With
confirmation from a company exec that Samsung will formally unveil its Galaxy
Gear smartwatch in just a few days’ time, the tech world is whipping itself
into a fervor at the thought of what the South Korean electronics giant will
unveil.
Likewise,
Apple’s much-rumored and never-spotted ‘iWatch’ has been reported to be
unveiled as soon as later this year but there’s no guarantee that it actually
will be. So let’s take a look at some of the smartwatches you can already buy,
some trying to break into the market and some that are just rumors right now.
iWatch
The
Apple iWatch is one of the most rumored products in Apple’s recent history.
However, despite all the reports of its development, we still know very little
about what it could look like and exact functionality that could be on board.
Obviously, we’d expect it to be able to take care of most of the usual
second-screen companion features we’d want in a smart watch (notifications,
calls, texts, email etc.) but what it will do to go above and beyond other
devices on the market already is yet to be seen.
Even
the name itself could cause a bit of a problem, as iWatch is already a
registered trademark for non-Apple owned companies in the UK and US. That said,
Apple has already trademarked the iWatch name in several other countries.
Apple’s
unlikely to be the only big name manufacturer planning a smartwatch and reports
that LG and Motorola will be planning new models have also done the rounds in
recent months.
Now
leaving rumorville
With
one giant (and a couple of smaller) unicorns on the horizon taken care of, it’s
time to take a look at efforts from other camps, like the Kickstarter and
Indiegogo projects of the world. Some you’ll know, some you may not. Some got
funding, and some did not. But they all have one thing in common: they all want
to make watches a whole lot smarter.