It doesn’t change the fact that Samsung may have diverted its focus on its other products (i.e. smartphones) considering there are no new smart wearables lined up as of to date. Which is likely what the reported Samsung executives were alluding to when they were originally quoted as saying that “no more Samsung Android Wear devices are in development or being planned”.
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However, Samsung has rebutted Fast Company’s report by releasing a statement. And as for not changing its level of commitment to Android Wear – well, was Samsung really that committed to begin with?
The report that pushed forward the notion that Samsung is no longer going to manufacture devices powered by Android Wear was published by Fast Company. Whereas its fellows, like LG, Motorola, and Huawei, have put out one smartwatch after another, the Gear Live remains an oddity in Samsung’s roster, much like the Galaxy Gear before it.
David Singleton, Director of Engineering of Android at Google, stands in front of a Samsung Gear Live watch during the Google I/O Developers Conference at Moscone Center on June 25, 2014 in San Francisco, California.
This is mainly the reason why many immediately believed Fast Company’s report. “If you’re a lover of wearables you’d be remiss to overlook Android Wear, even if you’ve chosen iOS as your primary mobile platform”. Since then, and even before then, the firm has used Tizen in the Galaxy Gear, the trio of Gear 2 smartwatches, Gear S, and Gear S2. It’s been a long while since Samsung released that product, and apparently that was Samsung’s first and last device to run Android Wear. Is that really a rejection of this no-more-Android-Wear story? It will be running the company’s proprietary real-time operating system.
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Having launches TizenOS-based phones in countries like India and Russia, Samsung is in the process of launching new Tizen-based phones in the US, Europe, China, Malaysia and Korea.
