Verizon discontinues Wear24 smartwatch after only four months

Verizon has discontinued its own line of smartwatch.REUTERS/Eric Thayer

Verizon has discontinued its own line of smartwatch called Wear24 after only four months since its launch. The Android Wear 2.0 watch is no longer available from the company's stores.

The company has not issued an official statement explaining why the watch has been discontinued, but it is safe to say that the device has not been selling very well. Its customer reviews are also indicative of how the watch was received by its owners. Wear24 has 37 user reviews with an average customer rating of 2.4 out 5.

The main selling point of the watch was its ability to make calls over LTE. However, user reviews indicate that this feature was not worth using because of the very low volume of the watch's speakers. Other reviews also report poor connectivity and buggy software.

The Wear24 was announced back in February. Aside from LTE connectivity, the watch sported an NFC chip for Android Pay. After a few delays, its launch in May was met with awful news that the watch was not compatible with Android Pay, making its NFC chip useless.

The device, which sold for a retail price of $350, encouraged users to use Verizon's Messaging app on both the phone and the watch. However, a notable feature of the app that caused furor among users was that it highlighted words and turned it into monetized links.

The watch was manufactured by an original device manufacturer called Quanta, and was contracted by Verizon to be sold as their own.

To date, Apple is the company that dominates the smartwatch market with its Apple Watch, whose newest iteration is now capable of LTE connectivity. Smartwatch competitors are not faring well against Apple, except for fashion brands like Fossil. It is no surprise that Verizon encountered problems selling its own smartwatch, when people have not even bought from more well-known brands like Samsung and LG.