A top Samsung executive showed off the next-gen Gear S2 smartwatch on Instagram. The wearable has a round dial and a sleek design.
Dennis Miloseski, a vice president of Samsung Design America, flaunted an image of the upcoming Gear S2 in an Instagram post. The Gear S2 will succeed the Gear S smartwatch that was launched in late August 2014.
"Giving the new Samsung Gear S2 a test drive. #samsung #watch #wearable #nextlevel," says Miloseski on Instagram.
Not many wearable makers have created round smartwatches but a round dial is not something new in the market. The Motorola Moto 360 and the LG Watch Urbane smartwatches also sport a round dial.
The Gear S2 is said to have a rotating bezel, and from the image posted by Milosesk, it seems that the device will also have two buttons. Existing smartwatches have been designed with no buttons, one button, front button or with a crown as found on the Apple Watch. It will be interesting to find out what functionality of the two buttons on the Gear S2 will be.
The exact specs of the Gear S2 remain unknown, but the smartwatch is estimated to be the first wearable to include a Samsung Exynos processor clocked at 1.2 GHz. The Gear S2 will also have 768MB of RAM, which is the highest among other smartwatches.
Just like the Gear S, the upcoming Gear S2 will also have 3G connection, which means that it can be used as a standalone device and will not have to rely on a companion device. The smartwatch will run on Samsung's Tizen operating system and not on Android Wear.
The wearable market is growing at a rapid pace. The International Data Corporation (IDC) reports that an estimated 72.1 million wearables will be shipped in 2015, which is a strong increase of 173.3 percent compared to the 26.4 million units shipped in 2014. The demand for smart wearables - devices that can run third-party apps - is expected to increase further in 2016.
"Growth in the smart wearables market points to an emerging battleground among competing platforms," says Ramon Llamas, research manager, Wearables. "Android Wear, Tizen, and WatchOS are moving ahead with improved user interfaces, user experiences, and applications. These will raise the expectations of what a smart wearable can do, and each platform is vying for best-in-class status."
Samsung will most probably showcase the Gear S2 at IFA in Berlin in early September. Prospective customers will have to wait another few days to get the full details of the smartwatch.
