In a short interview with financial news site Bloomberg, the executive vice president of Samsung’s Mobile division confirmed the company is preparing a smartwatch. A month ago we saw what were purported to be screens from a Samsung Galaxy Altius smartwatch however no details about the smartwatch features, pricing or launch date were forthcoming during Bloomberg’s interview.
Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile division told Bloomberg “We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long”. He added that “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”. Bloomberg noted that Lee had no comment upon the features, price or launch date of the smartwatch.
Smartphone slowdown
The growth of the smartphone market is expected to dramatically slow down, from the current 27 per cent to around 10 per cent by 2017. With eyes on these projections it is thought that Samsung and Apple will branch out into wearable tech. Apple has yet to confirm or deny its smartwatch plans though various reports say that it has a 100 strong team working on its development.
In the Bloomberg interview Samsung’s Lee Young Hee said “The issue here is who will first commercialize it so consumers can use it meaningfully”. A lot of the watch design decisions will depend on the company strategy. A smartwatch could be designed to take over most of the functions of a smartphone, which would let buyers make use of it “meaningfully”, or may be designed to enhance smartphone functions without making the smartphone redundant.
Does a company choose to possibly cannibalise its smartphone sales with a smartwatch, or to mainly intergrate features to make it a smartphone-buddy type of device? Rumours about Apple’s iWatch say that it will have the following functions; calling, caller ID, navigation and health monitor applications. It would seem, from that information, that Apple’s iWatch won’t tread heavily on the toes of the iPhone.
With wearable tech like smartwatches the leading companies could hope for even more frequent upgrades by users. As a highly visible wearable item it is thought that fashion designers will play a large role in the changing the look of smartwatches once the tech gets established.
