Samsung's last Android Wear smartwatch will be unable to download apps from next month
Samsung released the Galaxy Gear in September 2013, its final Android Wear-based smartwatch. At the time, the Galaxy Gear offered decent hardware, with a 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display, a dual-core Exynos SoC and even a 1.9 MP for good measure. Unfortunately, the smartwatch offered a day's battery life and was held back by various software limitations.
Unsurprisingly, Samsung dropped Android Wear for Tizen, an OS that it has been using on smartwatches until the Galaxy Watch 3. The Galaxy Watch 4 series will change that again, with Samsung switching to One UI Watch, an OS based on Google's Wear OS 3.0 platform.
Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic on August 11, with the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 also in attendance at next month's Galaxy Unpacked event. However, Samsung has some Galaxy Gear-related housekeeping to take care of in August, too.
According to SamMobile, Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy Store for the Galaxy Gear with Android Wear will cease on August 5, preventing anyone from downloading new apps to their old smartwatches. Samsung does offer an update to an older Tizen version though, through which apps can still be downloaded. The catch is that the update wipes your smartwatch, so you will be unable to return to Android Wear and redownload any of your old apps. Tizen does not support Android Wear apps, either.
Effectively, Samsung has killed Android Wear support for the Galaxy Gear. It is unclear why Samsung has chosen to close the Galaxy Store for the Galaxy Gear during the same month it unveils the Galaxy Watch4 series though, especially has it now put Tizen out to pasture as well.
Source(s)
SamMobile, Kārlis Dambrāns - Image credit
