News - Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch has only achieved 50,000 sales

[HEXUS]

Consumers wait for the right device before wearable tech takes off.

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[anselhelm]

How very strange that products that not many people want don't sell well. [rolls eyes]

[Noxvayl]

I like how the industry rep is blaming the extra size and weight of the phone for the bad sales... why can't it be the fact that a curved display isn't a desirable feature? I guess they have pre-determined that curved displays are desirable so something else must be wrong.

I know this won't be a feature I'll ever be interested in and I don't know anyone that would be either. They should save their R&D budget for more interesting tech like borderless screens with sapphire crystal covers for ultimate scratch resistance.

[Xaduurv]

Wait, what? theverge.com/2013/11/19/5121212/samsung-galaxy-gear-smartwatch-sales-figures

[sykobee]

Huh, 800,000 apparently: http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/11/19/samsung-announces-800k-galaxy-gear-smartwatches-sold-since-launch

Although this could be the classic SHIPPING and CONSUMER SALE mislead.

[RingingToast]

This is quite a shame. The watches themselves are a good idea, imagine being able to have a quick glance at your email feed or text messages which are synced with your phone. Quite a handy little thing if you think about it. People dont want to wear tech just yet, its not very cool.

[davesom555]

The two main problems with these in my opinion:

1) They look ghastly. Like some cheap knockoff from the 90s.
2) They only work with devices (as far as I know)

Was tempted by the Sony SW2, but it's not had very good reviews - will probably wait for Google's effort. They will most probably try and make a device that people will be happy with.

[outwar6010]

it is a good device but its just too expensive for most if they removed ability to call from the watch and brought the price down to 100 it would do alot better.

[edzieba]

I'm interested in a smartwatch, but the gear doesn't come close to fitting the bill. Utterly pointless camera adding bulk, Samsung only (a complete dealbreaker), unswappable strap, and a teeny-tiny screen without a dedicated interface (trying to ape the homescreen+apps interface doesn't scale down that far. What I'm really after is one of two things:
1) Something more like a wrist-computer, or a remote display for my existing phone (to avoid the redundancy of carrying multiple processors. A curved display would be useful her to allow for a bigger panel. The phone itself could then be relegated to a processor & battery brick with a cheap screen in for emergencies, and can stay in my pocket.
2) Something like a Pebble, but with either a touch interface or more buttons. Small, cheap, long battery life, and able to show notifications and control basic music playback.

The Pebble almost fits the bill, but it slightly too expensive (especially with the 'not in the US' markup) and could do with some more controls. The Qualcomm Toq also looks very nice, but isn't worth the $350 asking price (again with international markup) unless the bundled bluetooth headphones are really good.

[crossy]

A) Galaxy Round - only notable feature is a curved screen and, from the reviews I've seen at least, that curved screen isn't any better than a "flatty". Far better to buy a conventional phone - at least that will fit nicely in desk docks and car holders. Glad to see Samsung trying something different - but "different for different's sake" isn't a plus in my book.

B) Galaxy Gear - it's large, pricy and doesn't work with anything than specific Samsung phones. Slag off Sony, but at least their Smartwatches work with devices from other folks. The price of the GG is a major no-no for me - £280 can get you some very nice "normal" watches from the local Argos or jewellers. Biggest problem I have with the GG (and I assume that the Apple device will be similarly stupid) is that they/it are just bricks unless paired with a phone. Heck, I was amazed that the old Sony watch I've got won't even display a time unless paired. So, it's a phone device that can also show the time, not a time piece that can do a lot more. And it's the latter than I want.

I've mentally filed Galaxy Gear along with Google Glass in that drawer labelled "toys for rich idiots".

Best comment I heard what that the cost of the Galaxy Gear meant that you could buy a 7" Nexus 7 and have some money for accessories/apps. And that Nexus 7 can be pocketed, plus it's a LOT more feature rich than the Galaxy Gear, or perhaps even better than the Galaxy Gear+phone combo.

[cheesemp]

I had a sony smartwatch 1 when they dropped to £17.99. Nice idea but it proved to take as much effort to use as it was to pull phone out the pocket (+ the bluetooth connection dropped regularly). Hence its 'in draw' status. I won't be bothering again.

[Clydonian]

The only way I would go for the flexible oled tech is if it gave the phone more durability, as in it reduced the stresses on the phone because it was able to bend and flex, an example would be if it were in my pocket.

[Saracen]

....

I've mentally filed Galaxy Gear along with Google Glass in that drawer labelled "toys for rich idiots".

....

I wouldn't go quite that far, though I agree with the basic thrust of your post.

Personally, I think that Gear is just plain ugly, and that alone is enough reason why I wouldn't buy it, but it's not the only reason I wouldn't. Another is that it doesn't do anything I want. However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and there enough other things some people seem to love that I can't stand, from some expensive watches, including most Rolexes, to many 'designer' clothes, to a lot of eye-wateringly expensive modern art, for me to suspect that some people will like it.

One thing is a delicious irony, though, given recent anger and outrage over the NSA's abilities to data track. If our governments, UK or US, told us we had to carry a mandatory ID card with a transmitter and NFC, wear a GPS tracking chip 24/7 and that a government snoop was going to read all your letters before they were delivered, and inspect your kitchen shelves and underwear drawers to see what you bought, there'd be riots. But call it a smartphone or smartwatch and people queue up overnight in the cold to buy the latest model.

[zdn1042]

Two reasons: (1) too expensive, (2) not enough features to warrant a must-buy from consumers.

[edzieba]

from the reviews I've seen at least, that curved screen isn't any better than a "flatty"

Curved displays (concave especially) do have one very noticeable but rarely reported advantage: massively reduced glare

[DemonHighwayman]

One reason I wouldn't get one is it needs to be charged every few days. I'd much rather have a watch that lasted a couple years on a battery (like a standard digital watch)or a kinetic watch that recharges with movement. Also that tiny screen can't be much good for anything other than showing the time and other basic functions!