered notoriety among Android power users. With discontinuation of the Wear24, Android users looking for a smartwatch that supports LTE are left with little selection, though there are still some choices out there for smartwatches which support LTE networks