Google's wearables push is about to get a big boost.
Samsung plans to introduce its first Android Wear device at Google's developer conference next week, people familiar with the matter told CNET. The wearable will be a smartwatch, much like the Gear devices Samsung has released in the past year, the people said.
Samsung has been working on an Android Wear smartwatch that uses Samsung's own chips, as well as another model built off of processors from Qualcomm, one person said. It's unclear which version Samsung will show at Google I/O. Android Wear is Google's operating system for smartwatches and other wearable devices.
Companies have been looking to wearables as a new market of opportunity as smartphone andtablet growth slows. By the end of this year, over 19 million wearable devices will ship worldwide, tripling last year's figure, market researcher IDCreported in April. By 2018, wearable shipments are expected to hit 111.9 million worldwide shipments -- still a small number compared with the 1.7 billion smartphones expected to be sold that year.
Samsung declined to comment on the Android Wear device but said in a statement that it's "committed to relentless innovation and new products are always in development."
Along with Samsung, LG also will launch an Android Wear device at the developer conference, people familiar with the matter said. Motorola also could introduce its first wearable at the event, one person said. Google I/O, the company's annual gathering of developers, is expected to draw about 6,000 people to San Francisco starting June 25. Samsung's Android Wear smartwatch may be given to Google I/O attendees, one person said.
For Samsung, the new smartwatch shows a renewed commitment to Google -- and an effort to hedge its bets over which operating system will win over consumers. Its first smartwatch, last September's Galaxy Gear, ran Google's Android mobile OS, but Samsung switched to its own open-source software, called Tizen, for thesecond generation of Gear and the Gear 2 Neo. Samsung even pushed out a software update earlier this month that converted the first Gear's operating system to Tizen. Its Gear Fit, meanwhile, runs a real-time operating system designed to improve battery life.
No comments:
Post a Comment