Apple isn’t the only phone maker looking to break into smart watches. Samsung Mobile VP Lee Young Hee confirmed reports that the company is developing a connected wristwatch, saying “we’ve been preparing the watch product for so long,” and adding that the company has been working hard to bring it to market. While the watch — possibly named the Galaxy Altius — has been rumored for some time , this marks the first official confirmation from a Samsung executive. The VP didn’t provide any other details on the product, that the watch will perform many of the functions of a smartphone.
Samsung has been trying its luck with wearable electronics for years, but hasn’t managed to produce a successful formula. In 1999, the company released the world’s first watch phone, the SPH-WP10 (pictured above), before launching the S9910 (pictured top) — a touchscreen version with Bluetooth support and Outlook email syncing — in 2009 for €450, or about $470 at the time. Maybe this could be the year Samsung takes the connected watch mainstream. The trick, acknowledges Lee, is in developing something that people find meaningful.
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