Samsung Working On A Smart Watch Of Its Own
Samsung this week confirmed that it has a smartwatch in the works.
In the wake of an earlier rumor about Apple’s work on a smart watch—supposedly involving a team of 100 engineers—this feels a bit like a new kind of tech arms race. At the very least, it’s the race to be the first to hint at products that may be many months or even years in the future, in order to prop up the endless hype cycle required to capture the interest of consumers who have come to expect that revelations like Google Glass should arrive with some regularity.
Bloomberg is reporting that Lee Young Hee, EVP of Samsung Mobile, said “We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long. We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.”
There was no hint of when the Samsung’s smartwatch will be available, or at what cost. In addition, one would think that a product like this would fall under the Galaxy naming scheme and be called something like the “Galaxy Watch.”
[pullquote_left] ”The issue here is who will first commercialize it so consumers can use it meaningfully,” Lee said. [/pullquote_left]
Smart watches have been attempted before. Sony tried one. Motorola’s MOTOACTV gave it a go with a health twist. Recently Waterloo-based Pebble broke through ice and gained mass popularity. But none really took off as well as the companies would’ve hoped.
According to an analyst report from early March, the smart watch industry could generate more than $6 billion in sales this year.
[Bloomberg]
