“Samsung Electronics Co. is making another run at that perennial technogeek dream, the wrist communicator, with plans to unveil a smartwatch that works as a stand-alone phone in the next few months,” Min-Jeong Lee and Yun-Hee Kim report for The Wall Street Journal.
“Samsung’s watch-phone will be able to make and receive calls without being tethered to a smartphone, something most smartwatches on the market now can’t do, according to people familiar with the company’s plans,” Lee and Kim report. “It will also take photos, send email and come with GPS, Bluetooth and a heart monitor, the people said.”
“The South Korean technology giant—currently the top seller of smartphones—is in talks with telecom carriers in the U.S., South Korea and Europe about the watch-phone, and hopes to unveil the gadget between June and July, the people said. It will run on Samsung’s homegrown operating system, Tizen, which was co-developed with Intel Corp.,” Lee and Kim report. “The people declined to say what the device would be called, or whether a user would make calls by holding the watch up to his or her mouth.”
Lee and Kim report, “Apple Inc., Samsung’s closest rival in smartphones, is widely expected to launch a smartwatch later this year.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: July or July… or this autumn, as soon as Apple shows them what to do, of course.
Good thing, too, because right now, without Apple to copy, Samsung seems as confused as ever. Apple brass has to be laughing over Samsung’s latest stupidwatch “plans.”
Tim Cook should drop a few hints about a shoe phone, just to see Samsung trot out a Galaxy stupidshoe with ads featuring clips from Get Smart.
Related articles:
Analyst: ‘Cool’ Apple iWatch to arrive this year – January 3, 2014
Apple to make two iWatch models: 1.7-inch display for men, 1.3-inch for women, sources say – November 13, 2013
Clueless companies race to debut stupidwatches before Apple defines the smartwatch – January 3, 2014
Jim Cramer: ‘The curtain has closed’ on Samsung’s stupidwatch – October 3, 2013
The Verge reviews Samsung’s Galaxy Gear stupidwatch: Orwellian, unintuitive, oversized, and overpriced – October 2, 2013
Jean-Louis Gassée: I hope Tim Cook had fun goading Samsung to make their Galaxy stupidwatch – September 9, 2013
Stupidwatch: Why Samsung’s Galaxy Gear is a flop – September 5, 2013
Samsung Galaxy Gear watch looks rushed, misses the mark – September 4, 2013
The Galaxy Gear stupidwatch: Without Apple to copy, Samsung is clueless – September 4, 2013
Samsung announces ‘Galaxy Gear’ watch accessory for Galaxy Android devices – September 4, 2013
Agent 86, where are you?
Samsung is selling their Dick Tracy not look alike wrist communicator in Canada through Rodgers for $49.95. That is a whopping big discount of $170.00 less than the original price of $219.95.
They are selling like snotcakes.
The funny thing about all this is Google losing ad access when Samsung switches FULL-TIME to Tizen OS. Then what?
Google won’t fully support Tizen as well as it does Android… Samsung complains… buys their own mapping service… etc…
Anyway, i’m hoping Samsung switches to Tizen sooner than later, just to see what Google does.
And there it will stand…alone.
Recharge every 8 hours or standby for 16 hours.
Way off… a device that small with all those radios turned on, wouldn’t last an hour. Currently, a device with anything other than a BLE radio would have absolutely horrible up time.
Ask Samsung about how efficient their smartphones consume battery power. They eat through twice the amount of power of any iOS device.
The South Korean technology giant—currently the top seller of Android-based feature phones
There, fixed it for ya.
A smart watch, wrist communicator, watch-phone…..hmm…..
I’ve never seen one in the wild but I can’t help but visualize some guy walking around with his wrist up to his ear saying, “can you hear me now”? I laugh every time I think about how stupid it would look.
I wonder, would Verizon want to change their “can you here me now” slogan to something else like “can you talk louder”. Not really a selling point for a phone manufacturer in my mine. More of a problem then a solution.
BTW, anyone ever seen a Samdung smart watch or wrist communicator or whatever they call it out in the real world? I guess it’s like a snow leopard, you know they exist and they’re out there, but no one has ever really seen one. Samdung couldn’t call it that because you know, it would be copying Apple again…haha I crack myself up.
on the product placement front: in what is obviously a ‘hoax’ lawsuit, johnny manziel is being sued for sexual harassment for sending pictures of his allegedly, ‘tiny’ penis to someone on their samsung phone.
surely samsung wouldn’t stoop so low? but, on the other hand, why mention the specific brand of the phone in a lawsuit?
A huge bet on Tizen, oh wait, not … exactly..
What we really need is a cone of silence!