Samsung and LG are launching new smartwatches this summer, with the latter planning to make its product announcements by the end of the month, Yonhap News reports, citing industry sources close to the two South Korean tech giants. Earlier this year, AndroidHeadlines exclusively reported on the existence of the LG Watch Timepiece, a hybrid wearable that combines Google’s Wear OS and a touchscreen with mechanical clock arms. While that particular device was expected to launch by late spring and ended up being delayed at least once for unknown reasons, it’s now likely to be introduced in the coming weeks.
Samsung’s next wearable offerings also aren’t a mystery and will likely be launched in the form of the Galaxy Watch lineup later this summer, though there’s still a small chance for that series to be advertised as the Gear S4, according to recent rumors. The Seoul-based original equipment manufacturer will be bringing its new smartwatches to the latest iteration of IFA, a Berlin, Germany-based trade show which starts on August 31. As was the case with most of Samsung’s IFA announcements made in recent years, the Galaxy Watch family is likely to be unveiled in the run-up to the start of the event itself. The latest report gives further credence to that possibility, stating that Samsung’s new wearables will be showcased in Berlin this summer.
LG’s July announcements are expected to encompass two products, with one traditional smartwatch likely being set to accompany the more unconventional Watch Timepiece. Whereas LG will almost certainly deliver Wear OS devices, Samsung is expected to stick with its own Tizen, though a number of recent rumors suggested the company is exploring the possibility of commercializing the rebranded version of Android Wear in the near future. Smartwatches themselves are still gaining traction on a global scale, having even prompted some established fitness tracker names such as Fitbit to start paying them more attention at the expense of other wearable categories. Intelligent timepieces still stagnated in recent years, largely due to the fact that Qualcomm has yet to deliver a new chip for such devices and even the upcoming Snapdragon 3100 is said to be yet another 14nm silicon with capabilities similar to those of the Snapdragon Wear 2100 from early 2016.