Eldar Murtazin has released some rumors, some turning out to be true, while others being wrong, but this one seems pretty likely, since we already know Samsung is willing to try everything, and it wants to enter wearable devices market as soon as possible, and in a big way:
Samsung developing own version of Google Glass. We will see it (probably) around april-may under Gear Glass brand
– Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) October 7, 2013
While the fact that Samsung is working on a Google Glass alternative may not be in question, how good and useful this device will be, actually is. The Galaxy Gear hasn’t received stellar reviews, for many reasons, some of which are: incompatibility with many devices, except for a few high-end Samsung ones, only a day of battery life, and trying to fit a smartphone into a smartwatch, which is to say people are interested in something simpler than a smartphone on their wrist.
I think Samsung will try a similar approach for their Gear Glass: compatible with only Galaxy S5 at first, with Note 3 and Galaxy S4 compatibility coming a few months afterwards, when they receive the Android 4.4 with Nature UX 3.0 update, and will probably be quite expensive, too, since Samsung seems to be very interested in making a lot of profit these days.
Besides all of those issues, Samsung’s biggest problem for the Gear Glass may be that they won’t put much focus on Google’s own services, such as Google Now or Google Maps, which can be pretty vital on Google Glass. Will Samsung try to replace those with their own services and apps? I could definitely see them try that, but I’m just not sure how successful that strategy will be, especially when they are limiting the compatibility of these new devices, possibly even on purpose.
As for the consumer edition of Google Glass itself, we might see it launch before the Gear Glass, possibly around February, or even before the end of this year. If that’s the case, then Samsung’s Glass alternative may face an even bigger uphill battle, if Google’s Glass steals the show and all the mindshare, especially if Samsung’s device doesn’t have as many or as useful services on it, or isn’t as good or as well priced. We’ll see next year how it all plays out.