The time is now ripe for smart watch releases

Only now are we seeing the real competition coming to the smart watch market.

Samsung S2

The main smart watch competition seemed to go quiet after Apple began selling its iconic watch this year.

Sure, there was some post-Apple Watch offerings, including from Chinese vendors producing copycat Android devices, and from fitness wearable providers such as Fitbit, Garmin and Jawbone.

It’s only now we’re seeing the real competition coming to market.

At this year’s IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, we’ll see smart watch products from Samsung, Huawei, Asus, Motorola, and maybe LG and Sony. At least two of these vendors (Motorola and Asus) plan to produce their wearables in two sizes, just as you get with Apple Watch.

Yesterday, Samsung announced the release of its circular-shaped smart watch, Gear S2. It has a rotating bezel, and home and back buttons, in a style that’s more elegant than geeky. It has a high-resolution, 302 pixels per inch 1.2-inch screen, a 1 Gigahertz dual core processor and, in what’s a snub to Google, uses Samsung’s own Tizen operating system rather than Google’s somewhat mal­igned Android Wear.

Samsung Australia has confirmed the Gear S2 will be available locally, but date and pricing are yet to be revealed.

To hit back, Google in a blog has announced an app that will let Android Wear watches pair with the iPhone. Until now, Android watches had been locked out of the lucrative iPhone user market.

At IFA we’re also expecting to see the Asus Zen Watch 2s, and an updated Motorola Moto 360 hopefully with better battery life than version 1.

LG is rumoured to be revealing its high-end gold plated Nemo smart watch, while China manufacturer Huawei may finally release the much admired Huawei Watch flagged early this year.

LG meanwhile has announced more OLED TVs at IFA and Sony may release its Xperia Z5 phone here too.

We’re also likely to see virtual reality viewers, and a new class of home network routers that combine home networking with the automated home. You connect not only your computers to it, but lighting and sensors as well.

The traditional network router faces a shake-up anyway with Google announcing its Google OnHub router this week. Google Australia has no information on any local availability.

Chris Griffith is in Berlin courtesy of Samsung.