According to an article in Globes, an executive of Samsung's Israeli importer, Suny, confirmed that Samsung will be releasing the rumored Galaxy Gear smart watch in September.
According to the Globes article, the executive was speaking at an employees event today, and confirmed that the Samsung smart watch would start selling in Israel in September. This conforms to the rumors that Samsung will announce the watch at the IFA consumer electronics show on September 6-11.
The article continues to claim that the Gear will have a dual-core processor, 2 megapixel camera, speakers, and motion sensor, and will work in conjunction with a smartphone.
Samsung has a number of patents and patent applications (e.g., 1, 2, 3) that demonstrate years of research in watch-phones. A variety of form factors are shown in the patent applications, but presumably the Gear will be something else altogether, since the market has evolved a lot since the patents were filed.
If the Suny leak is true, it looks like Samsung is continuing to transform itself, from a company that improves on existing trends to a company that sets the trends. Of course, nothing is definite until it's announced.....
Smart watches are part of a number of recent trends, including wearable computing and Internet of Things. Whoever thinks the pace of innovation is slowing down, think again....