Samsung Announces A Round Smartwatch On Apple Watch Launch Day

Samsung Announces A Round Smartwatch On Apple Watch Launch Day

While fans eagerly await the arrival of the Apple Watch at their doorstep, Samsung has announced that it will release a new Gear Smartwatch, and that it'll be round.

The company is inviting developers to become part of the Gear SDK program which will give them exclusive access to the company's new wearable gadget.

While Apple and Google battle it out with Android Wear and Apple's own wearable OS, Samsung has decided not to join forces with Google.

Instead Samsung has been working on its own Gear software that has -- until now -- worked exclusively with Samsung's smartphones and tablets.

Sophie Charara, contributing editor of Wareable believes this could be the start of a worrying trend for Google's wearable ecosystem.

"Samsung is asking developers to make apps for its seventh smartwatch in just over 18 months. It will no doubt run on Samsung’s own Tizen OS as only one of those previous devices, the Gear Live, uses Android Wear.

The worrying sign for Google is that everyone (Samsung, LG Asus) is experimenting away from its bold but flawed smartwatch OS. Sales have been lukewarm and its original mission to build a unified experience has already failed with differences in features such as GPS and with this month’s big update, Wi-Fi support.

The future of smartwatch software is still very much up for grabs. If Samsung can build a beautiful, customisable round smartwatch it has the brand power, and the bank balance, to create its own ecosystem which could prove to be a worthier rival to the Apple Watch than Android Wear."

Samsung won't be the first company with a round-faced smartwatch, both Motorola and LG have that claim to fame with the Moto 360 and the G Watch R.

With both the Galaxy S6 Edge and the S6 reviewing well, Samsung will be keen to make sure it has accessories to match. That said, there's no official word on a release date so don't get your hopes up just yet.

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