Samsung moves up a gear with new smartwatches

BERLIN — Samsung Electronics has unveiled two new smartwatches, which boast a range of digital features while also promising up to four days of battery life, seeking to outshine Apple in a still nascent market of wearable products.

At the IFA technology tradeshow, the world’s biggest smartphone maker introduced the Gear S3 Classic and Gear S3 Frontier — two variations of the same base product, which support Samsung Pay, and on the Frontier version also allow users to make phone calls or even book an Uber ride from the device without the need for a smartphone to be connected.

“We want people to be able to leave their phone at home and use only the Gear,” said Mr Tony Kim, from Samsung’s global product planning team, ahead of the product’s announcement.

Samsung, which introduced its first wristwatch-like device in 2013 ahead of Apple and other rivals to carve a share of the just-forming wearable market, failed to draw people’s attention to the new watch category. But it has steadily been increasing the feature sets of such products, making them less dependent on being permanently in range of a connected phone.

Apple is slightly ahead of Samsung in rolling out its Apple Pay contactless payment business — currently present in nine regions compared with Samsung’s eight. Both systems let consumers register a credit or bank card to their phones in order to make small contactless payments in stores, taxis, or on public transport. And both companies now have wearables that support the technology.

But it is the cellular features of the Gear line that may be a sore spot for Apple, which had been trying to incorporate similar technology into the next version of the Apple Watch but ran into delays. The feature in Samsung’s model allows the watch to have its own phone number for making phone calls, sending SMS messages or using apps from Spotify or Uber. Only American and Korean versions of the Gear will support this feature, with other regions needing Wi-Fi or to be connected via Bluetooth to a compatible phone.

Samsung’s incorporation of cellular connectivity into the previous Gear models was a key contributor to the product line’s success, according to market analysis published by research group IDC in July. “Focusing on the telco channel to drive future success in telco-driven markets is likely to remain the core strategy for Samsung moving forward,” concluded the group.

Other features of the Gear S3 include a 1.3-inch colour display, a GPS location sensor, 4GB of internal memory, wireless charging, and a battery the company says will last between three and four days on a single charge. It is also resistant to water and dust.

Just as Apple’s smartwatch does not connect to Samsung’s phones, Samsung’s Gear S3 does not connect to its rival’s iPhone range, although it is compatible with many competing Android devices, such as those manufactured by Sony and LG Electronics.

But Samsung is gearing up to enable its watches to work with Apple’s mobile devices in a bid to reach a wider audience for its wearable accessories beyond its own phone users, said Mr Richard Knight, Samsung’s head of global product management.

“We have a beta trial now in Korea,” the Samsung executive told Reuters following the introduction of the smartwatches in Berlin. “It’s completely open. It involves about 2,000 people. So, we are making some real progress there.”

Mr Knight offered no timeframe for when compatible products might be announced but said it was very much in the works. “It is absolutely our goal to make it compatible with iOS as well,” he said, referring to Apple’s operating system software for phones and tablets. “We don’t want people who have an iOS device having a bad experience with our own devices.” Agencies