Chip makers Qualcomm have announced Snapdragon Wear, a new platform designed especially for wearables. The Snapdragon Wear 2100 is the first chip in the new series, it’s 30% smaller than the Snapdragon 400 which is used by most Android Wear smartwatches – apart from the original Moto 360 that’s powered by a Texas Instruments OMAP 3630, and the Tag Heuer Connected and Fossil Q Founder which are both powered by the Intel Atom.

With its smaller size, the new chip will allow wearables manufacturers to produce less bulky devices. It is targeted towards tethered smartwatches, activity trackers, smart bracelets, headsets, smart glasses and other connected wearables.

With an integrated, ultra-low power sensor hub, the Snapdragon Wear 2100 enables richer algorithms with greater accuracy than the Snapdragon 400. It supports Android and Android Wear, and an LTE version will be available.

The new processor doesn’t just outperform its larger predecessor, but it also uses 25% less power which should give your average Android Wear smartwatch some extra battery life – I guess that kinda means an extra half a day or so. This also applies to the LTE version.

I suppose this leaves the question “who is going to release the first 4G/LTE smartwatch?” The Android Wear OS now supports LTE, but since the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition failed to make it out of the starting blocks no smartwatch is taking advantage of it. There were some rumors floating about that suggested we might see a Sony Smartwatch 4 with LTE support at CES 2016, but it never happened.

Anyway, slimmer wearables, better battery life, happy days..