When Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 3 and the new Note 10.1, they also launched the Galaxy Gear, the much-rumored smartwatch. When they did however, there were lot of people wondering just what made the Gear “special”, especially considering its price tag. While there’s no denying Samsung have got a pretty decent first-attempt at a smartwatch in the Galaxy Gear, there’s always room for improvement. As a companion device for the Galaxy Note 3, the Galaxy S4 and eventually the Note II and S III it makes a lot of sense. However, no matter how popular Samsung products are, there are far many more smartphones out there.
Samsung are apparently aware that the Gear is not quite all it could be and as the Korea Times reports, a Samsung exec said just that at the Korean launch of the Note 3 and the Gear itself, saying that:
“We’ve acknowledged that our Gear lacks something special. With more investment for user interface and user experience, Samsung devices will be better in terms of customer satisfaction,”
So, just how is Samsung going to fix this problem? Well, as Unwired View says they’re going to do what anyone would, to hire experts “with proven knowledge in user interface and user experience”. That sounds like a pretty good plan to us. However, it’ll be very interesting to see if these experts will have anything to do with an update heading to this generation of the Gear or if their work is going to be strictly focused on the next generation of the Galaxy Gear.
Regardless, Samsung aren’t a company known for resting on their laurels, at least not recently. In fact, Samsung has probably spent more on R&D than a lot of firms combined in the last two years. Speaking of which, it’s R&D that led Samsung execs to defend the Gear’s high pricing. Stating that the amount of money the first Galaxy gear cost to make will have to be offset in sales. As more and more of them fly off of shelves, prices could well drop however, a price cut isn’t something we should expect to see before 2013 comes to a close.