May is always a big month in the tech sector for events and press conferences and it's also a big month in the health industry as well as people are taking to the great outdoors as the weather improves and new product announcements geared toward those activities abound.
But some are more interesting than others, such as Samsung's announcement calling attention to an event the company has planned for May 28 in San Francisco that claims, "A New Conversation Around Health is About to Begin."
The fact the invite originated from Samsung's Semiconductor division seems to indicate the tech part of the equation might center around new sensors and components, which touches many of the company's consumer products.
Even more interesting is the fact that Apple is also making a push in the "health tech" market and the Samsung event is scheduled just days prior to Apple's WWDC event, where the smartphone giant is expected to make several major announcements including the unveiling of the next OS X and iOS version.
Any new health tech products fall under the growing wearables category and apparently both of the leading smartphone makers see gold in the wearable health tech hills as Apple has hired former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts in an apparent move to lift its upcoming wearable tech to the next level - in both functionality and design.
With regard to Samsung, the mere timing of their "Health Conversation" event, on the eve of Apple WWDC, suggests the gloves are off once again between the two rivals and now the pair have moved into the wearable ring (pun intended).
While Samsung launched its first smartwatch last year, the Galaxy Gear, and followed that up with three new smart wearables, including the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo watches, Apple has yet to officially announce a smartwatch (though the rumors continue to fly). The latest scuttlebutt is the recent leaks of a new version of Apple's EarPods that have incorporated sensors to track various health metrics (blood pressure, heart rate), as per an unidentified source posting on anonymous social networking app Secret.
Spring is in the air and two of the biggest tech companies in the world may be getting together for a "healthy" game of can you top this. Stay tuned.
