We weren’t impressed with the Galaxy Gear when it first came out. Its notification system and slow gesture control just wasn’t cutting it for us. However, it was the best-selling smartwatch line last year. The Gear 2 and Gear Fit are already coming, but more devices are on the way.
In an interview with Reuters, Yoon Han-kil, the senior vice-president of Samsung’s product strategy team said that his company’s fifth smartwatch would come out later this year, and it will run Android Wear.
Samsung is spreading its bets in wearable devices. Its previous smartwatch releases have all used different operating systems. The original Galaxy Gear ran on its own custom version of Android; the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo, which was launched last week, runs on Samsung’s own Tizen OS; and the Gear Fit makes use of a custom real-time operating system. The adoption of Android Wear would mean that the company would have four different operating systems for its smartwatches.
Previously, only HTC, LG, Asus, and Motorola have committed to developing Android Wear hardware.
Aside from working on an Android Wear smartwatch, Yoon said that Samsung is also developing at least two smartphones that would run on the Tizen operating system. Samsung is rumored to be trying to reduce its reliance on Android and the push for Tizen phones may put the company in competition with Google.
