Lenovo, Motorola, and Google are bringing Android Wear to China in the form of the Moto 360 smartwatch

The recently revealed 2nd generation Moto 360 smartwatch will be sold in China, according to a new report. The wearable making it to the country might have something to do with the fact that Motorola is now owned by Lenovo, a Chinese company.

This is a bit unexpected because Google services are effectively banned in China and thus don't work. And the Moto 360 runs Android Wear, which is an operating system that, unlike Android for phones and tablets, is pretty much controlled by Google in its entirety. Most of what the currently outed Android Wear watches do is powered by various Google services.

So in order for the Moto 360 to launch in China, Google had to decouple its wearable OS from its dependence on Google Now and Google Play. At the same time, Lenovo partnered with a few Chinese companies to offer similar (but not identical) functionality.

For example, Mobvoi will provide search services and voice recognition. If you're in China and buy a Moto 360, you'll still be able to talk to it, but instead of waking it up by saying "OK Google" you'll have to utter "Ni hao, Android" (which translates into "Hello Android"). After that you can ask for a taxi, do a search, or dictate messages. Sogou will provide the mapping functionality.

The Moto 360 in China will let you install apps on it too, but these will obviously not be offered by Google's Play Store (which doesn't work over there). The apps will come via local app stores, of which there are plenty.

Via Source

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