Samsung currently markets Galaxy Gear as the perfect companion for your Galaxy smartphone. New reports now indicate that Samsung has been working on a standalone Galaxy Gear smartwatch for some time, which will be able to make voice calls and act just like a smartphone. You could very well end up making calls directly from your next Galaxy Gear smartwatch.
Right now, the current version of Galaxy Gear can only live up to its full potential and make use of all its capabilities when it is paired with your Galaxy smartphone. Samsung, however, envisions a future that includes a smartwatch which can work independently from any smartphone and actually function as a standalone device.
According to the Korea Herald, Samsung's next Galaxy Gear smartwatch could feature a universal subscriber identity module (USIM), which will allow it to make voice calls on its own. Korea's largest cellular carrier, SK Telecom would be the first to provide USIM chips for Samsung to embed into Korea-bound Galaxy Gear smartwatches. The Herald's sources said that the call-capable smartwatch would start in Korea, but didn't rule out the possibility that it might reach other markets shortly thereafter.
"A smart watch equipped with a USIM card is not implausible," one unnamed industry source told the publication, adding that battery life would take a hit if a USIM chip were placed in a smartwatch like Galaxy Gear.
Samsung did not comment on the report and so far no other sources have confirmed its veracity. Still, the concept of a standalone smartwatch seems like one worth investigating.
At the moment, most consumers have no incentive to buy a smartwatch and most believe them to be completely useless. Indeed, the smartwatches that are currently on the market are quite limited in their capabilities. Without a connection to a smartphone, they really aren't all that helpful. Even with the connection, smartwatches have several huge flaws in terms of design and functionality. These shortcomings are evidence of the limitations of our current technology more than anything, but manufacturers can still make a lot of improvements now.
One improvement to current smartwatches that might make them more appealing is the addition of voice call functionality and the idea that the smartwtach can be a standalone device. Of course, this will undoubtedly prove difficult due to the great amount of energy USIM chips drain from batteries. Current smartwatches already have an uphill battle to fight against consumer expectations for battery life and adding a life-sucking USIM chip certainly won't help matters.
Regardless of whether Samsung makes a standalone Galaxy Gear smartwatch now or later, the main problems that plague smartwatches remain: high price and poor design. So far, only Motorola's Moto 360 has combated the design problem, but nobody has tackled price just yet. Until they do, smartwatches will remain niche products for the tech-crazed crowd.
