A new report claims Samsung will introduce an updated Galaxy Gear smartwatch and a Galaxy Band fitness tracker at Mobile World Congress in February 2014.
It appears that Samsung has learned a valuable lesson when it comes to releasing a device that isn't ready for prime time in order to have bragging rights of releasing it first. When rumors began to pop up about Samsung's plans to enter the smartwatch market, the launch was heavily fueled by reports that Apple was close to releasing its highly anticipated iWatch. Samsung did beat Apple to market with the release of the Galaxy Gear, but its head start has been plagued with bad press rather than praise.
When the company officially announced the Galaxy Gear, it made some serious tradeoffs in order to get the smartwatch on to store shelves and hopefully customer's wrists. The company announced that the smartwatch would only work with the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. The millions of people who owned Samsung's Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S3 would have to wait a couple of months before they would be able to get their hands on the software to link their smartphones to the Galaxy Gear.
Another area that seemed to indicate Samsung rushed the release of the Galaxy Gear was its battery life, or lack thereof. The company claimed that most users would be able to get through a day of use before the smartwatch would need to be recharged. Early reviews and reports of high return rates, however, focused on its lack of acceptable battery life.
A new report now claims Samsung will introduce an updated version of its smartwatch, which will likely be unveiled at MWC 2014. The Galaxy Gear 2 is expected to use a new flexible OLED display, which could make the device less bulky than the first generation. The company is also likely to address battery life on the Galaxy Gear 2. It is also rumored to introduce another wearable device called the Galaxy Band, which will reportedly be a fitness-oriented device worn on the wrist, similar to the Nike+ FuelBand and Fitbit. Such devices communicate with smartphones to display daily activity, calories burned, and more.
As with all unannounced devices, we'll have to file this in the rumor category for now and wait to see how this plays out. Until official confirmation, take all such reports with a grain of salt.
