Android Wear for iPhones could launch soon
One of the biggest problems with wearables right now is that they're generally tied to a single operating system - Android Wear devices will only work with Android handsets, the upcoming Apple Watch is unique to iOS and Samsung smartwatches will actually only work if you have a Samsung phone.This leaves the field of open systems pretty small - mostly limited to unique companies like Pebble with their own operating system. It's bad for the consumer who wants freedom of choise and it'sbad for the developers and manufacturers who want the money in the pockets of those consumers. So it's likely that many major companies are working on a way to open things up.One company who is definitely on that path is Google. We've heard rumours before that they were trying to tweak Android Wear to be compatible with iOS and iPhones and a new report suggests they're getting close to making it a reality. The system would work by installing an app on the iPhone which would let the handset communicate with the Android Wear watch or device. The functionality at the moment is said to be limited but includes showing notifications on the watch screen and being able to use Google Now's voice search and cards.That would all be great news for consumers but even if Google gets the software ready there's no reason to assume it will see the light of day. That's because Apple has to approve each app which appears on their App Store and there isn't much incentive for them to do so in this case. With the upcoming launch of the Apple Watch, they've got their own wearable platform and they certainly wouldn't want a competing (and cheaper) alternative available to users.In the best possible version of this story, Apple and Google come to an agreement which makes all wearables compatible with both platforms but at such an early stage in the development of the Apple Watch that just doesn't seem likely.More as we get it.Google has been working hard to bring their Android Wear smartwatch platform to iPhones and a report suggest they're almost ready
