Last year I wrote about how the Samsung's move into the smartwatch arena could be fruitful, despite the lack o appeal and technical issues with the first Galaxy Gear. Today it has officially announced its sixth smartwatch model: the Galaxy Gear S. As Engadget has pointed out, in the last 12 months the company has launched the impressive number of 5 iterations/versions of the Gear. Until now the strategy seems to be working. Samsung has been responsible for 34% of the global smartwatch sales in 2013, followed by the Peeble (NPD). This latest version seems very promising. A large screen, 3G connectivity, GPS, curved display, heart rate monitor and even a qwerty keyboard. In fact I think that it is quite cool. Relying on the same OS (Tizen) it inherits the app ecosystem from the previous generation of watches. Battery life is supposed to stay in the same range of previous ones: 2 days with similar processing power. Sony has also announced its SmartWatch 3. Even though the hardware specs seem better than the Gear S, the design just feel uninteresting. Moto 360 feels much better in this respect. Update: Moto 360 has launched with a round backlit LCD, Texas Instruments OMAP 3 processor and inductive recharging dock. However, its biggest selling point is the beautiful design. The LCD circular display and stainless steel body makes the watch elegant and sophisticated. Even though the 360 has its charm, it think that being able to stay way from google, the better connectivity options and longer battery live, would make the Gear S my choice.
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Wallace Lages
Assistant professor and entrepreneur. Archives
May 2015
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