According to a report by Yahoo Finance, Samsung and Google have decided to finally team up and release a new operating system for the smartwatch ecosystem. The new OS will be a fusion of Samsung’s Tizen OS and Google’s existing OS called WearOS.
The report also suggests that the combination of two will result in an increase in both performance as well as battery life. Besides support for turn-by-turn navigation and Google Music, the new operating system will also support Google Pay.
Samsung’s existing experience in the smartwatch segment, along with Google’s software expertise, could significantly result in increased innovation and competition. The South Korean manufacturer is already an expert at making attractive designs and watch faces. The partnership can also rival the Apple Watch, which has virtually no competitor. Over the years, Google has unsuccessfully attempted to revolutionize the smartwatch segment.
The recent acquisition of Fitbit by Google means that the tech giant now has access to years of health tracking and fitness data. Google bought Fitbit earlier this year at $2.1 billion. Having said that, Apple has a market share of 40 percent in the smartwatch space. Even if Samsung and Google decide to take on Apple, it will be a challenging task.
After Google promised to continue supporting third-party health and fitness apps, the regulators in the US decided to let Google complete its acquisition of Fitbit. The EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager says that it is entirely up to Google to use the data for advertising purposes.
