Samsung Opens Up Its Smartwatch To Everyone

Samsung has revealed it will be opening up its latest smartwatch to Android developers as it looks to get as many consumers as possible using the device.

The South Korean company has made the Tizen software development kit (SDK) for the Gear S2 smartwatch, revealed earlier this week at the IFA 2015 show in Berlin, available to download from today, opening it up to thousands of developers around the world.

This means that the Gear S2 will now be able to connect up to devices running Android 4.4 or above.

Expansive

Samsung says that over a thousand applications for the Gear S2 (pictured left) are expected to be available to users at launch next month, having first opened up the development process back in April.

This is in addition to the five thousand apps that are already available to Samsung Gear users.

Sporting a circular face, rotating bezel display, the Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic marks Samsung’s latest attempt to enter the wearable market and steal share away from Apple.

Weighing in at 47g and measuring just 11.4 mm thick, the Gear S2 comes with a 1.2-inch circular Super AMOLED 360×360 display coming in at 302ppi. It is powered by a dual-core 1 GHz processor, 4GB of internal memory and 512 MB of RAM, all backed up by a 250mAh Li-ion battery that Samsung claims will last 2-3 days.

Tizen has long been touted as a way for Samsung, one of the main backers of the open source project, to target emerging markets and reduce its dependency on Android.

However despite the launch of a number of wearables running the platform, doubts had been growing about the operating system’s future after Samsung missed several launch windows and aborted a planned launch in Russia last year.

The Korean manufacturer has pledged to use Tizen in all of its future smart televisions, and back in January launched the Tizen Z1, the first smartphone powered entirely by the OS.

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