14 DAY TRIAL // Google launched Android Wear this spring and since then a bunch of smartwatches taking advantage of the platform have been released into the wild, under the umbrella of important tech players in the industry.
Not long before, an independent team came with the clever idea of building an Android Wear-based smartwatch on their own. Com wanted to make a budget Android Wear smartwatch, so it set out to gather funds on Indiegogo for their Com1 intelligent timepiece.
Google put a stop to Com1
Google saw this and didn’t like it one bit, so it asked the crowdfunding website to shut down the project, claiming intellectual property rights have been infringed, as reported by Crowdfunding Insider.
Why did Google go for this drastic measure which basically wipes the project out of existence? For starters, the folks at Com could have used Android Wear promotional materials for their Indiegogo campaign without asking the search giant’s permission, which is of course not OK.
Could Com1 have been a scam? Possibly
On the other hand, there’s another theory making rounds online. The Com 1 sounded a little bit too good to be true. The team claimed that, when released, their watch would be sold for an affordable $125 / €98.
Not only that, but the watch was apparently supposed to arrive with a battery bigger than that of any Android Wear watch we have seen on the market.
If that’s not shady enough for you, the Com 1 also took advantage of some sensors which were not found in other devices. All these seem to be good signs that an elaborate scam was going on.
The complete list of specs included an Ingenic JZ4775 processor clocked at 1GHz along with 375MB or RAM and 4GB of internal storage. It should have arrived with a square design with 1.6-inch display and 320 x 320 pixel resolution.
The Com1 was apparently powered by a 400mAh battery and was IP67 certified for water and dust resistance.
Bottom line is maybe Google was trying to save customers the grief of paying for a product they will actually never be able to see or use. On top of that, the tech giant wanted to make sure no bad words where being spoken against Android Wear.
These are just theories for the time being, so take them with a grain of salt, until Google makes an official statement about it.
Anyway, Com has posted an apologetic message on Twitter, where it also announces it has started the campaign of refunding backers of the project. At the time of the shutdown, Com had managed to raise up to $30,000 / €23,811.