Ticwatch S is coming soon on Kickstarter

[Gaby]

Dear Ticwatch Users,

THRILLING NEWS! Ticwatch SE, the new watch series powered by Android Wear™ is going to meet the old and new Ticwatch friends on Kickstarter this summer. Super early bird can enjoy the special price of less than $100.

Today, we'd love to introduce Ticwatch S, a series that tailored for users pursuing a free boundless workout experience, to you. It comes with a breathable watch band, a built-in GPS, a step counter, as well as a heart-rate monitor. In addition to our Tic fitness apps, you have access to Google Fit, Strava, Runkeeper and other popular 3rd-party fitness apps from the Google Play Store.

Got any thoughts? Come to join the conversation now!

[hleong]

I wish to have one of it.

[victimssun]

What about the Ticwatch 2 that isn't even a year old? Announcing AW would have been a less kick in the face than this for current Ticwatch 2 owners.

[GordonHannan]

Yeah, unfortunately I just got my Ticwatch 2 for $60 more than this new, AW compatible version. Is AW compatibility coming to the TW2?

[Maxxx]

Thoughts? Sure!

Other than being Android-Wear compatible, what's the difference between this new watch and the ticwatch 2?

Is there any comparison I can see?

Also, with the early-bird special on release of the kickstarter campaign, I think a 1 hour delay between releasing details and the offer starting is somewhat unfair to those of us in an unsuitable time zone (I'm in Australia, so the email will be sent at 2am for a 3am start!!)

There really doesn't seem to be a good reason to have such a short timespace between giving details and kicking off kickstarter?

[Gaby]

Yeah, unfortunately I just got my Ticwatch 2 for $60 more than this new, AW compatible version. Is AW compatibility coming to the TW2?

We are discussing with google about the feasibility of transferring AW to Ticwatch 2

[GordonHannan]

We are discussing with google about the feasibility of transferring AW to Ticwatch 2

That's good news! Can we expect any kind of update from Ticwear/Google regarding this shortly or is it still preliminary?

[jtvrm]

Well I'm sorry to say but those must be some really slow talks...
From what I was able to figure from a quick Google search your company had claimed that the Ticwatch 2 was Android Wear - one of the claims from your 2016 Kickstarter campaign...
For those that want to figure out if this new model is worth it I found the following page - http://www.techorz.com/smartwatch/ticwa ... rter-soon/.
It has a hardware comparison image between current and new versions of the Ticwatch.
If the new models S and E will come with Android Wear and if the hardware analysis image is accurate, same hardware for Ticwatch S/e and for 2, then I really don't get what the issue is regarding pushing Android Wear for Ticwatch 2...
Could it be something to do with wanting to maximize the number of returning costumers that just want a better OS by forcing them to buy the new model?!
Furthermore I even found a chinese page with the product presentation event for the Ticwatch S/E dated from April 14th 2017 (https://v.qq.com/x/page/x0395p5z0dl.html) - talk about being a dick about having a new product in the pipeline.
At least Apple let's you trade in your older models if these were bought up to a month before the launch date of the new products!

[GordonHannan]

Seeing that the Ticwear SE watches run the MT2601 chipset with the same amount or RAM/ROM (although likely different GPS and WiFi chips) it would seem like this could be done with minimal effort. Am I correct in assuming that? I'm not familiar with how licensing and whatnot works for Android Wear.

[GordonHannan]

I wouldn't be entirely surprised if they wait until the Ticwatch SE campaign is over to release AW for the Ticwatch 2. From a business perspective, you don't want you backers to back out of a sale. From a moral/transparency perspective, it's a bad move.

The hardware looks to be the same specs, except for a different HR monitor and GPS, so it shouldn't be impossible to make a version for the Ticwatch 2.

To be fair, regarding the Android Wear claim from the 2016 Kickstarter campaign, it did lead you to think 99% of Android Wear apps would be compatible. They did not, however, claim it was going to run Android Wear.

Write Apps for Ticwear

You can also write your own apps for Ticwear! Ticwear provides open API (mostly compatible with Android Wear API) as well as more Ticwear-specific ones, including “Tickle API,” “Gesture API,” “Voice API,” and more. Please visit our developer website for more information.

I'm still hopeful it'll come to the Ticwatch 2. I did back the new watches, but would like my Ticwatch 2 to run the same OS as my new one. Having a spare sounds like is a good idea to me.