It looks like Google’s Project Ara Developers Conference isn’t the only thing that will be happening in mid April. According to sammobile, sources have said that the new Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo, and Gear Fit devices will be launching in week 14 of this year. That puts the release dates as early as April 15th, which is when Google’s Project Ara conference is scheduled to start in Mountain View. The Samsung Galaxy S 5 is also having a launch in April just days before the conference, on April 11th. The S5 launch is slated for a month wide rollout as the device won’t be launching simultaneously everywhere. It’s possible that the Gear devices could have the same launch treatment, and most likely get releases in South Korea,(Samsung’s home market), the U.S., U.K., and other major markets first. Although this is purely speculation.
Based off this source information, the Gear line of devices would fall in line with Galaxy S 5 launch dates and provide a nice staggering effect for those who are already interested in grabbing both as soon as they’re available. The Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo, and Gear Fit are already getting some mixed reviews, but with the changes Samsung has made to the software and the overall design of the Gear 2, the smartwatch line up is already looking more promising than the original Galaxy Gear. All three new devices run Samsung’s Tizen OS which is no surprise at this point, and the original Galaxy Gear is slated to receive an update moving it away from the Android OS and over to Tizen to streamline the whole line of Gear products. This makes it easier for Samsung and the developers they have allowed to have access to the SDK, to better work with all of the Gear wearables and hopefully provide an array of apps and features for all.
Although so far there has been no mention of price on either Samsung’s new flagship device, the Galaxy S 5, or for any of the three new Gear products, hopefully they’ll all come out less expensive than their predecessors did at launch. One of the biggest reasons why I personally, as well as many others, never picked up a Galaxy Gear at all let alone at launch, was because of the price. Samsung will still sell plenty of devices the day they release no doubt, but will their numbers be better than last years offerings?