Samsung launched their first smart watch – Samsung Galaxy Gear back in IFA 2013 alongside their current flagship – Galaxy Note 3. A couple of weeks remain for MWC 2014 and there are clear indications that Samsung will unveil their next generation Galaxy S series flagship – Galaxy S5 at MWC 2014. Apart from the obvious fact, Samsung is also rumored to be launching their next version of smart watch – Galaxy Gear 2 at MWC 2014.
According to ZDNet Korea, Samsung is considering a price point lower than that of the original Galaxy Gear. Since launch, Samsung’s Galaxy Gear hasn’t really picked up as Samsung would have expected and despite their announcement that Samsung had shipped 800,000 Galaxy Gear smart watches, Galaxy Gear isn’t really a device that you get to see everyday. The 800,000 number was shipped to retailers and not all of them were sold, so it is safe to assume that – Galaxy Gear is a product still under construction.
One of the main reasons for the commercial failure of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear was its pricing. It was priced at Rs. 22,990 at launch in India and one could get a nice smartphone for that price. However, some days ago, Samsung Galaxy Gear had a huge price drop and is available for Rs. 14,999. For a comparison, Motorola Moto G, a smartphone with a 4.5 HD display and Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor costs Rs. 13,999. Such is the pricing of a smart watch whose primary functionality is to check what is happening in the phone. So, that is one of the main reasons that Samsung is considering a lower price point for the next generation Samsung Galaxy Gear and rumors indicate that it will be around $300(on par with the rumored iWatch).
Another one of the shortcomings of Samsung Galaxy Gear is that it felt huge on the hand and needs to be charged daily and that isn’t something people are used to. Unlike other smartwatches in the market like Pebble or Sony Smart Watch, Samsung’s Galaxy Gear can be used only with specific Samsung Galaxy devices which is a huge restriction considering the huge smartphone market. Samsung is planning to completely redesign their smart watch and hopefully they come up with something more useful for the price.
We will have to wait and see what Samsung has up its sleeve.