Anyone holding out for an HTC-branded Android Wear smartwatch should brace for disappointment, as an executive put it rather definitively that the company has no plans to such a device in the near future.
"We are not going to have a watch in the short term," said Chialin Chang, president of smartphones at HTC, during an interview with Tbreak.
This comment comes days after leaked images supposedly showing the HTC Halfbeak smartwatch surfaced. Even if the leak was legitimate, it appears HTC has no intent in taking the suspected prototype to market.
The device in the photos also sported an older version of the Android Wear OS in a time where Android Wear 2.0 is on the horizon, fueling the odds that any plans HTC had for smartwatches were canned a while ago.
"Android watch is one thing, but even Apple as a big brand is declining," said Chang, in reference to a noticeable drop in wearable sales last year, with companies like Pebble and even Microsoft ducking out of the game altogether.
While unlikely, it's possible HTC is just showing its poker face to keep whatever wearables it has under its sleeve a surprise. Either way, the best opportunity to learn the HTC 10 makers's plans for the future will be during MWC next month in Barcelona.
