Qualcomm recently introduced its Snapdragon Wear 2500 chipset, which is optimized for the (quietly) growing category of child-focused and parent-focused smartwatches.

The Wear 2500 chip supports LTE, has a smaller footprint than the previous generation, and consumes less battery life than before. Device partners will include Huawei and others, and models should be available from Q4 2018 or H1 2019 onward.

The chipset does not use Wear OS -- instead, it employs "Android for kids", an Android fork, which enables a smartwatch to be preloaded with kid-friendly apps, games or location-trackers. We believe watches using the chip will not connect to app stores, so there is no chance of young Timothy going wild with mummy or daddy's credit card.

Overall, this is a smart move from Qualcomm. Kids' smartwatches and smart-featurewatches are becoming increasingly popular in Asia, particularly India and China. They are right to target this segment.