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Apple Watch and Android: a match (almost) made in Heaven.
In a wide-ranging Bloomberg report about Apple’s health tracking ambitions, one little juicy nugget of info stands out in particular: Apple almost made its signature house brand smartwatches compatible with Android devices.
According to Bloomberg, Apple’s engineers were “deeply engaged” in bringing both Apple Watch and Health app compatibility to Android as part of something called “Project Fennel.”
Apple Watch with Nike wristband combined with the new Nike watchface.
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
Of course, the operative word here is “almost.” This obviously didn’t – and most likely won’t – happen. The reason for that is simple: Apple wants to keep selling iPhones, and Apple Watches help the company do that. One of Bloomberg’s sources straight up said giving Android users access to Apple Watch would “dilute the value of the watch to the iPhone.”
This is fascinating just on the surface, but it’s also worth looking at it in context of what Apple’s competition is in the Android smartwatch market. Competitors like Samsung’s Galaxy Watch and Google’s Pixel Watch have certainly improved over the years, but Apple’s product is still widely regarded as the one to get, especially for health tracking.
Pushing Apple Watch to Android users may have diluted iPhone sales, but it probably would’ve put a dent in Samsung and Google sales, too. Regardless, this is all speculation at this point. All we can do is think about what could have been.
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