When the first Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch was launched last year, initially it only supported Samsung’s flagship devices. Soon after that the company rolled out support for some of its older devices through software updates. However, the smartwatch was never opened up to other Android devices. Some hoped that this would be rectified come the second generation of Samsung smartwatches. Last month the company launched Gear and Gear 2 Neo, while they run Tizen instead of Android, they too are not compatible with non-Samsung devices. However, there exists a possibility that they might be opened up to other devices in the future.
Head of Samsung’s European product team, Luke Mansfield, was asked about this possibility recently. He didn’t outright deny it, instead he said that while he doesn’t know what the roadmap is for this, “I’m confident that that would be the case.” Even if its not an explicit confirmation of Gear smartwatches being allowed to play nice with devices from other manufacturers, at least its not a firm denial.
Its simply a matter of waiting it out. Another major step Samsung has taken with these new wearables is that it has released their SDK to the public. Any developer wishing to develop apps for them can now do so, whereas the SDK for the first Galaxy Gear was only offered to a select few partners.
Filed in . Read more about Gear 2, Samsung and Wearable Tech.