Smartwatches have been all the rage over recent times. Most major manufacturers have at least announced their intention to bring a smartwatch to the market. Of course, most of the offerings out there by android manufacturers will come running on Android Wear. Although with the likes of Samsung and LG, some of their offerings will come running on alternative OSes like Tizen and WebOS. On top of all of this, very recently, the smartwatch market saw another shake-up when Apple unveiled their latest smartwatch offering in the way of the Apple Watch. Now, the watch itself was not exactly breaking news, as it had been long rumored to be in the works and due for release.
That said, what did catch a lot of consumers (and the media) by surprise was the announcement that there would be a premium version of the Apple Watch. To be more specific, a premium version which comes in at around the $17,000 marker. Of course, this is not designed to be a mass market offering but more intended for those that want to spend that kind of money on such a device. Either way though, it cemented Apple’s place in the ultra-premium market as well as the mainstream one. Well, like what has been seen with the recent launch of the Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung is not one to let Apple steal the premium limelight. Not to mention, Samsung’s latest smartwatch, codename ‘Orbis’, is another device which is attracting a lot of speculation and rumors.
The latest on this front, comes in the form of a report which suggests that like the Galaxy S6/iPhone 6 battle, Samsung are not prepared to let Apple solely occupy the ultra-premium end of the smartwatch market. Source have suggested to SamMobile (source link below) that Samsung are working closely with “premium watch makers” on a premium version of Orbis. Interestingly, the reports also point out that Orbis is only being tested in the UK, South Korea and France. While the first two regions are not unheard of, the latter, France, is starting to attract speculation that Samsung might be working with certain French designers. With the likes of Cartier, Chanel and Dior being mentioned as possibilities. At the moment, all of this is still at the speculation stage, although, the latest reports do seem to highly suggest the Apple Watch might not be the only offering taking on both the high and lower ends of the smartwatch markets this year.