Galaxy Gear: Samsung on track to develop perfect smartwatch

jeff juwana

Moderator
According to insider information, the smartphone giant is looking at developing an accessory that can pair with Samsung phones and tablets over bluetooth. This is not only the simplest approach, it’s one uniquely suited to Samsung’s strengths as a hardware and software OEM

Samsung has been supporting a variety of custom Bluetooth devices for the last few years. The Galaxy S4 was announced with support for the Bluetooth-equipped S Band fitness tracker, a heart rate monitor, and even a wireless scale. Samsung is also the sole Android OEM that has proper support for the Fitbit. It would make a ton of sense to take the next step and incorporate smartwatch functionality into a new fitness tracker that people might actually buy. Basically, wearables are in Samsung’s wheelhouse.

It will take smart engineering and vast manufacturing capacity to make an affordable smartwatch that is tied to a specific brand, but Samsung is one of the few that could pull it off. It makes its own Exynos ARM chips. The last generation of Exynos processors would be more than sufficient to run a smartwatch, and they’re easy to manufacture at this point. This is exactly what the Galaxy Gear is rumored to be running.

The South Korean electronics giant also dominates the AMOLED display market. For a smartwatch to be truly useful, you want it to have an always-on, informative display. AMOLED is perfect for that because only the illuminated pixels draw power. If Samsung can fabricate 5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED panels, a tiny watch screen should be no problem.

Samsung is in a position to make this work. It has a huge slice of the smartphone market, and good mindshare to go with it. Now it just has to make the device affordable
 
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