Samsung has hinted that new members of the Samsung Galaxy Gear wearables family are in the works, suggesting the original model will be followed by a ‘halo effect of products’.
Having launched the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch at IFA 2013 back in September, a number of reports have claimed the Korean manufacturer is already working towards the launch of a second-generation Gear alongside the Samsung Galaxy S5 later this quarter.
Although the company has failed to confirm any timings or product names, Samsung has hinted that it expects the Samsung Galaxy Gear to be the first of many wearables it produces.
“We always have a flagship product first, and the Gear was a flagship product for us,” Kyle Brown, Samsung’s Head of Technical Product Management for IM said of the smartwatch. Questioned on Samsung’s future wearable releases he teased: “Now there will be a halo effect.”
He added: “Other manufacturers will learn from what we have done and what we’ve achieved with Galaxy Gear, but Samsung will also be learning and we’re ahead from the beginning as we know what we did the first time.
“We did all the research; we talked to customers and were constantly working on how to develop the Gear and the Gear UI for the future.”
As well as looking to the future, Samsung has looked back over the original Samsung Galaxy Gear, telling TrustedReviews that it was a considerable risk producing a high-profile smartwatch before many of its major rivals.
“There is always going to be that risk [with going first], but Samsung has never been afraid to lead in any technology,” Brown said. “If we believe that the offering we have made is compelling enough for our consumers to be happy and to want to purchase it, we are going to go with it, regardless of any potential criticism.”
Despite the Samsung Galaxy Gear packing in a raft of features from an integrated camera, touchscreen display and wrist-based calling abilities, the timepiece came under criticism for its lofty £300 price tag and limited compatibility.
“There is an element of Samsung where the best technology available on the market is what we want to offer to our customers and this is a purchase that most customers on the street will have not of thought of,” Samsung’s IM head said. “They will not have thought ‘I’m going to spend X amount on a smartwatch to work with my phone’. We had to make it the best that it could possibly be to get any traction on the market.”
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