Smartwatch products are not yet considered to be delivering much profit

May 24, 2014 06:43 GMT  ·  By

You might remember the news that Samsung was working on a new smartwatch iteration surfaced a while ago. According to the information, the new wearable timepiece is expected to be capable of acting as a standalone smartphone, meaning users will be able to place phone calls right from their wrists.

Now, The Wall Street Journal reports the new Samsung smartwatch might arrive as soon as this summer. That’s mighty interesting, especially since Samsung has been said to be prepping an Android Wear smartwatch that will arrive around the same date.

So could they be one and the same? At this point we can’t say for sure, but more clues indicating one way or another will be certainly made available in the near future.

Most smartwatch products today are considered smartphone accessories and are virtually useless if you fail to pair them with a handset or tablet. However, the new Samsung timepiece gizmo will have the ability to place phone calls independently.

Furthermore, it could be used to send emails and take pictures and comes equipped with GPS, Bluetooth, and heart monitor.

The sources declined to say what designation the phone calling smartwatch will have, but we already have an idea of that.

Back in April, Samsung trademarked with the USPTO the Gear Solo, which in all possibility could turn out to be the smartwatch we have been talking about above.

Currently, Samsung has four wearables on the market – the original Galaxy Gear that runs Android but will soon be updated to Tizen, the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo, which both take advantage of the Tizen platform, and the Gear Fit, which has an OS of its own.

The company has been marketing them intensely using ads of all kinds, but some market watchers believe smartwatches aren’t likely to bring about lots of revenue yet, even if they come equipped with phoning capabilities.

“There’s still the question of why people really need to buy smartwatches today. Samsung is estimated to be the dominant vendor of wearables, but it will take quite a bit of time for sales to contribute to the company’s earnings,” claimed Lee Seung-woo, analyst at IBK Securities in Seoul.

It’s interesting to note that Samsung’s focusing on smartwatches has another motive in the back. The Korean tech giant is trying to increasingly push its Tizen operating system, so the smartwatches could be considered as a testing ground for the budding platform.

So, would you be more interested in picking up a smartwatch if it had phone calling capabilities?