sciencetech-blog

comments

In what appears to be an attempt to steal some of the attention away from today's Apple Watch launch, Samsung has teased its next-generation wearable. 

Simply referred to as 'the next Gear', images of the watch's circular face were unveiled as part of an announcement about Samsung's upcoming developer scheme.

Samsung's previous watches have all had rectangular faces, or in the case of the Gear S, a curved design.

Simply referred to as 'the next Gear', images of the watch's circular face (pictured) were unveiled as part of an announcement about Samsung's upcoming developer scheme. In its press release, Samsung said: 'The new wearable device will be the 7th generation of Samsung Gear with a wrist watch type'

Motorola, Huawei and LG currently offer round watches, while the Pebble Steel and Apple Watch are square. 

In its press release, Samsung said: 'Members of global developer community can get early access to the Software Development Kit (SDK) of the company's next generation of the Gear device. 

'The new wearable device will be the 7th generation of Samsung Gear with a wrist watch type.'

It added that this is the first time Samsung has released its wearable SDK to developers before the official product announcement, but didn't reveal release dates for either the software or the new device.

Samsung's previous watches have all had rectangular faces, including the Gear Live (pictured left), or in the case of the Gear S (pictured right), a curved design

Motorola (Moto 360 pictured), Huawei and LG currently offer round watches, while the Pebble Steel and Apple Watch are square. Paul Lamkin, editor-in-chief of Wareable told MailOnline: 'It's hardly surprising Samsung has announced plans for a circular smartwatch, the Orbis device has been on the web rumour mill for a while'

ASUS VIVOWATCH KNOWS HOW YOU'RE FEELING 

Asus claims the £119.99 VivoWatch (shown) has a 10-day battery life. It goes on sale in May

Earlier this week Asus announced its VivoWatch, the first Asus wearable designed for fitness tracking. 

It has built-in heart-rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and a Happiness Index that shows a person's overall mood. 

It uses a numeric score, based on the wearer's activity level and sleep quality to shown a summary of how healthy the wearer's lifestyle is. 

A low score suggest the wearer should adjust their exercise and sleep habits, while a normal or high score provides motivation to maintain their healthy lifestyle.

Asus claims the £119.99 VivoWatch has a 10-day battery life, and the watch case is IP67 water-resistant. It goes on sale in May. 

It did not reveal price details or any other specifications either. 

Elsewhere in the release Samsung said it has already worked with CNN, Yelp, Baidu, FidMe and Apposter in developing apps for the next gadget. 

Paul Lamkin, editor-in-chief of Wareable told MailOnline: 'It's hardly surprising Samsung has announced plans for a circular smartwatch, the Orbis device has been spinning on the web rumour mill for a while now but the timing, on Apple Watch launch day, is a little puzzling.

'Samsung's betting big on its own proprietary software and it makes sense to get developers in early to pack out the Tizen app store with circle-friendly apps.

'After all, with 3,000 Apple Watch apps reportedly already on offer, the Korean company is playing catch-up to its long-time rival, despite the fact it's been in the game a lot longer.' 

Apple's smartwatch officially went on sale today, but anyone turning up to buy one in the high street will be disappointed as none of its stores have them in stock.

Instead, consumers have to pre-order the watches online or go to select partner shops and boutiques to buy the Watch today.

Usually, Apple launches generate long queues outside stores. 

But analysts believe the company feared the queues might be 'embarrassingly small' and so opted to launch the watch with more of a whisper than a bang.

In fact, despite the high price and some skepticism that consumers are keen to adopt a new generation of wearable technology, pre-orders have far exceeded expectations.

As a result, the company's initial production run is simply not large enough to ensure that watches will be available in stores from today.

Analysts believe Apple is sitting on some two million pre-orders and that sales could top 20 million this year.

Apple's Watch officially went on sale today but anyone turning up to buy one on the high street will be disappointed as none of its stores have them in stock. Instead, consumers have to pre-order the watches online or go to select partner shops and boutiques to buy the Watch today. The Trainline app is pictured

Stephen Ebbett, global director of gadget insurer Protect Your Bubble, told MailOnline: 'It was rather sad not to see all those technophiles camping outside Apple Stores this week.

'I doubt this new sales strategy will do much harm to sales of the Watch, as Apple has incredible brand loyalty, but neither should it underestimate the impact those queues had. They are the most photographed and talked about queues in the world and I can think of no other brand gets that kind of exposure for a product launch. 

'That queue is more than just brand hype, it's a phenomenon, and it's also free global PR for Apple.'