Samsung's round smartwatch to be called Gear A, come in two variants, one with Bluetooth, one with 3G and calling support
Exclusive: Samsung's round smartwatch to be called Gear A, have 3G and calling support — A perfect smartwatch? There's no such thing, but Samsung …
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung's naming detail closes out a slow-drip leak cycle: the company first confirmed a round face when it released the developer SDK in late April, then a month later that same SDK exposed the Orbis codename and rotating bezel, and July sourcing added the Exynos processor and Bluetooth 4.1 specs.
What 'Gear A' adds is the commercial split — one tethered Bluetooth model and one 3G model that can place calls on its own — which sets up the product Samsung would formally unveil weeks later as the Gear S2 ahead of its September 3 event.
First-order effects
- Buyers choose between a cheaper phone-tethered Gear A and a premium 3G variant that makes calls untethered, splitting Samsung's smartwatch lineup by connectivity rather than size or style.
Second-order effects
- Carriers gain a new billable category — a wrist-worn 3G device needing its own plan or shared-number arrangement — while rival watchmakers face pressure to add standalone cellular models to keep pace.
Third-order effects
- If the two-variant structure holds through the Gear S2 and beyond, Samsung's watches drift from phone accessories toward semi-independent devices on its own Tizen platform — a path the later Galaxy Watch line, still Tizen-based, follows.
The trend: Smartwatches are evolving from tethered phone companions into standalone connected devices, with Samsung's dual-variant Gear A an early data point in that shift onto its own Tizen stack.