With wearable technology on the rise, Samsung has confirmed a Galaxy Smart Watch product is ‘definitely’ on its way, according to news report.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile business, 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.”
Lee did not give any details or information on when the Samsung smart watch would go on sale or what its price would be. Nor did he give any indication of what features it will offer.
Companion device?
Last month, Slashgear revealed screenshots which appear to indicate a smart watch from Samsung.
The screenshots, which are in black and white, originate from an unspecified Korean discussion forum and feature a Korean-language operating system.
The screens feature a 500×500-pixels resolution and use a tile-based interface not unlike that employed by Microsoft’s Windows 8. Tiles appear to give access to applications for music, email and maps, and the screenshots also show the device telling the time.
One screen indicates that the device appears to be called the “Galaxy Altius”, a name which could make it a companion device for Samsung’s successful Galaxy series of smartphones and tablets, or indeed a new generation of Galaxy devices.
The device appears to run software called “AltiusOS Beta 2″, which could indicate Samsung’s move away from using Windows and Android operating systems. Samsung has long been said to be planning to develop an in-house mobile OS to reduce its dependence on US-based software makers.
The names SKT and SK Telecom feature in the screenshots, suggesting a mobile data plan with an operator such as South Korea Telecom could be involved.
One screen indicates that the device includes only 235MB of storage space, which would seem to suggest that the watch is intended more as an interface for a nearby smartphone or tablet, rather than a stand-alone device. Motorola released a device of this type last year called the Motoactiv.
Race with Apple?
The news comes after rumours that rival Apple is also working on a smart watch, or iWatch, design to accompany the iPhone. Rumour has it that Apple will launch its smart watch this year.
As well as telling the time, smart watches connect to your smartphone allowing you to receive notifications and control certain functions.
Apple’s iWatch is also rumoured to house a pedometer for counting steps and sensors for monitoring health-related data, such as heart rates.
Samsung will be holding an Unpacked 2013 Episode 2 event later this year so this could be where the Galaxy Watch will be fully revealed.
Samsung became the world’s largest smartphone maker last year, overtaking Apple. Samsung had 29 percent of global smartphone unit shipments in the fourth quarter, compared with 21 percent for Apple.
Watch this Bloomberg video below explaining how the service will work, and the new race between Apple, Google and Samsung to produce wearable technology:
