14 DAY TRIAL // Past the smartphone and into wearable tech, the Apple-Samsung duopoly will live on, according to Skooks Pong, VP of technology at Synapse, the engineering firm behind the Nike FuelBand.
In a discussion with Business Insider, Pong shares his thoughts about the future of wearable tech, suggesting Google has a tough road ahead of it. Apple and Samsung are best positioned to dominate this market, he says.
“Samsung and Apple are traditional hardware companies and have spent nearly the last decade combining powerful technologies into the smartphone,” Pong says.
He should know. In addition to the engineering of the Nike FuelBand, he also worked on early prototypes of Microsoft’s SPOT smart watches, according to the report.
Speaking of the two technology giants, Pong adds, “[Apple and Samsung have] been able to overcome challenges like extending battery power, while minimizing its size and they've combined multiple technologies like Bluetooth, GPS and NFC into a small piece of hardware.”
Because it’s small, a smart watch poses the same challenges, and both Apple and Samsung are well positioned to take on the task to deliver a compelling product.
To strengthen his arguments, Pong mentions the iPod, a product that revolutionized consumer electronics in its time.
“It's about introducing a device that consumers never even knew they needed, like Apple did with the iPod,” Pong says.
“Because of the need to combine sophisticated technologies into a body-worn device, based on their track record Apple or a Samsung would be better poised to create a transformative device,” he adds.
Pong is also careful to outline, “But with Google, you can't ever count them out.”
According to reports, Apple is working with a team of 100 engineers to develop and introduce a revolutionary smart watch that communicates with other Apple gear to put notifications, email, messages, and even video calls on a person’s wrist.