10.29 PM Thursday, 28 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:57 06:11 12:27 15:53 18:37 19:51
28 March 2024

It’s Apple vs Samsung vs the rest as IFA all set to kick off a smartwatch war

Published
By Joseph George

Are smartphones dead? Are smartwatches taking over? Well smartphones are not dead but smartwatches and wearables are soon emerging as the next point for companies promising new technological innovations.

If the ongoing IFA in Berlin is anything to go by, we have already seen major tech companies announce new smartphone models among various other products. But it is in the wearable section that we  are witnessing new ideas, innovations, designs, form factors etc.,

Samsung, Sony and Asus have all launched their own versions of smartwatches, while LG have their own LG G Watch R.

What’s new with the Samsung’s Gear S is that, it for the first time brings in 3G element into a smartwatch by a mainstream player. We already had a 3G smartwatch manufactured by an unknown Chinese firm and marketed in the gray market for as low as $100 (Dh367).

The Gear S design features include curved 2 inch Super AMOLED display and a flexible band. It also has turn-by-turn pedestrian navigation provided by HERE, news apps – the Financial Times ‘fastFT’, app even reads out the news for you.

The Samsung Gear S also incorporates multiple sensors for health and fitness apps, has built-in GPS, and other S Health features. The Gear S also comes preinstalled with the Nike+ Running allowing users to track their runs.

Sony too unveiled its Smartwatch 3 powered by Android Wear and with a new design compared to the Smartwatch 1 and 2. The focus of the device could well be on voice enabled features. The device has 1.68-inch 320 x 320 display and features an accelerometer, compass, GPS, NFC, Bluetooth, Micro USB and 512 MB RAM.

Asus’ Zenwatch has a tap to open, many other taps to activate various other features, provided you download additional Asus smartwatch apps.

The ZenWatch has a 1.63-inch 320×320 AMOLED display and unlike the Intel processors on the Zenfone, features a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, 512MB RAM and Bluetooth 4.0.

The device like the Smasung Gear S comes with various sensors for tracking activity.

Although Motorola announced some features of the smartwatch earlier this year, expect more details at the Motorola event at the IFA.
  
LG too is expected to unveil the LG G Watch R another round faced watch featuring a 1.3-inch OLED (P-OLED) display, a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, 512MB of Ram, 4GB of storage.

 


Amidst all this we are still not sure about Apple’s plans in terms of the iWatch.

Apple is also expected to unveil the iWatch along with the iPhone 6 on September 9 and analysts are expecting a full battle between the Samsung Gear and the rest of the Android wear powered devices and the iWatch.

Apple has been working on the iWatch for several years now and according to rumours will be equipped with multiple biometric sensors and different versions for men and women with a maximum price point of $400.

A recent forecast pointed out that global sales of smartwatches could increase to 250 million by 2018.

So post IFA expect a full blown smartwatch war as companies fight it out to gain the market share.