New Samsung Galaxy Gear in different colors are on display after the presentation in Berlin.(Photo Gero Breloer AP)
Story HighlightsNew Galaxy Gear smartwatch from Samsung has 1.63 inch AMOLED screenA built in camera lets you take pictures tooIt works with Galaxy S4 phones Note 2 and 3 models and Note 10.1 tabletSHARECONNECT 106 TWEETCOMMENTEMAILMORE
When it comes to smartwatches the future ain't what it used to be. Can Samsung change that
A high tech watch such as the two way radio and TV wristwatches used by Dick Tracy in the comics more than four decades ago was among those futuristic devices foreshadowed in science fiction. But along the way the smartphone became all powerful.
Now Samsung already a major smartphone power has introduced its new Galaxy Gear smartwatch with hopes of making the watch a must wear device again.
The tech giant revealed the watch and its new Note 3 big screen smartphone Wednesday at the IFA electronics show in Berlin. Black jacketed bouncers checked credentials of a few hundred journalists and industry affiliates who piled into the Tempodrom a high ceiling roundhouse auditorium near central Berlin.
Chamber music played before the new products were revealed on a really big screen stretched about 180 degrees around the center of the room. On stage Samsung research team leader Pranav Mistry deemed the Galaxy Gear as something out of science fiction .... (that) reinvents a centuries old product.
Perhaps but it has some hurdles to surmount says futurist Paul Saffo who teaches long range forecasting at Stanford University.
At the moment the only people who wear things on their wrist are people old enough to have an AARP card. Students look at wristwatches today the same way that their grandparents looked at pocket watches in the middle of the last century as an unbelievably old fashioned thing Saffo says. But that is about to change.
Last SlideNext SlideSamsung's Galaxy Gear due to hit the market later this month for a reported $299 will let wearers access texts e mails news weather and music from their Samsung portable devices. That's similar to what you can do with the Pebble watch released earlier this year. And the Galaxy Gear responds to voice commands as does the Martian Watch released just over two months ago.
Sony has its own SmartWatch 2 out this month and analysts expect Apple and Google to chime in on the category. Smartwatches fit into a growing wearable device market that research firm Gartner estimates will hit $10 billion by 2015.
Whether Samsung's device becomes a mainstream winner remains to be seen Saffo says. But eventually A whole new generation is about to rediscover that a wrist is a useful place to put a device he says.
Not all consumers will think it's time to rejoin the watch wearing crowd despite the new devices' features says P.J. McNealy of Digital World Research.
You already have multiple things you can check the time on McNealy says. Your smartphone your iPad your PC and the wall. Having another device such as a watch just means it's a more crowded field.
There will be those who like the idea of a smaller screen to use beyond the progressively larger options provided by phones tablets and laptops he says. A 2 or 3 inch smartwatch screen is filling out the product portfolio.
Samsung is smart to tout how the Galaxy Gear can help users get more out of their larger display devices says Gartner research director Angela McIntyre.
These larger devices are bulky to take in and out of bags to frequently check calls and messages she says. Smartwatches are accessories to smartphones and phablets.
However McNealy notes smartwatches have failed before. In 2004 Fossil and others teamed with Microsoft on new SPOT (Smart Personal Objects Technology) watches that displayed news weather and messages. But time ran out on them four years later.
At the time few consumers were ticked off.
Contributing Liam McCabe in Berlin
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