(iTers News) – Much-touted Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch proves nothing more than a simple, dumb companion accessory device for a soon-to-be-released 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 3 smart phone.
Defying many media speculations that the Galaxy Gear smart watch will come complete with an OS and a CPU, market analysts here in Seoul echoed that it is not a full-fledged smart just simple companion UI, or user interface device that will work in sync with a next generation of Galaxy Note 3 sharing a Bluetooth personal area network.
As Samsung Electronics plans to unpack the Stylus S-Pen-enabled Galaxy Note 3 smart phone in Berlin, Germany on Sept 4, massive spotlights are being thrown on the specs and functions of the 5.7-inch phablet.
How consumers react to the mu-hyped Galaxy Note 3 is also a matter of concern, as Samsung hopes it will recoup slower-than-expected shipments of flagship Galaxy S4.
True enough, many key building block technologies are still too premature to commercialize a watch-shaped smart device. For example, it is a daunting challenge to cram key components like an applications processor, OS, RF and base band chip, memory system, a secondary battery and other components into such a small footprint, too. Neither flexible displays nor an ultra- tiny thumbnail size, but long lifetime secondary rechargeable battery is commercially viable.
The immaturity of such key building block technologies helps explains why even a technology trail blazer Apple Inc. has yet to commercialize a fully-featured smart watch. Apple is known to release a much-awaited ‘iWatch’ sometime between the 2nd and 3rd quarter of 2014 as an UI companion device to work in sync with a future generation of iPhone 6.
The debut of smart watch represents a growing importance of UI, or user interface technologies devices, as smart phone makers are scrambling to find a new ‘killer app’ to pump up new excitement into rapidly matured smart phone in advanced countries.
According to market research firm Gartner, unit shipments of smart phones reached 223 million units in the 2nd quarter in terms of sell-out, marking a whopping 46.2 year-on-year jump, but on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the 2nd quarter shipments were just 7.3% up, showing signs that the market is increasingly getting matured.
In the 2nd quarter, shipments of smart phones outsold those of feature phones for the first time on record, representing more than 50% of the worldwide smart phone market. Especially, high-end markets in advanced regions like Western Europe and the U.S.. are rapidly getting saturated.
Meanwhile, emerging markets in countries like China are seeing booming demand for low-cost and middle-end smart phones. For example, China accounted for 35.1% of global smart phone shipments in the 2nd quarter, up from the 33.6% share. Meanwhile, the U.S.. and Western Europe represented 14.5% and 13.5%, respectively.
