2014 will see the second coming of the Galaxy Gear smart watch. Last years were really cool, but it failed to capitalize on sales, and ended up being a disappoint for Samsung as they were expecting much greater numbers to sell world-wide.
It wasn’t all the consumers fault this time around though, because it only came out compatible with one handset — the Note 3. That created two big problems. The first was that you needed to have a Note 3 for the Gear to work and most people did not. The second was that the Note is a big and bulky device that really doesn’t interest many people to begin with, and if you combine that with another bit of tech worn on the wrist, that goes completely in the wrong direction and puts way too much technology on one’s body that they have no interest in carrying.
Samsung will continue to bring out this year’s gear 2 along the Note 4, but they will also make it work together with the flagship standard handset — the galaxy S5. That will then give consumers a better range to work with and should result in the Smartwatch selling a lot more in 2014 than it evidently did in 2013.
It will need to as well because it’s going to have stiff competition when it gets stacked up against the first generation Apple iWatch. HTC will also be introducing something similar, and we are sure to see heaps of other companies — some that are already in the game — come out with another watch also.
There’s been some talk from executives that we can expect a different looking watch all together compared to last year’s model. The same executive has admitted that the wearable tech industry is now limited because of its lack of battery power that is in the hardware’s small area, but one thing that they can focus on, and plan for, is the design aspects. This follows up from the fact that many people weren’t too thrilled with what we have seen already, and these brands will try to change that this time.
Dennis Miloseski, head of the design team, has said publicly in an interview that this years Gear will come out along two big devices. That doesn’t leave much to the imagination, as there really are two ones in particular that stand out above the crowd compared to the rest of the line up.
Also on show at the same time could be the all new galaxy band. The band will be on health and fitness aspects, much like the Nike fuel-band is now. The watch could also be coming with a flexible display, and all could be revealed in February at the MWC.