The rumors revolving around Samsung’s next smartwatch, the Gear S4 (which may not be its final name after all) don’t seem to be slowing down at the moment. The main agenda here is whether the watch would run Samsung’s Tizen OS, or will Samsung turn to Wear OS now.
Late in May, popular leakster, Evan Blass, claimed of seeing Wear OS-powered Samsung smartwatches on the wrists of its employees. Considering Blass’ track record with leaks, we’re bound to believe that Samsung indeed has turned to Wear OS for its next smartwatch. Samsung trademarking the Galaxy Watch moniker also added to the excitement.
Seen on the wrists of Samsung employees: Gear watches running not Tizen, but Wear OS.
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) May 23, 2018
However, a fortnight later, another tweet from Blass has put a major brake on the excitement. Turns out, those watches were just one-off devices made by Google and seeded to some Samsung workers.
Update: turns out these were actually just one-offs made by Google and seeded to some Samsung workers (i.e. keep moving, nothing to see here).
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) June 7, 2018
Tizen or Wear OS
It appears Samsung may not have been explicitly testing its hardware, which the company has fine-tuned for Tizen, with Wear OS. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that all hope is lost. Samsung might still be working on a Wear OS smartwatch behind closed doors. After all, the company trademarking the “Galaxy Watch” moniker also means a lot here. Until now, Samsung smartwatches are named as “Gear”, whereas the term “Galaxy” is associated with the company’s smartphones. All these Galaxy smartphones run on Google’s Android, and there’s every reason to expect a Galaxy watch running Google’s Wear OS.
If you look all the way back in 2013, Samsung did had a Wear OS (called Android Wear back then) running smartwatch. And tell you what, it was called the Samsung Galaxy Gear Watch! The company then switched to Tizen, and dropped the Galaxy name. Now switching back to the Galaxy name without including Google’s software would be strange, isn’t it?
Samsung’s Gear range of smartwatches have improved a lot since their inception, both in terms of software and hardware. But a relatively poor app ecosystem means Gear watches are struggling to grab the attention and rival the Apple Watch. Reverting to Wear OS might work wonders for Samsung and the company well seems to be on the way.
We expect to hear more about the next Samsung smartwatch at IFA 2018 in Berlin at the end of August. Where do you put your money? Tizen or Wear OS? Let us know in the comments section below 🙂
