Samsung are expected to announce the new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 on the 4th of September at their IFA press conference, and now it would appear that they may also announce their new Samsung Galaxy Gear Smart Watch at the same event.
Additional information on the Samsung Galaxy Gear is quite limited as of yet, but the wearable gadget is believed to be more of an accessory for Samsung Smartphones, rather than a standalone device. The Galaxy Gear’s user interface, known internally as the “Altius OS”, had also leaked some time ago, but aside from that, we know very little about this device with little than a month remaining before IFA 2013. The Galaxy Gear’s present competitors, as mentioned, include Sony, Pebble and I’m Watch, while tech giants such as Google, Microsoft and LG have also been rumored to have smart watches cooked up for future launch.
In addition to Apple and Samsung, Sony had also announced a second generation of its Smart Watch as well dubbed the Smart Watch 2 that’s slated for availability this fall. Motorola had released, to limited success, a smart sports watch that pairs with Android phones, and Google, LG, and Microsoft are all rumored to be entering the Smartwatch category with their own products in the future.
As the computing category is so new, it’s unclear how the Smartwatches will work. Whether they will be companions to a Smartphone that requires a constant paired connection or if the smartwatch will work as a standalone product in lieu of a phone is unclear. We’ll definitely have to see how the companies approach the new wearable computing market and implement a tech-centric concept of an age-old form factor.
There will be several challenges for this type of product. The first would be battery life as its unlikely consumers will want to have to remove the device at the end of every day to charge and then put the device back on every morning. The second challenge would be creating a waterproof device so it could be worn everywhere without worry of damage.