It is undoubtedly an interesting product, but it is flawed. In some ways it offers too much, but in other ways it provides too little. This is an interesting gadget that a few people will like, but it is not a mass market product that everyone will buy.
The market is very limited and it is only compatible with Android 4.3 running on a Samsung phone and there simply aren't many of those. The new Galaxy Note 3 is one and presumably Samsung is working on updating the Galaxy S4, but right now the market for this smartwatch is non-existent.
Even if we consider the situation a year from now when Samsung has the Note 3 and S4 running Android 4.3, that's still not a big market. Not everyone will buy a smartwatch and only a fraction of the total people are willing to splash out on one. How many of those have a compatible Samsung device? Probably a small fraction of those. So we're talking of a fraction of a fraction. It is hard to imagine sales of more than a few tens of thousands.
The battery life is said to be 25 hours. It isn't clear whether this is 25 hours usage or whether the life can be extended by turning off the screen as you do with phones and tablets. It is possible that with heavy usage it would be even less than 25 hours. We won't know what that battery life figure means until people get their hands on it. It doesn't look good.
It isn't expensive for a watch at $299/£191, because some cost thousands. However, expensive watches are bought as jewellery, not to tell the time. What you must bear in mind though, is that the watch is tied to your Samsung phone. This means that if you were to switch to a different phone, most of the functions on the watch would stop working. Presumably it would still tell the time. It is essential that Samsung develops apps that run on any Android device because people won't want to be locked in. Apple has made a success of locking people in, but I think that's a different.
There are lots of other niggles, such as why put a camera in the watch? Does it really need it? I'm not keen on the strap, but it's the only one available. Apparently you can only install 10 apps, which would be a severe limitation if it is true. Some of the apps at launch are wierd, such as eBay and you can complete your eBay transactions on your watch. Do you really want to do this when there is a smartphone in your pocket (the smartwatch won't work if it isn't)? Do you really want to answer phone calls by talking into your watch?
Smartwatches are definitely coming, but this isn't going to change the world. Let's wait and see what Google and Apple come up with.
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