Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pushing ahead with his plans and expanding into the wearable sector. The big goal: control of the communication platform after smartphones. That’s why his team is now working on a Facebook smartwatch, which is scheduled to appear in 2022.
Facebook is building its own Android smartwatch
Facebook is working on its own smartwatch. This is reported by the industry magazine The Information. In doing so, the report refers to four unspecified Facebook employees who are working on the project.
The product is to be available for purchase to interested parties from 2022. The primary purpose of the Facebook smartwatch is to send messages via the Facebook services Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. Fitness and health applications are also planned.
There is currently no information about the price of the Facebook Smartwatch. However, it is certain that Facebook will use Android as the operating system. However, it is still unclear whether Google’s Wear OS will also be used. After all, Facebook is already working on its own operating system for hardware products.
Mark Zuckerberg wants to control smartphone successor
The news of a Facebook smartwatch comes as a surprise at first glance. After all, hardware products are not part of Facebook’s core area of expertise.
However, Mark Zuckerberg has been pursuing a goal for several years that he can only achieve with the help of the smartwatch: He wants to control and dominate the successor to smartphones.
What does that mean in concrete terms? Facebook is heavily dependent on smartphones with its business model. However, since the time of smartphones will eventually be over, Mark Zuckerberg already wants to create a product for the “computing platforms” of the next generation.
Many experts, CEOs and company heads believe that wearables such as smartwatches will have overtaken smartphones as early as 2025. Mark Zuckerberg obviously believes in this scenario as well.
98.5 percent: Facebook is dependent on advertising and smartphones
Back in 2020, Facebook made public a cooperation with the eyewear label Ray Ban. The goal of the collaboration is smart sunglasses that also stand out in terms of design. Both Snapchat’s Spectacles and Google Glass failed because of this.
A look at the annual report for 2020 shows how important Mark Zuckerberg’s initiative is. According to this, Facebook generated just under 86 billion US dollars in revenue and 15.2 billion US dollars in profit.
However, 98.5 percent of the revenue is attributable to Facebook’s advertising business. That, in turn, comes largely from mobile applications seen on smartphones.
Or to put it another way, just 1.5 percent of Facebook’s revenue comes from other areas such as the hardware sector. To be ready for the post-smartphone era, Facebook needs to make the right decisions now.
Apple dominates smartwatch market
However, this undertaking will by no means be easy. After all, the smartwatch market has been fiercely competitive for years.
According to a study by Strategy Analytics in spring 2020, Apple accounts for more than 55 percent of smartwatch sales. They are followed by Samsung (13.9 percent) and Garmin (8.0 percent).
It is therefore reasonable to doubt that the Facebook smartwatch will be a success immediately after its release. In addition, the data scandals at Facebook, Instagram and the like have not exactly helped users trust Facebook with their personal data.
