Samsung exec says Galaxy S5 launches April, confirms concurrent Gear sequel
We didn’t need a Samsung exec to make us believe that the Samsung Galaxy S5 would be launching this April with all the rumors swirling about saying as much, but one of them confirmed that any.
According to Bloomberg, Samsung’s vice president of mobile Lee Young Hee confirmed that, just as with all of their first flagship phones of the year, the Samsung Galaxy S5 would launch around the typical March-April timeline we’re used to. The executive actually name-dropped the “S5,” so they’re not just beating around the bush about what they’re talking about.
What’s more is that they also revealed they’d be dropping the next generation Samsung Galaxy Gear around this same time, a rumor that was flying about before the original Galaxy Gear even went on sale.
Samsung admitted that the original wrist watch wasn’t exactly what they’d want for their first release, but reports say they were pressured into rushing out a consumer product as they feared Apple would beat them to it. Now that they know they were first (well, first in their own little Samsung-Apple war bubble), they have been able to breathe easier and take the time they need to make the product they really wanted to make.
Young Hee says they see huge potential in the wearables space in terms of health and fitness, which likely means the company’s next Galaxy Gear could have some vital-recording sensors on board (not unlike their competitors next door LG unveiled at CES 2014). They’d already shown an interest in helping folks keep healthy lives with the likes of a pedometer app and other fitness apps on the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Whatever Samsung has to announce will likely be at Mobile World Congress next month, so we’ll be look ahead to that to get more details about what they’ll bring. Samsung admitted that the Galaxy S4 didn’t make a big splash because it didn’t do enough differently than the Galaxy S3, so look for the company to challenge that with whatever they’ve cooked up for the 5th entry into this dominant series. They even admitted they’re looking into iris-scanning technology, though they can’t say whether or not it’ll make it into the final release.