American chipset maker Qualcomm launched its first system-on-chip (SoC) aimed exclusively at wearable devices at the Computex technology trade show in Taiwan.

The Snapdragon Wear 2100, which was first announced in February, is 30 per cent smaller and uses 25 per cent less power than the Snapdragon 400 – a low-end smartphone SoC that has been used by a number of manufacturers to power wearable devices. It also features an integrated low-power sensor hub and a integrated LTE and GPS.

In addition to the full-featured 2100 that is aimed at multi-purpose wearables, the company also announced the watch of a new platform – the Snapdragon Wear 1100, which will be used to run low-end wearables that are designed to perform fewer and more specific tasks.

The new SoC will be 45 per cent smaller than the 2100 and offer up to 7 days of LTE standby as well as hardware-based security and support for external sensors. It is also equipped with the same Cat 1 LTE modem with integrated GPS as its higher-powered sibling.

“Everybody will be using multiple wearables within the next few years,” said Pankaj Kedia, Wearables Head at Qualcomm, speaking at the launch event. Indicating that wearables aimed at children would be the key growth area for device manufacturers, he announced collaborations with a host of companies from around the world to produce reference designs for Qualcomm-powered wearables aimed at children and seniors. Peruvian start-up Anda, inWatch from China and the American company WeBandz also launched devices based on the reference designs on the sidelines of the event.

Qualcomm recently announced that more than 100 wearables are now available that run on the company’s chipsets. This represents more than 80 per cent of the Android Wear device market.

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