As reported on TechCrunch.
by DARRELL ETHERINGTON
Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch is poised to be the next big news in wearable tech, and it’s also rapidly becoming one of the worst kept secrets of the tech world. Today, Samsung Executive Vice President of Mobile Lee Young-hee told The Korea Times that the Galaxy Gear would indeed be unveiled in Berlin on Sept. 4 two days ahead of the IFA conference opening, and that the new smartwatch would be powered by Android, and would not feature Samsung’s fledgling flexible display tech.
The Galaxy Gear will be a device to “enhance” and “enrich” the smart phone experience, according to Lee, which makes sense given the recent reportsthat it would be more of an accessory device than something that stands separate from a smartphone and is capable of making its own calls.
Lee also characterized the Galaxy Gear as a “wearable concept device,” saying that Samsung has been working on the smartwatch category for a long time now, and noting that is aimed primarily at “young trendsetters” in the interview with the Korea Times. All of which combines to make it sound like Samsung is designing this not only as something that’s aimed at early adopters, but also as something of a fashion accessory.
Earlier, GigaOM reported that the Galaxy Gear would have a 2.5-inch display, with 320 x 320 resolution, and a dual core processor. It’s designed to pair up to devices with Bluetooth 4.0, and will likely require an app provided through the Samsung dedicated app marketplace in order to work, making it likely an accessory exclusive to Samsung’s own smartphones.
The September 4 event will also definitely see the introduction of the new Galaxy Note 3, which will reveal what’s next for the phablet category Samsung basically pioneered with the original Note. Some new rumors suggest the Galaxy Note 3 will shoot 4K video, and be powered by aSnapdragon 800 processor with a 2.3GHz clock speed, with a 5.7-inch display and 3GB of RAM.