Huawei CEO thinks smartwatches are pointless

I guess this is one way to do business; Huawei CEO Eric Xu Zhijun doesn't care for one of their biggest recent releases - their new smartwatch.

Xu doesn't really seem to get the point of smartwatches. You and me both, Eric.

"I am always confused as to what smartwatches are for when we have smartphones," he said, at Huawei's 2017 Global Analyst Summit event in China, according to the South China Morning Post. He went on to say that he'd never wear a smartwatch.

After the release of their Watch 2, an update to its smartwatch line, Xu seems largely apathetic about the technology.

In the event that someone might think he didn't really mean what he said, Xu confirmed his lack of care about the tech.

"Therefore, when the smartwatch team in Huawei presents their ideas to me with great excitement, I keep reminding them to consider whether there are tangible needs [for these products] in the market," he says.

It's not as if his remarks are unfounded, or his views uncommon. Consumers have to try quite hard to even find applicable uses for smartwatches and wearable tech when smartphones do most of the heavy lifting in that department. Not to mention Apple and Samsung have the smartwatch game locked up.

Reports of wearable tech companies struggling are emerging, with Fitbit, laying off 6% of their staff at the start of 2017 and hitting speedbumps in the development stages of next smartwatch.

It's hard to blame Xu given this information, and it's easy to see why his priorities are elsewhere in the business. It's also nice to hear such refreshing commentary coming from such a high place in a big-name technology company.