Reports are emerging today that executive vice-president of Samsung Mobile Lee Young Hee has said the company is working on a smartwatch, perhaps planning to beat its rival Apple to the wearable tech arena.
According to Bloomberg, Young Hee said, “We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long,” during an interview that took place in Seoul, South Korea. “We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them,” she added.
This revealing statement follows the unveiling of Samsung’s flagship smartphone for 2013, the Galaxy S4, which was finally revealed at a New York City press event last week.
Apparently, Samsung is not content to watch its smartphone rival Apple get one up on it in the wearable tech market. Rumours of a so-called iWatch have been rampant, and it’s believed that Apple’s chief designer Jony Ive is heading up a team of more than 100 product designers and engineers to bring the iOS experience to a wristwatch.
Meanwhile, Kickstarter success story the Pebble E-Paper Watch started shipping in late January and has been well-received. This low-power timepiece can connect to both Android smartphones and iPhones via Bluetooth and so alert the wearer to incoming calls, texts, or emails. Sony’s Android-based SmartWatch has been available for quite a while now but has not captured consumers’ attention.
Google, keen to plug its wearable tech innovation Google Glass at every opportunity of late, could also be planning a smartwatch if a patent application approved late last year is anything to go by.
Main image via Johan Loekito
