[Courtesy of Samsung]
In an effort to become the true rival of Apple in the thriving wearable market, Samsung Electronics unveiled its waterproof smartwatch and a pair of wireless earphones which are optimized for consumers with active lifestyles.
Samsung said through its news blog Thursday that it would release "Gear Sport", a waterproof smartwatch capable of controlling other Samsung devices connected to a network, and "Gear IconX (2018)", a pair of wireless earphones which also provide voice coaching for users who enjoy fitness training.
The new smart gadgets will be released in South Korea on Friday, but their release date for foreign markets was not disclosed.
Samsung emphasized the waterproof ability of the Gear Sport, saying it can be worn while swimming or taking a shower. As yet, Apple's "Apple Watch 3", unveiled last month, is the only smartwatch capable of enduring such conditions.
Other than its durability, Gear Sport has features similar to Apple Watch's. It can interlink with Samsung's fitness app "Samsung Health" and provide wearers with real-time heartbeat monitoring and an optimized fitness program that records daily activities and calculate how much calories were burnt.
Samsung's smartwatch can be linked with a PC, a VR headset or Internet of things (IoT) devices via Bluetooth wireless communication, enabling users to control other devices with Gear Sport.
[Courtesy of Samsung]
The second generation of Gear IconX is aimed at competing with Apple's AirPods in the Bluetooth wireless earphone market. Samsung said its new wireless earphones have a battery life of about seven hours and are capable of giving simple orders to smartphones to make a phone call or shuffle through a music playlist.
Samsung and Apple lead the wearable market, estimated to be worth 25 billion US dollars by 2019, according to British analyst group CCS Insight.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
