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It should come as no surprise that Samsung watches are some of the most popular options for Android users. The watches have seen so much refinement from a hardware and software perspective over the years, that these have become the Apple Watch competitors for Android users.
Wear OS, on the other hand, has been seemingly relegated to hardware that is too expensive to justify, along with just not being up to snuff’. Samsung’s Tizen OS has been revamped and made useful with its easy-to-navigate interface, along with the numerous health metrics that Samsung smartwatches have been able to provide.
Take one look at the popularity of the Galaxy Watch Active 2, and it’s easy to see that Samsung kind of has the market cornered. The company has released a proper successor to the Active 2, instead, opting to release the Galaxy Watch 3 as the “flagship” smartwatch option.
Samsung's new watch will use Android to replace Tizen.
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) February 19, 2021
It seems that Samsung could be changing its course for a future smartwatch release. According to rumors from @UniverseIce, and GalaxyClub, the next Samsung smartwatch will replace Tizen OS with Wear OS. Not only will this be quite a seismic shift for a company that has been dedicated to Tizen OS for years, but it will also hopefully mean that Wear OS finds its way again.
Samsung and Google have been seeming to cozy up to one another recently, as Samsung confirmed that it will provide up to three updates for its latest flagship handsets. Maybe this means Samsung and Google will work side-by-side on wearables, potentially including the recently-acquired Fitbit team for some kick-ass smartwatches.
While Tizen OS and Samsung smartwatches have an advantage in the UI and hardware department, there’s clearly a lack of support from developers. Wear OS, on the other hand, could be the catalyst that Samsung needs to get some fresh and newly-developed apps onto its wearables.
As for what hardware we could expect to see, GalaxyClub suggests that Samsung is working on two new smartwatches that are to be released this year. Those model numbers are SM-R86x and SM-R87x, but there’s not much else know about what these will look like. They could be either the successor to the Galaxy Watch Active 2, or the Galaxy Watch 3, but only time will tell. Nevertheless, we expect to see some new smartwatch hardware from Samsung around the same time of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 launch, which could happen as early as July or August of this year.
Let us know what you think about this switch from Tizen to Wear OS, and if you think it’s a good thing for the Android wearable market, or if you think it really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme.
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