Samsung gearing up wearable family with round-faced smartwatch

A July 29, 2014 Samsung patent rendering for an "ornamental design for an electronic device." US Patent and Trademark Office Motorola's round-faced Moto 360 won't be the only high-profile circular smartwatch for long. South Korean electronics maker Samsung is developing a round smartwatch as part of its Gear line of wearables, Samsung blog SamMobile reported on Monday.

Samsung is expected to unveil new wearables at its Unpacked event next week ahead of the IFA trade show, which starts September 5 in Berlin. It's unclear if Samsung will drop any details on the circular Gear watch then, but the company is expected to unveil the Galaxy Note 4 smartphone and potentially shed light on a separate Gear smartwatch with cellular connectivity. It is also unclear whether Samsung's new wearables will run the Tizen mobile operating system or Google's own Android Wear.

CNET's roundup of predictions and rumors about the Galaxy Note 4

Motorola has pegged a product announcement for September 4 in Chicago, where the company is expected to unveil two new smartphones and announce shipping and pricing info for the Moto 360. LG is working on a circular watch device as well -- and teased the product in a video over the weekend -- that it plans on revealing at IFA, according to Engadget.

Samsung declined to comment specifically on round-faced smartwatch development. "Samsung is committed to relentless innovation and new products are always in development," a company spokesperson told CNET, "but at this time we don't have any information to share on the speculation on the product you mentioned."

The scramble to crack the code for which smartwatch from factor will catch on with consumers has reached a fever pitch among large device makers. Smaller smartwatch makers like the Kickstarter-backed Pebble have been steadily plugging away on cross-platform devices that are more functional than flashy. In the meantime, Android-powered device makers like Samsung, LG, and Motorola are all racing to keep their watch design efforts up to date ahead of a presumed Apple wearable announcement sometime this fall.

Samsung's current smartwatches, the Gear Live and Gear 2, contain square watch faces, as a four-sided screen more easily replicates the design interface of a handheld smartphone. However, as wearables become more low-cost, powerful, and accessible to mainstream markets, customers are clamoring for a more traditional watch that incorporates attractive aesthetics.

When Google announced at its annual I/O developers conference in June that attendees would be getting a free Moto 360, but would have to wait months for it to arrive, the bittersweet reaction was a stark illustration of where consumer interests lie. Round, not square, is what's exciting consumers. So even though attendees were given a choice between LG's G Watch and Samsung's Gear Live to take home on I/O day two, the constant buzz around Motorola's offering was proof that the Moto 360 had stolen the spotlight.

Samsung may be now trying to do the same to its smartwatch rival just one day ahead of the official Moto 360 launch.

Tags: Wearable Tech Gadgets Tech Industry LG Motorola Samsung About the author

Read More

HTC's mid-tier Desire family debuts in US

The HTC Desire 610. CNET

HTC is bringing the One M8's more affordable sibling, the Desire family of smartphones, to the US.

The HTC Desire 816 will debut on Virgin Mobile on Tuesday for $299 without a contract. HTC will sell the Desire 610 and Desire 816 on its own website. The company also teased more Desire smartphones to come to the US.

The move marks a reversal of HTC's recent strategy to narrow its focus and marketing efforts behind the flagship HTC One M8. HTC continues to struggle with eroding market share and 12 straight quarters of declining revenue. By launching the Desire family in the US, the company hopes to expand its reach to more cost-conscious consumers and people who opt to pay the full price of the smartphone upfront.

Related stories HTC sales sink even further in July HTC's Windows Phone roll call (pictures) HTC schedules NYC event for August 19 HTC leadership reshuffle splits smartphone unit supervision

Where the Galaxy S5 or iPhone 5S costs $650 without a two-year contract, there have been a number of companies that have sprung up that offer more affordable smartphones. LG, ZTE, and Motorola have in the last year been aggressive with rolling out reasonably priced smartphones without a contract. The prepaid market is considered one of the last growing parts of the traditional smartphone business.

HTC wants a chunk of that market. "We thought it was time that consumers had better smartphones to choose from across price points and payment options," said Erin McGee, vice president of marketing for HTC America, in a statement.

By selling its lower cost smartphones through its site, HTC is mimicking a similar strategy taken by Huawei, which struggled to get its higher end devices sold through a carrier, and opted to set up its own website for consumers. It sells the Ascend Mate 2 4G LTE on the site for $299.

HTC is hoping that the design of the Desire line, which shares similar visual cues as the HTC One M8, will attract consumers who can't afford its flagship smartphone. Rather than the metal construction of the M8, HTC opted to go with plastic for the Desire.

HTC is looking to expand its portfolio to go after even lower end customers, targeting a growing number of potential customers in the emerging markets.

Tags: Mobile HTC About the author

Read More