During their press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday, Samsung announced new rose gold and platinum color options for their Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch. The company also said that they will be offering iOS support for the device in the future.
At the current time, the Gear S2, which runs Samsung’s Tizen operating system, is compatible only with Samsung smartphones, but that’s set to change. Samsung says that later in the year, it will “bring the Gear S2 to iOS,” allowing it to compete with the Apple Watch on Apple’s own platform. Samsung didn’t share additional details on when iOS compatibility might be implemented.
The Gear S2 first debuted in August, and is Samsung’s latest smartwatch. The Gear S2 offers a round face, much like the Motorola Moto 360, and also offers rotating bezel controls, allowing control much like Apple’s Digital Crown on the Apple Watch. The Gear S2 offers fitness tracking capabilities, as well as notifications, and Samsung Pay, the Korean firm’s Apple Pay competitor.
Samsung did not announce what capabilities the Gear S2 might offer when connected to an iOS device, although it will likely lose some functionality, much as many Android Wear devices do when connected to an iPhone. Current pricing for the Gear S2 is $299 MSRP, although we have seen it as low as $99 from AT&T when you agree to a 2-year contract.
