kids

Not quite a fully baked smartwatch, Tencent’s QQ Watch is a wearable that is designed to help parents stay connected to their children. While details are still slim, images show the watch is able to display time and date, temperature, and weather. The brightly colored device features a 1.12 inch OLED display, a 5 day battery life, and has an IP65 rating (read: wash your hands with it on, but don’t swim). Engadget reports that the watch contains a 2G cellular radio, WiFi, and a GPS chip. QQ Watch utilizes all of these communication methods to provide accurate location information should your child get lost. They can also call you via an SOS button on the side. And the inclusion of a 0.3 megapixel camera allows your child to send you photos via WeChat. While pricing has not been released, the company claims it will be affordable.

The QQ Watch launches in China in October and Tencent expects to roll the device out globally by the end of the year. The US might prove to be a difficult market for it though, mainly because of the 2G radio. Cellular technology that was considered “2G” in the US differed substantially between carriers. Depending on which network you were on, you would need a CDMA, TDMA, or GSM device and it needed to operate on the correct frequencies. AT&T transitioned to GSM, which was also adopted by most carriers worldwide. With approximately 68% of the international market (based off of a study from 2013) still utilizing 2G, the radio in the QQ Watch is likely to be GSM. Unfortunately, AT&T has already started the process of shutting down their GSM network, which will formally be turned off in 2017. Given this, it will be interesting to see if Tencent decides to bring the QQ to the US.