CHICAGO—The long-delayed Android Wear 2.0 platform won't launch with a new smartwatch from Motorola.
"We don't see enough pull from the market at this point to put out a new product," Shakil Barkat, Motorola's corporate VP of global product development, said during a press event here.
Motorola has been doing wearables since 2011's MotoActv fitness tracker, and the company released two versions of its Moto 360 smartwatch featuring Google's Android Wear operating system.
But smartwatches just don't seem to have been taking off to Motorola's satisfaction.
"Over the last two generations, I think it's been proven that the relevancy of the device is not where it needs to be. It doesn't have broad enough appeal for us to continue to build it year over year," Barkat said.
With Android Wear out of the picture for new devices, it also didn't sound like Motorola was enthused about other OS platforms, at least for now.
"For now, we're definitely an Android shop," said Dave Yen of Motorola' global software engineering team.
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Instead of wearables, it looks like Motorola is focusing on transforming and adapting the phone itself. Much of the discussion at Motorola's two-day press event was about Moto Mods, the functional modules that can snap on the back of a Moto Z.
"The concept of a smartphone, of something that you hold that belongs to you, that has your data, it's still going to remain the central part of your digital life," Dan Dery, Motorola's global product lead said.
But the shape and form of the smartphone may certainly change. "The form factor of the phone is drastically going to change going forward ... there might be foldable smartphones coming at some point in time," Dery said.