Samsung launches improved Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 and Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 Neo at MWC - Launch pad for Tizen OS and the Samsung Galaxy Glass coming at IFA 2014

Samsung has launched the revamped Samsung Galaxy Gear Smartwatchs at the MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona, Spain as stated in “WATCH OUT, SAMSUNG HAS ANNOUNCED THE GEAR 2”, published February 23, 2014 By Andy Boxall, DigitalTrends.

It’s clearly huge news, as I actually saw this first in the Jamaica Observer article entitled “Samsung's new smartwatches have fitness features”, published Monday, February 24, 2014, The Jamaica Observer.

Only this time instead of one smartwatch, it’s two of them, the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 Neo as reported in “Samsung’s New Galaxy Gear Watches: Goodbye Android, Hello Tizen”, published Feb. 22, 2014 by Harry McCracken, CNN Techland and “Samsung Gear 2 Neo is slightly lighter than the Gear 2, with no camera”, published February 22, 2014 6:00 PM PST, CNET Editors .

Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 and Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 Neo – Tizen OS and Longer Battery Life

They’re both a tad thinner but possess similar dimensions to the original Samsung Galaxy Gear. The specs are also the same for BOTH smartwatches:

1.      Processor: 1.0GHz dual-core SoC

2.      OS: Tizen

3.      Screen: 1.63-inch 320×320 AMOLED displays

4.      Internal Memory: 4GB of internal storage,

5.      RAM: 512MB 

6.      Wireless Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0, IR blaster

7.      Battery Life: 2-3 days

8.      Features:

a)      Heart-rate monitors

b)      Pedometer

c)      Health Monitors

d)     Music Player

e)      Apps

But differences between the hardware of the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 Neo abound. The Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 has a camera place directly on the watch itself, not on the wrist strap like the last model, a feature that the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 Neo doesn't possess. Fitness Tracking features is a nice touch both of them possess and so too their support for an improved suite of apps most notably:

1.      BMW

2.      CNN

3.      Evernote

4.      Expedia

5.      Feedly

6.      GM

7.      PayPal

8.      Runtastic

9.      Volkswagen cars

Samsung Galaxy Gear has improved – Better design albeit not digging the Geek Styling

There are notable difference from the original Samsung Galaxy Gear, most notable is the fact that they are running Tizen OS as noted in Samsung replaces Galaxy Gear with a pair of Tizen-powered smartwatches, published Feb 22 2014, 11:30pm EST by Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica and “Samsung drops Android for Tizen in new Gear 2 smartwatches”, published February 22, 2014 09:00 pm By Vlad Savov, The Verge.

Also instead of being all about looking like Dick Tracey and having poor battery life that barely last a day as I’d pointed out in my Geezam blog article entitled “Samsung Gear Smartwatch is too Dick Tracey and not Simple enough to want you to Rock the Future on your Wrist”, the new pair of Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatches promise at least 3 days of activity.

And this time , they boast an improved suite of apps, including fitness apps, putting them toe-to-toe with the Fitness Trackers such as the Pebble Steel launcher earlier in January 2014 as stated in “Pebble Steel review: The first smartwatch worth wearing”, published 1/28/14, CNET Reviews. Thus albeit they have poor battery life, they’ve created a reason to want to have a smartwatch: Fitness Tracking.

This is exactly the same thing I had recommended in my blog article entitled “Samsung Galaxy Gear was not all that it promised - Wearable Computing Renaissance and smartphone and Tablet Extinction once improved”, as it’s the best way to introduce Tizen OS to users. It also guarantees success and its eventual sales will be an indicator of how popular Tizen OS would be on a smartphone.

This would boost their confidence after the disappointment of the rejection of their first Tizen OS Smartphone, the Samsung Z9000 ZEQ by Japanese Telecom Provider NTT DoCoMo, who’s afraid of trying new things as stated in my blog article entitled “Samsung's Z9000 ZEQ smartphone running Tizen OS to debut at MWC 2014 - Kickstarter Splash of Gold in the Chinese Year of the Horse makes The Pretty One Gallop”.

The Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 Neo STILL have that problem of syncing with only Samsung Galaxy smartphones instead of with other smartphones. Bummer!

Still the previous Android powered Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch was king of the smartwatch arena, nabbing a whopping 61% of the smartwatch market as stated in “Android nabs 61 percent of smartwatch market in 2013”, published February 13, 2014 8:58 AM PST by Don Reisinger, CNET News.

Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 a launch pad for Tizen OS – Samsung Galaxy Glass coming at IFA 2014

Samsung is reportedly still evaluating a Tizen OS smartphone for 2014 as stated in “Samsung still 'evaluating' a Tizen phone for this year”, published February 24, 2014 11:00 AM PST by Shara Tibken, CNET News. Once Samsung follows my advice as laid out in my blog article entitled “Samsung Galaxy Gear was not all that it promised - Wearable Computing Renaissance and smartphone and Tablet Extinction once improved”, they’ll create more reason for persons to want to wear a smartwatch.

Let’s see how well these pair of Tizen OS smartwatches, the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 Neo will do. Especially as the possibility exists that the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatches may eventually paired with a Samsung Galaxy Glass product, making it a perfect replacement for smartphones as argued in my blog article entitled “Samsung Galaxy Glass going public in September at IFA 2014 - Google Glass way ahead having partnered with Optometrists to offer Glass with Glasses”.