AfterDawn: News

Samsung giving more phones support for Gear smartwatch

Samsung has confirmed that its Galaxy Gear smartwatch will be getting expanded support in the coming weeks.

Currently, the device only works with the new Galaxy Note 3 and the 2014 model Galaxy Tab 10.1.



According to leaked documents, the Note 2, Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, and Galaxy S4 Active will all get Gear support, starting with the S4 on Monday and ending with the Active on December 24th.

Each of the phones have to get Android 4.3 before support can be added for the Gear.

Additionally, the documents had an interesting side note. Samsung has been seeing 32 percent Gear purchases returned at Best Buy Samsung experience stores, a huge figure that proves the smartwatch is likely a large failure.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Oct 2013 23:16

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• 2 comments

• Ryoohki

  I'm not surprised that this will fail. The point is to have less gadgets about your person, not more. I could see the benefit of a smart watch that does practically everything your phone can do but why have an additional accessory that you have to have paired to another device that has the same functions and more? There's no reason to do that.
  

  26.10.2013 11:45 #1

• DarthMopar

  Originally posted by Ryoohki: I'm not surprised that this will fail. The point is to have less gadgets about your person, not more. I could see the benefit of a smart watch that does practically everything your phone can do but why have an additional accessory that you have to have paired to another device that has the same functions and more? There's no reason to do that. Not to mention the fact that you have to turn on Bluetooth, which will drain your phone battery quicker. The only time I use Bluetooth is in the car to stream music, and that's with it plugged in charging.
  
  There will of course, be the early adopters that have to own the latest and greatest, but I think the novelty will wear off quickly. Who is the target market for this device? White collar business men & women aren't going to put their Citizen, Seiko, and Movado watches on the shelf just to sport this glorified calculator watch. College kids might embrace the tech, but not too many kids wear watches these days. They get the time off their phone!
  

  27.10.2013 10:23 #2