Monday, 19 August 2013
The South Korean giant hopes its new device, which it has already confirmed is in development, will give it a headstart against Apple. The iPhone-maker is claimed has 100 engineers working on their own watch.
Sony has already introduced a watch-style companion for its smartphones, but
the Samsung model will go further and be able to make phone calls, surf the
web and handle emails on its tiny screen,Bloomberg
claims.
The Galaxy Gear will be unveiled on September 4
, at the IFA consumer
electronics show in Berlin, the agency claims.
Analysts are divided over whether smartwatches will provide the industry with
a new category of profitable devices. A survey by analysts IDC found that US
consumers were more interested in wearable technologies such as Google
Glass, rather than smartwatches.
But Canalys has predicted that sales of smartwatches will "explode" from
330,000 units shipped last year to more than five million in 2014. Analyst
Chris Jones claimed they will be “the most important new product category in
consumer electronics since the iPad”, with crucial opportunites for
improvements in health and fitnessSamsung became the world’s largest smartphone maker last year, overtaking Apple and claiming about 33 percent of the global smartphone market in the second quarter. The iPhone maker fell to a three-year low as more consumers chose inexpensive handsets from Chinese makers.
Samsung released its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone in April and plans at least two other high-end handsets this year, including a device using the Tizen operating system.
