Samsung launches Gear S and Gear Fit apps on iOS, allowing Gear S3, Gear S2, and Gear Fit 2 wearables to work with iPhones
Did you sigh wistfully at Samsung's Gear S3, knowing you couldn't use it because you have an iPhone? Relax. Samsung has launched new Gear S and Gear Fit apps …
Context & Ripple Effects
This closes a loop Samsung opened in 2015, when it first made Gear watches work with non-Samsung Android phones and then signaled plans to bring the Gear S2 to iOS. The intervening year built the case: the Gear Fit 2 reviewed as competitive with top-tier Fitbits at $179, giving Samsung hardware worth selling outside its own user base.
The move also mirrors Google, which put Android Wear on iPhones back in August 2015. With both rival watch platforms now courting iPhone owners, Samsung's wearables are no longer gated behind Galaxy purchases.
First-order effects
- iPhone owners can now pair and use the Gear S3, Gear S2, and Gear Fit 2 via the new Gear S and Gear Fit apps, instantly expanding Samsung's wearables addressable market from its own Android install base to the far larger iPhone population.
Second-order effects
- Apple Watch loses the default advantage of being the only polished option for iPhone users, while Fitbit faces a $179 GPS-equipped band that reviewers already rated ahead of its top-tier products.
- Samsung Pay on the Gear line stays constrained — US availability was limited to Bluetooth models on NFC terminals — so payments remain a gap that could blunt the iOS pitch unless Samsung extends that support.
Third-order effects
- If watch platforms keep decoupling from their makers' phones, competition shifts from ecosystem lock-in to hardware and services quality, pressuring every vendor to treat cross-platform support as table stakes.
The trend: Wearable makers are systematically decoupling their devices from their own smartphone platforms to chase the iPhone install base, following the path Google opened with Android Wear on iOS.