To the disappointment of many Android Wear fans, Motorola has revealed that there are no plans to release a successor to the Moto 360 in the near future. This news confirms that Motorola will not be releasing a new smartwatch in time for the launch of Android Wear 2.0 early next year.
The reason for Motorola exiting the smartwatch business, at least for the time being, is simple: they're just not popular enough. Shakil Barkat, head of product development at Motorola, said that "wearables do not have broad enough appeal for us to continue to build on it year after year." While Motorola may revisit smartwatches in the future, there is not enough "pull in the market" to release a new product at this time.
This news doesn't come as a huge surprise, as Motorola announced earlier this year that they would not release a new smartwatch in 2016. However, considering the quality and relative popularity of the Moto 360 among smartwatch enthusiasts, Motorola's decision to leave the market (for now) is a blow for the Android Wear platform.
Android Wear, and smartwatches in general, have not received the traction that companies initially anticipated. It's for this reason that other major OEMs, including Huawei and LG, have been slow to update their offerings, while Google has pushed back the release of Android Wear 2.0 to early next year. Updates to the software platform may breathe some life into Android Wear, but for now, companies are hesitant to spend time developing new smartwatches.