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After
the lackluster performance of the original Galaxy Gear, Samsung has to be thrilled with
the response that their Tizen-powered wearables are getting. Most of the
praise, however, is lavished on the Gear Fit rather than the more traditional looking smart
watches in their lineup.
The GSMA (the organization responsible for Mobile World Congress) came away so
impressed that they named the Gear Fit the “Best Mobile Device” of MWC this
year.
I’ll
withhold judgment until I have a chance to use the Gear Fit myself. But based
on the first hand impressions that I have read thus far, I think Samsung has
made the right moves with the Gear Fit to hit with a broader audience than true
smart watches. The Gear Fit is exactly the kind of blending of the smart watch
and fitness band that I anticipated in the what’s next in wearable tech piece last month (although I’m
not entirely sure whether it is a dumped down smart watch or just smarter than
the average fitness band).
Regardless
of where in the smart watch/fitness band Venn diagram the Gear Fit falls, the
further blending of the two is welcome. I have found myself slightly shifting
on my feeling that retrofitting that functionality into a smart watch should be
a relatively simple matter, as Qualcomm recently enabled activity tracking on the Toy and it cut the battery
life of the device by more than half. Granted the feature is still in beta, but
going from a consistent 7 days to less than 3 on a charge doesn’t fill me with
confidence that they’ll get the battery life back. Samsung doesn’t have that
battery life to give with their more robustly featured smart watches; even the
new Tizen powered Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo only offer 2-3 days out of the gate.
Speaking
of those other smart watches, Samsung has dealt itself an interesting hand in
announcing these three wearable’s all at once. The Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo
are the more impressive devices in terms of capabilities, so it’s entirely
possible that is where the marketing dollars will go. There is also a risk that
consumers will be leery of Samsung’s dedication to their wearable’s since
seeing the Galaxy Gear swept under the rug after just 6 months (and in truth,
only about a month or two of full functionality). While the Galaxy Gear clearly
was never a huge seller it is a safe bet that those who bought in were the real
Samsung faithful, and they have just come away pretty badly burned.
