Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Blogs
    • Upfront

    Samsung Plans a Smartwatch With a Phone, but Why Stop There?

    By
    Michelle Maisto
    -
    May 23, 2014
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      smartwatch

      Samsung, in the next few months, will introduce a smartwatch that can act as a standalone phone, The Wall Street Journal reported May 23, citing people familiar with the company’s plans.

      This, of course, will be a game-changer.

      It may affect the saga of Samsung vs. Apple—though very likely Apple would soon enough offer the same thing—but more drastically it would move wearables from the category of “accessories we can take or leave” to “devices we don’t want to live without.”

      I still remember perfectly a 1998 phone call from my now-husband, who was on a business trip in Japan. “They have cameras in their phones,” he told me. At the time, I didn’t yet own a cell phone, and standing at my desk, picturing a heavy receiver like the one I was holding, I lamely answered, “Why would you need that?”

      Seeing Samsung’s first Galaxy Gear in 2013, I wondered the same thing.

      So much of the technology of the last decade can be separated into stuff that was created to solve a problem and stuff that’s kind of cool but addresses no obvious need. Or at least, not a pressing need.

      Google Glass can easily be assigned to the latter category when it comes to consumer use cases.

      I admit to being someone who feels an instant, reflex-like pang of loathing toward (possibly very nice) people I see walking around New York wearing Glass.

      I have to work myself away from thoughts like: “Really? You need that in the subway right now? You’re going to sit there and pretend you’re not thinking every single second about the very expensive and very exclusive technology attached to your head while we all know perfectly well how excited-to-your core you are to be wearing half-eyeglasses that let you read your email while seemingly staring at your right eyebrow?”

      At least people who drive bright-yellow Lamborghinis tend to grin in acknowledgement of the spectacle they are. It’s the faux nonchalance of Glass wearers that gets me.

      But I digress.

      I also am beginning to come around to Glass because, in the enterprise arena, it finds real problems to solve.

      In verticals such as field service and warehousing, smartglasses offer a solution that no other devices can. They can enable a person picking items in a giant warehouse, for example, not only to see every new order, but view in 3D where the next item is located and keep his eyes up and his hands free. A technician, again with his hands free, can repair something while viewing additional needed instructions.

      It seems to me that maybe smartglasses needed to find the enterprise to make the transition from kind of neat to necessary, and smartwatches needed an integrated phone to do the same thing.

      New York real estate (my current apartment has one real closet) has turned me into a pragmatist; I only buy things I need. I walked away from both years’ Galaxy Gear presentations with zero thought of buying such a watch.

      But a watch with a phone is different. Not only could it replace a smartphone—if not for good, at least during an evening out, or during a run—but I could do so more conveniently. Running out of the apartment on an errand, keys, a wallet and a phone always feels like one item too many. (Smartphone-hosted “wallets” are another conversation.)

      The question then becomes, what happens when Google and others put a phone in their smartglasses?

      I hate jogging without a phone, especially in wooded areas; I would love a smartwatch with a phone, and of course also a pedometer and (as Samsung already offers) a heart-rate monitor. But what about glasses with a phone? What if the OK Google whisper technology could play music that only I could hear, and ahead of me I could see mile markers or other items encouraging me forward?

      When both types of wearables include phones is when the real market competition will begin. I can hardly wait.

      Avatar
      Michelle Maisto
      Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×